[SOLVED] After installing recommended NVidia driver Linux Mint 18.2 fails to Startup

[MalcolmW]

I successfully installed, from a USB stick, Linux 18.2 on a laptop and had made good progress in configuring the system to my needs. I then noticed in Drives Manager that a recommended NVidia driver was available to replace the Open Source driver in use. After installing the NVidia driver the system would not startup.
Initially I tried to install Mint again but this failed and guided by a How to Geek tutorial I formatted the drive. When I run the installation now, from the Desktop with the USB stick removed, the following sequence occurs:

Welcome Screen - English selected - Continue clicked
Preparing to install Linus Mint - Install 3rd party software etc. - Continue clicked
Installation Type - The computer currently has no detected operating systems. What would you like to do?
O Erase disk and install Linux Mint - selected by default - (Other options are available for additional items) - Install Now clicked
An Installer Crashed dialogue appears which tells me I am allowed to submit a bug report using the integrated bug reporting tool - Close clicked
After closing this dialogue the Desktop is displayed and nothing further appears related to the installation or the bug reporting tool.

I am hoping that advice on how to proceed may come in response to this message and through it my request for help.

Malcolm

[Quonsal]

Which is your processor?I had similar problem with intel processor.I installed intel-microcode next after nvidia and now cinnamon don't crash.

[mr_raider]

From whatever blank screen you get, hit ctrl-alt-f1

That will open a terminal window. Login and enter password.

Type the following command:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-375

Then reboot, that should restore nouveau open source.

Open another terminal window and type

sudo apt install nvidia-375.

What is your exact GPU and CPU? Is it a laptop with swicthable graphcis?

[MalcolmW]

Which is your processor?I had similar problem with intel processor.I installed intel-microcode next after nvidia and now cinnamon don't crash.

Thank you for sharing your success which I have noted with thanks. I too have an Intel processor, Intel Pentium Dual-core T2330 1.6 GHZ.
Malcolm

[Quonsal]

Don't forget to edit your original post and add [SOLVED] to the Subject Line if your problem has been fixed

[MalcolmW]

Thank you for your response and instructions that I have attempted to implement. Unfortunately I fell at the first! I am working in a Live Session setup from the installation USB stick on to which I burnt the ISO installation file.

>

From whatever blank screen you get, hit ctrl-alt-f1
>That will open a terminal window. Login and enter password.
>Type the following command:
>sudo apt-get purge nvidia-375:
This command resulted in the following:

mint@mint ~ $ sudo apt-get purge nvidia-375
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package nvidia-375
mint@mint ~ $

As this appeared to leave me with no where to proceed I have to refer back to you to ask for further help if possible and convenient.

>What is your exact GPU and CPU? Is it a laptop with swicthable graphcis?

The laptop I'm using is a Medion MD96630 laptop with a Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 1.6 GHZ processor.
The graphics adapter is an NVidia GeForce 9300M G.
I am not familiar with the terms GPU and switchable graphics - my apologies for my ignorance of those terms.

Thank you again for responding to my original post.

Malcolm

[mr_raider]

Ok. You have the nvidia 9300 series which is a legacy product. The last driver that will support your GPU is the nvidia 340 series.

I don't know what driver the mint installer gave you. The repair is simple, we need to get you to a functional command line on the installed system to remove whatever you installed, and install the nvidia-340 package.

When you try to boot your physical install, how far do you get?

BTW if you want my opinion, Cinnamon is to heavy for a laptop of that age. I would go Mate, KDE or XFCE. I hope you have at least 4 gigs of RAM or this will be a pianful experience.

[MalcolmW]

Thank you for your further response. It is much appreciated.

Ok. You have the nvidia 9300 series which is a legacy product. The last driver that will support your GPU is the nvidia 340 series. I don't know what driver the mint installer gave you.

From recall only I would venture NVidia 350 series.

The repair is simple, we need to get you to a functional command line on the installed system to remove whatever you installed, and install the nvidia-340 package. When you try to boot your physical install, how far do you get?

There is no operating system on the disk as, using fdisk I had formatted the whole drive.
1. At the Live Session Desktop clicked `Install Linux Mint' icon. NB: USB installation media left plugged-in.
Installation proceeds to `Erase disk & install Linux Mint' option selected by default. But only the options to `Quit' or `Back' are available. A third option to `Install Now' is greyed out. Clicking `Install Now' changes to `Continue' and the computer continues to hang.
2. At the Live Session Desktop clicked `Install Linux Mint icon. NB: USB installation media removed after Desktop is displayed
At the dialogue `Erase disk and install Linux Mint' the drive is selected by default and proceeding a further screen is displayed:
`The entire disk will be used
`Linux Mint
`/dev/sdc(ext4)
`160 GB
`2 partitions will be deleted, use the `advanced partitioning tool for more control.'
Options available are: `Quit', `Back' and Install Now'. Clicking `Install Now' a notice appears that the Installer has crashed. Clicking `Close' reverts to the Desktop.

