[SOLVED] Cinnamon crash with reboot AFTER installing nvidia GT 1030 from PPA

[FanOfLinux]

Cinnamon crash when installing nvidia GT 1030 from PPA.
I have NVidia graphics card (GT 1030 2GB GDDR5 LP),
in addition to onboard graphics (AST2500)'

Here some VGA info:

$ lspci -k | grep -A 2 -i "VGA"
43:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ASPEED Technology, Inc. ASPEED Graphics Family (rev 41)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd ASPEED Graphics Family
Kernel driver in use: ast
--
62:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1d01 (rev a1)
Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] Device 8c98
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

Here is a screenshot of Driver Manager for the graphics portion:

Selection_004.png

I tried all the nvidia drivers, and each time Cinnamon report a crash!
I assume when it crashed, Linux Mint was trying to use NVidia GT 1030.
I have to revert to the nouveau driver.

How do I know which graphics card is being used at any time?
Can I force the use of a given graphics device? How?

I looked at Ubuntu's information and they are not similar to Linux Mint 18.3.

What to do now that there seems to be no proprietary NVidia graphics driver that works?
NOTE: It is not possible there is no GT 1030 graphics card compatible to Linux Mint 18.3 since
GT 1030 has been around for a while.

[md419]

I believe that I saw on a different post that you can tell which video card is in use by using the following :

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sudo lshw -C video

I'm not sure how to answer the rest of your questions though ...

[Mattyboy]

Try an apt-get purge of nvidia*, update to the current 4.13 Kernel, reboot and install NVIDIA 384.xx from the driver manager and do a final reboot.

[FanOfLinux]

Thank you, md419.

Addendum to original post:

When I connect a HDMI cable from the NVidia output to a display,
I did not see any output on my display.
My display was setup to take HDMI input.

That means the NVidia GT1030 is not used by Linux Mint.
I will check later using md419's suggestion.
Thank you.

[FanOfLinux]

Hi Mattyboy:

Thank you.

Try an apt-get purge of nvidia*, update to the current 4.13 Kernel, reboot and install NVIDIA 384.xx from the driver manager and do a final reboot.

In original post I have this:
"...I tried all the nvidia drivers, and each time Cinnamon report a crash!...."

and I did do the purge of all NVidida driver earlier B4 I install via PPA.

Addendum:
I will check about kernel version 4.13 upgrade.

[Mattyboy]

"...I tried all the nvidia drivers, and each time Cinnamon report a crash!...."

and I did do the purge of all NVidida driver earlier B4 I install via PPA.

I know installing different versions has been known to mess them up without a purge and a reboot after each version try, you did do the re-boot right?

Any reason why you're using a PPA install rather than what the driver manger recommended? Did the driver manager version not work for you?

What does this command say?

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dpkg -l | grep nvidia*

[FanOfLinux]

Hi MattyBoy:

Any reason why you're using a PPA install rather than what the driver manger recommended?
Did the driver manager version not work for you?

I was following online posting/blog.
Am not near the desktop at the moment.
If I recall, when I first plugged in the NVidia GT 1030,
and then ran Driver Manager, the 384.xx showed up.
And I updated it.
Then Cinnamon crashed after reboot.
And I have to revert to open source driver.

I will try and repeat this again tomorrow.

[Mattyboy]

Cool. Make sure your system is fully updated including the Kernel in update manager recommendations.

Good luck.

[slipstick]

Have you tried using "nomodeset" at boot-up? I have a Nvidia 750 Ti adapter, using the 384.111 driver, and I have to use nomodeset or else Cinnamon will crash almost every time at log-in. You can try that to see if it works, following these instructions:
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sylvia_cinnamon.php
Scroll down to "Solving freezes during the boot sequence" (ignore the sentence "With these drivers the system should now be stable and you no longer need to use "nomodeset".", which is not true for my system, as I have to use nomodeset at every boot).

If that solves your problem, then you can make "nomodeset" permanent so you don't have to enter it at every boot. Edit (as Root) the file /etc/default/grub and add "nomodeset" (without the quotes) to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT. Make sure it goes within the quote marks and if there is anything else like "quiet splash" just leave a space, for example GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset". Then open a terminal and enter this command:

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sudo update-grub

From then on, every boot will have nomodeset.

[FanOfLinux]

".....
What does this command say?

