[SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

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ReallyMinty
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[SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by ReallyMinty »

Timeline:

Installed a fresh copy of Mint 20.04. Then tried to switch to the NVidia driver (recommended version, 450) . Failed because of some unmet dependencies, so decided to use the update manager to update the system in the hope this would fix it. It did. Driver installed, rebooted. Met with resolution of 640*480. Received "Your system is currently running without video hardware acceleration" error.

Launched the driver manager as suggested, decided to try every driver from the bottom, working upwards. Eventually, one version worked (435) and provided high resolution, so switched to the recommended version 450, rebooted, continued to work.

After about a day of working, rebooting several times, eventually received error message again. Tried re-installing 435, didn't fix. Tried 450, didn't fix. Tried all the drivers in order, 390 eventually worked.

The general pattern is that eventually the driver stops working, then persistent driver switching eventually works, but it's not a consistent driver version that works, it's just the act of switching that might fix it next time you boot (it also may be the case that changing the driver has no effect at all, and the driver just works for some boots and not others)

I suspect that the initial failure to install the driver because of missing dependencies might have subtly borked the installation.


(this output when NVidia driver is working):

Code: Select all

System:
  Host: philipPC Kernel: 5.4.0-48-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc 
  v: 9.3.0 Desktop: Cinnamon 4.6.7 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana 
  base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: ASUS product: All Series v: N/A 
  serial: <superuser/root required> 
  Mobo: ASUSTeK model: Z97-A v: Rev 1.xx serial: <superuser/root required> 
  BIOS: American Megatrends v: 2012 date: 09/30/2014 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.72 GiB used: 1.30 GiB (16.8%) 
  RAM Report: 
  permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4790 bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Haswell rev: 3 L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 57566 
  Speed: 1799 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1800 2: 1797 
  3: 1800 4: 1799 5: 1799 6: 1799 7: 1802 8: 1799 
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: nvidia 
  v: 390.138 bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: GeForce GTX 1070/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.138 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 9 Series Family HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP104 High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK 
  driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
  Device-3: HTC (High Tech ) type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
  bus ID: 3-3.1.5:10 
  Device-4: HTC (High Tech ) type: USB driver: hid-generic,usbhid 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-48-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I218-V vendor: ASUSTeK driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
  port: f040 bus ID: 00:19.0 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 08:62:66:31:52:54 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.52 GiB used: 25.97 GiB (2.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX200SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Crucial model: CT500MX500SSD1 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 105.61 GiB used: 25.97 GiB (24.6%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nvidia temp: 53 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nvidia fan: 23% 
Info:
  Processes: 259 Uptime: 2m Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 
  Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38 

Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
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roblm
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by roblm »

Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

EDITED: The step below is not needed:

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u
Last edited by roblm on Tue Jan 12, 2021 12:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ReallyMinty
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by ReallyMinty »

Thanks very much, that seems to be fine now!

Out of interest, is this a recent problem with Mint or the NVidia drivers? I ask because I was using NVidia drivers for about 18 months on Ubuntu 16.04.

Also, what's the difference between using admin:// to open a file as root, and simply using sudo?
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antikythera
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by antikythera »

admin is for some reason touted as the better gui application method. A user can still do just as much damage if they don't know what you are doing so none really. I prefer using nano with sudo rights to xed, each to their own ;)
I’ll tell you a DNS joke but be advised, it could take up to 24 hours for everyone to get it.
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roblm
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by roblm »

ReallyMinty wrote: Out of interest, is this a recent problem with Mint or the NVidia drivers? I ask because I was using NVidia drivers for about 18 months on Ubuntu 16.04.
I first saw this in a Mint 19.3 topic. The user was using the 5.3 kernel and an older Nvidia-340 driver but the problem still occurred when he switched to the 4.15 kernel. No problem when using the nouveau driver.

There have been many similar reports with Mint 20, happening with different Nvidia drivers and I think most users were using the 5.4 kernel.

