[Solved] Cinnamon Crash - Fallback Mode After Installing Nvidia Card

[harrekki]

Hi everyone,

I know several other people have posted about similar issues with Nvidia drivers and Mint, but I didn't see much in the way of solutions (at least with what I think my problem is. I've just installed an older graphics card (MSI GeForce GT 710) on my system that was running integrated Radeon graphics. While the card is working and the driver seems to be installed and working, Cinnamon keeps crashing. I have poked around BIOS, and I've turned off the onboard graphics, and there's nothing else there that seems to be an issue.
I think the issue has to do with OpenGL, based on my glxinfo:

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name of display: :0
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast
X Error of failed request:  GLXBadContext
  Major opcode of failed request:  151 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  6 (X_GLXIsDirect)
  Serial number of failed request:  50
  Current serial number in output stream:  49

I have run all updates and still no avail. Here is my video info:

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sudo lshw -C video
*-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GK208B [GeForce GT 710]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:61 memory:fb000000-fbffffff memory:e0000000-e7ffffff memory:e8000000-e9ffffff ioport:f000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

lspci -nn | grep -i vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GK208B [GeForce GT 710] [10de:128b] (rev a1)

nvidia-smi
Sun May  9 12:49:15 2021       
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 460.73.01    Driver Version: 460.73.01    CUDA Version: 11.2     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  GeForce GT 710      Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 N/A |                  N/A |
| 50%   32C    P8    N/A /  N/A |     96MiB /  1998MiB |     N/A      Default |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
                                                                               
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                  |
|  GPU   GI   CI        PID   Type   Process name                  GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                   Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Based on what I've been reading about similar problems, a fresh install of Mint might be the best solution, but before I go down that road I wanted to see in anyone has any other insights. My inxi is below. Thanks for any assistance!

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inxi -GFxz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-72-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
           Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Gigabyte product: A520M S2H v: N/A serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Gigabyte model: A520M S2H v: x.x serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends 
           v: F1 date: 05/29/2020 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360 
           charge: 100% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics bits: 64 
           type: MCP arch: Zen+ rev: 1 L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm bogomips: 28746 
           Speed: 1257 MHz min/max: 1400/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1257 2: 1257 3: 1256 
           4: 1257 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 710] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia 
           v: 460.73.01 bus ID: 01:00.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia 
           unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A direct render: N/A 
Audio:     Device-1: NVIDIA GK208 HDMI/DP Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 
           Device-2: AMD Family 17h HD Audio vendor: Gigabyte driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 08:00.6 
           Device-3: Microdia HD Webcam USB type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo 
           bus ID: 3-3:2 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-72-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Gigabyte 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 07:00.0 
           IF: enp7s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 223.57 GiB used: 141.98 GiB (63.5%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: PNY model: CS900 240GB SSD size: 223.57 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 218.57 GiB used: 141.97 GiB (65.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.2 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:      Processes: 217 Uptime: 19m Memory: 7.71 GiB used: 4.07 GiB (52.7%) Init: systemd 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 inxi: 3.0.38 

[SMG]

While the card is working and the driver seems to be installed and working, Cinnamon keeps crashing.

Actually, only part of the driver files are showing as installed. Cinnamon needs hardware rendering in order to operate properly.

Graphics:
Device-1: NVIDIA GK208B [GeForce GT 710] vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: nvidia
v: 460.73.01 bus ID: 01:00.0
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: nvidia
unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A direct render: N/A

You are running the inxi command directly on the hardware, correct? (ie. you are not remotely accessing the computer)

Use this command in a terminal to upload the X Server log file to termbin:
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | nc termbin.com 9999
It will return with a url address that you should post in your next reply. Hopefully, the file will give an indication of what is happening with the renderer.

[harrekki]

You are running the inxi command directly on the hardware, correct? (ie. you are not remotely accessing the computer)

Yes, from a terminal on the computer.

Use this command in a terminal to upload the X Server log file to termbin:
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | nc termbin.com 9999
It will return with a url address that you should post in your next reply. Hopefully, the file will give an indication of what is happening with the renderer.

https://termbin.com/ggbb
Interesting...so I should mention that I tried multiple drivers in hopes that it would fix the issue (which of course it didn't), but I also should mention that Cinnamon crashed BEFORE I installed any nvidia drivers (I had only physically installed the card at that point).
I looked through the log but not entirely sure what I'm looking for....

[SMG]

This is a line not normally seen in Xorg log when an Nvidia card is used.

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[     7.293] (**) ModulePath set to "/opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/xorg/modules,/opt/amdgpu/lib/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"

The below is a mix between nvidia and amdgpu-pro.
[ 7.306] (**) OutputClass "nvidia" ModulePath extended to "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nvidia/xorg,/opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/xorg/modules,/opt/amdgpu/lib/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[ 7.306] (**) OutputClass "Nvidia Prime" ModulePath extended to "/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nvidia/xorg,/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nvidia/xorg,/opt/amdgpu-pro/lib/xorg/modules,/opt/amdgpu/lib/xorg/modules,/usr/lib/xorg/modules"

There are numerous more lines with just references to AMDGPU(G0), but the key ones which are the issue in this situation start with:

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[     8.815] (II) AMDGPU(G0): glamor X acceleration enabled on AMD Radeon Graphics

That is the renderer info. The X server is loading both AMD and Nvidia and the AMD driver got in line first for rendering. Nvidia can not render using the AMD driver files. Does your BIOS have an option to use either card such as a switchable graphics situation? Some desktops do permit that.

The X server did see both cards and loaded drivers for both. I do not know if that is because of a BIOS setting or because of the existence of the amdgpu-pro driver files. Did you remove the AMD pro drivers? If so, run ls /etc/modprobe.d/ to see if there might be any stubborn straggler files. There might also be some in other places as well.

[harrekki]

As it turns out, the amdgpu-pro drivers were still installed. I thought I had uninstalled them long ago when I was having ssues with the Radeon Vega drivers causing tearing, so I feel rather foolish now. In any event, everything seems to be working now. As I recall, SMG, you helped me there too, so thanks again!