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dpkg -l | grep nvidia*

~ $ dpkg -l | grep -i nvidia*
ii bbswitch-dkms 0.8-3ubuntu1 amd64 Interface for toggling the power on NVIDIA Optimus video cards
rc nvidia-390 390.48-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.3 amd64 NVIDIA binary driver - version 390.48
rc nvidia-396 396.24-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1 amd64 NVIDIA binary driver - version 396.24
rc nvidia-opencl-icd-390 390.48-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.3 amd64 NVIDIA OpenCL ICD
ii nvidia-prime 0.8.2linuxmint1 amd64 Tools to enable NVIDIA's Prime
ii nvidia-settings 396.24-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1 amd64 Tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver

====================
Linux kernel is: 4.13.0-41-generic #46~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu May 3 10:06:43 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

And I did this:
~ $ nvidia-settings

ERROR: Unable to load info from any available system

Why ERROR?


More about video setup:

~ $ sudo lshw -C video
[sudo] password for user:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: ASPEED Graphics Family
vendor: ASPEED Technology, Inc.
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:43:00.0
version: 41
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi vga_controller cap_list rom
configuration: driver=ast latency=0
resources: irq:228 memory:e8000000-e9ffffff memory:ea000000-ea01ffff ioport:b000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff
*-display UNCLAIMED
description: VGA compatible controller
product: NVIDIA Corporation
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:62:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller cap_list
configuration: latency=0
resources: iomemory:14b0-14af iomemory:14c0-14bf memory:e4000000-e4ffffff memory:14bf0000000-14bffffffff memory:14c00000000-14c01ffffff ioport:f000(size=128) memory:e5000000-e507ffff

[FanOfLinux]

Hi Mattyboy:

Try an apt-get purge of nvidia*, update to the current 4.13 Kernel, reboot and install NVIDIA 384.xx from the driver manager and do a final reboot.

Why did you suggested 384.xx instead of 390.xx or 396.xx as shown on my screenshot in op?

[Mattyboy]

Code: Select all

dpkg -l 

Short for "Debian package list" The driver is a Debian package, this list is then 'piped' with the | symbol into another command, a search command

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grep nvidia*

grep is search and it searches for anything with the word nvidia in it if you add the wildcard symbol *


Your Debian package list and nvidia search reports two different drivers in the system

rc nvidia-390 390.48-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.3 amd64 NVIDIA binary driver - version 390.48
rc nvidia-396 396.24-0ubuntu0~gpu16.04.1 amd64 NVIDIA binary driver - version 396.24

Which demonstrates that you didn't successfully purge your system. This is probable reasons for the errors.

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System:    Host: mintman-To-be-filled-by-O-E-M Kernel: 4.13.0-41-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA Device 1c03 bus-ID: 01:00.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: nvidia (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau)
           Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1920x1080@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce GTX 1060 6GB/PCIe/SSE2
           GLX Version: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 384.111 Direct Rendering: Yes

As you can see my system is running just fine on Kernel: 4.13 with NVIDIA 384.111, both of these suggested by the driver and update manager, this combo is known to work for most systems hence the suggestion.

Refer to my first post in this thread for the actions you should take.

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sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

Only after you have done this can you progress ( if you're still having problems ) to nomodeset as suggested by slipstick and do provide the results of

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inxi -Fxz

Good luck bud

[FanOfLinux]

Dear All:

I did

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sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

and

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dpkg -l  | grep nvidia*

shows nothing as expected.
BUT driver manager still displays all the purged drivers I had earlier.
There must be a bug here. Seems like it did not clear up its history of found drivers.

So I reinstalled LM 18.3.
This time driver manager only show one nvidia driver plus the opensource driver
Then I installed nvidia driver 384.11 via Driver Manager.
That crashed Cinnamom on restart.
Then I tried to use nomodeset during GrUB boot.
But the screen went blank after adding nomodeset and then <F10> key press.
No nomodeset is not working for me.

Some one told me about 4G decoding.
I did a search, and there is not much technical description of what it does.
So I am not sure how it work.
Can any explain how it works?

Is there a way to force Linux Mint to use a specific graphics card for rendering?

[Mattyboy]

I wouldn't mess around anymore with the drivers just yet.

Presuming you ran ALL updates after the re-install?

Take a look here for troubleshooting.
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sarah_kde.php

Finally do provide the results of this command.

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inxi -Fxz

[FanOfLinux]

SOLVED!
The problem is with the BIOS setting for "4G decoding"!
Set "4G decoding" to DISABLED.

"4G decoding" is not implemented for NVidia GeForce boards!
All problems posted above have now DISAPPEARED!