The source of the problem possibly may be related more to the newer versions of the X.Org X Display Server.
SallyBelgium

Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by SallyBelgium »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

EDITED: The step below is not needed:

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u
Didn't work for me :-(
TexNomex

Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by TexNomex »

Hello, all.

This may rate its own thread. Please forgive my noobish mistake if I've posted out of order here.

I know this issue is marked [solved], but there are so many experiencing like symptoms, that I'm wondering if there is a cause beyond the usual suspects.
I have a similar issue and would like to ask anyone experiencing the low-res, ( what looks and acts like rendering mode), "no hardware acceleration" nvidia driver warning on booting a question:

:?: What happens if you just immediately logout of that session and immediately log back in as the same user?

I ask this because [boot + login] gets me a low-res laptop configuration and the nvidia driver warning box.
[Boot + login + logout + login] gets me logged in correctly with my proper ultra-wide resolution.
There are differences in the xorg logs between the two sessions.
Looks like it might be a ModulePath issue preventing LoadModule "nvidia" from being loaded on first login, but not subsequent logins.

Just wondering if I'm the only one.

TIA for any responses.
psalmers
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by psalmers »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset
This solved my issue, thank you!! :D
I had just upgraded from Mint 19 to 20 this week and I couldn't get any nvidia drivers to run (not just sometimes, always), nouveau was fine though (but ran fans at full speed after resume, for some reason). For reference I have a 1060. GLTA with nvidia issues these days
funkytown

Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by funkytown »

I spent a TON of time trying to find out why I was being forced to 1024x768 on my Nvidia 1070 (after updating to latest Linux Mint). Couldn't find anything that worked. It seemed like the Nvidia driver was being loaded, but not for X. This did it! Thank you so much!
samuraikid

Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by samuraikid »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

EDITED: The step below is not needed:

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u

Great ! This is happening on Cinammon 20.1 with nvidia i needed to login, logout and login again every time i boot linuxmint 20.1 to fix it
but your tip solve it ! Thanks
Philipp91
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by Philipp91 »

I also observed this sometimes, but not always (e.g. not when my swap partition was disabled, so I thought it was causing the problem, but presumably the disabling just adds a startup delay similar to logging in later).

Editing /etc/modules seems to work for me too so far. Would you characterize this as a workaround or a principled solution? Is there a way this can be deployed to all Mint users affected by this and not just those who happen to find this thread?
Laugh2
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by Laugh2 »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.
Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules
Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset
EDITED: The step below is not needed:
Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u
Brilliant. I've been having very similar nVidia issues for months now on LM20 MATE 64-bit, starting after a routine update. So I have reverted to using Nouveau since then (and considered changing to AMD) after trying different nVidia driver versions and bought a different, second-hand (nVidia) graphics card. Your post seems to have fixed the problems with the nVidia drivers. :D Thank you.
Edit: the two graphics cards concerned were the nVidia Geforce GT710 and the nVidia Quadro K620.
pauljurczak
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by pauljurczak »

I just had a similar experience: viewtopic.php?f=46&t=350660. In my case, logging off and on solved the problem without editing /etc/modules.
genjaji
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by genjaji »

This solved my issue of booting to a black screen in Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon (except recovery mode boot worked).
pallonen
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by pallonen »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

EDITED: The step below is not needed:

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u
This helped me from this
https://imgur.com/FGnAgOr
To this
https://imgur.com/HSmRMwU

Thank you roblm
Last edited by pallonen on Tue Jun 15, 2021 1:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
wfields58
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by wfields58 »

I've had this problem for several years, or at least it seems! At least since Mint v19.1.
THANK YOU to ROBLM for posting a fix - or work-around!!!
Someone PLEASE get this issue to the right people to integrate a fix into Linux Mint!
DrM
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by DrM »

Thanks for mentioning this fix, I installed Linux Mint 20.1 Xfce and with my Nvidia GT 710 graphics card I also suffered from this problem that my system booted into a low resolution of 640x480 73 Hz without properly loading of the Nvidia drivers. I have installed nvidia-driver-465.
morrgainne
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by morrgainne »

Hi hope someone can assist with NVIDIA no hardware acceleration problem. Recently purchased a Lenovo Thinkbook Gen 2 with a Nvidia MX460 graphics card. Installed Mint 20.1 and the Nvidia driver 465. When starting the driver manager is displaying no hardware acceleration message. I added the suggested lines to the "modules" file. This file contained nothing else and on restart the x server failed to start reporting error 1. Deleted the modules file and the display now starts, still with the hardware acceleration problem. There is the Nvidia symbol in the bottom right corner of the screen and when I hover the mouse pointer over the symbol the message
llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0,256bits
NVIDIA (Performance Mode)
is displayed.

Any assistance would be appreciated, If I do not reply immediately, please be patient as I am not on line all the time.

Thankyou in anticipation, Dave
morrgainne
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Re: [SOLVED] NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by morrgainne »

Hi Just figured out the inxi -Fxxrz command, Please see below for the results.

Cheers Dave

Code: Select all

ok-15-G2-ITL:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-77-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 20VE v: ThinkBook 15 G2 ITL 
  serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10 v: ThinkBook 15 G2 ITL serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: LENOVO model: LNVNB161216 v: SDK0J40697 WIN serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: LENOVO v: F8CN34WW(V1.12) date: 02/01/2021 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 44.1 Wh condition: 45.0/45.0 Wh (100%) volts: 13.0/11.6 
  model: 0061646F776E7553 414450334439314C type: Li-ion serial: <filter> 
  status: Unknown cycles: 7 
CPU:
  Topology: Quad Core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 
  type: MT MCP arch: Tiger Lake rev: 1 L2 cache: 12.0 MiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 44851 
  Speed: 1052 MHz min/max: 400/4700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1000 2: 1000 
  3: 1000 4: 972 5: 995 6: 997 7: 998 8: 993 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Lenovo driver: N/A bus ID: 0000:00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:9a49 
  Device-2: NVIDIA vendor: Lenovo driver: nvidia v: 465.27 
  bus ID: 0000:2b:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1f97 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: fbdev,modesetting unloaded: vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~77Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.0 256 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.6 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel vendor: Lenovo driver: sof-audio-pci bus ID: 0000:00:1f.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0c8 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-77-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 5000 bus ID: 0000:00:14.3 
  chip ID: 8086:a0f0 
  IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Lenovo driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 0000:2c:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp44s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 476.94 GiB used: 12.83 GiB (2.7%) 
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Samsung model: MZALQ512HALU-000L2 
  size: 476.94 GiB speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: AL2QFXV7 
  scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 980 1TB size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: <filter> rev: 1B4QFXO7 scheme: MBR 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel Volume Management Device NVMe RAID Controller 
  driver: vmd v: 0.6 port: 5000 bus ID: 0000:00:0e.0 chip ID: 8086.9a0b 
  rev: N/A 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 389.56 GiB used: 12.77 GiB (3.3%) fs: ext4 
  dev: /dev/nvme0n1p6 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-edge-beta.list 
  1: deb [arch=amd64] http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 270 Uptime: 1h 41m Memory: 15.44 GiB used: 1.54 GiB (10.0%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38
Ichigo
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Re: NVIDIA driver failing sometimes on boot ("no hardware acceleration")

Post by Ichigo »

roblm wrote: Wed Sep 30, 2020 3:30 pm Try this method to load the Nvidia kernel modules a little earlier in the boot process.

Use this command to open the modules file: xed admin:///etc/modules

Add this at the bottom:

Code: Select all

nvidia 
nvidia-drm
nvidia-modeset

EDITED: The step below is not needed:

Then update the initial ramdisk and reboot: sudo update-initramfs -u
Thanks Man, this works for me
Newbie 07/31/21
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