BTW if you want my opinion, Cinnamon is to heavy for a laptop of that age. I would go Mate, KDE or XFCE.

Your BTW has me thinking I would be delighted to resolve the issue but will need help to overcome the install issue perhaps using 32-bit Mate an alternative to Cinnamon.

I hope you have at least 4 gigs of RAM or this will be a pianful experience.

The laptop has 4GB of RAM which is as much as the motherboard can handle.

[mr_raider]

Ok. Do the following:

Boot the live usb, leave it plugged in.

Go to the desktop. Do not run the installer.

Start gparted. Use it to physically erase everything on the the target install drive. Erase all partitions. Then create a new partition table type msdos.

When done close gparted and start the installer. Leave the usb plugged in.

Install mint using any option you like then see if you can reboot into the desktop install.

If you get that far then we can see the next step.

For your install 64 bit is fine, but I would suggest xfce or mate edition. Intel centrino Meron should support 64 bit.

[MalcolmW]

Thank you for your response. I have encountered errors with GParted when I apply changes!
`Libparted Warning
`The driver descriptor says the physical block size is 2048 bytes , but Linux says it is 512 bytes.
'Cancel |Ignore'
So far I have ignored and have to do so twice as the warning repeats once.
Then the following:
`Libparted Error
`Partition Map has no partition map entry!
`Fix |Cancel
What to do?

I am left with the following in GParted:
/dev/sda1 ! | unknown |126.00 KiB | --- |---
unallocated | unallocated |7.53 GiB | --- | ---
/dev/sdc | ext4 |149.05 GiB | 2.57 GiB | 146.48 GiB
Delete is not available when these items are highlighted in GParted.

There's never one door shuts but for another one to close! I'm getting rather embarassed over this ongoing saga!

[MalcolmW]

Just to mention in the create new partition dialogue for File System I don't see msdos as an option

[mr_raider]

That error is common and due to live usb. Just ignore.

From the live usb, open a terminal and type

sudo parted -l

Copy paste the results.

[MalcolmW]

Thank you for your further message. I have changed the installation media to Linux Mint 18.2 64-bit xfce.

Hereunder is the response, in Terminal, to the command `sudo parted -l':

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WD1600BEVS-2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 160GB 160GB primary ext4

Model: USB DISK 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8011MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 8011MB 8010MB primary fat32 boot, lba
mint@mint ~ $

I have attempted an install but after 45 minutes the install of 3rd party software was ongoing and I decided to Quit after that length of time.

My thanks again for your continued involvement. May I look forward to a successful conclusion? I sincerely hope so!

Malcolm

[mr_raider]

Thank you for your further message. I have changed the installation media to Linux Mint 18.2 64-bit xfce.

Hereunder is the response, in Terminal, to the command `sudo parted -l':

mint@mint ~ $ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA WDC WD1600BEVS-2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 160GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 160GB 160GB primary ext4

Model: USB DISK 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8011MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 8011MB 8010MB primary fat32 boot, lba
mint@mint ~ $

I have attempted an install but after 45 minutes the install of 3rd party software was ongoing and I decided to Quit after that length of time.

My thanks again for your continued involvement. May I look forward to a successful conclusion? I sincerely hope so!

Malcolm

You only have drive, /dev/sda. This should be easy.

Here is what I suggest:

1. From the live USB environement, we will use parted to destroy everything on /dev/sda

Code: Select all

sudo parted /dev/sda

Then delete the partition:

rm 1

then create a new partition table:

Code: Select all

mklabel msdos

Then exit parted with "quit"

Now run the installer. Select manual partitioning, "something else"

From the empty space on /dev/sda you will create 2 primary partitions:

the first will be 4gb large, and format to "linux-swap"


The second will be the rest of the space. Format to ext4 journaling system. Set mount point as /

Then run the installer and try to reboot. You don't have to select 3rd party software right now if you don't want.

If all this works, post back and then we can see about the nvidia drivers.

[MalcolmW]

Initially I was successful in carrying out mr_raider's latest instructions and reached the install stage without undue difficulty in a gui with which I am unfamiliar.
During the install process which I was closely monitoring I was called away. At the time, I noted,the installer was formatting the 4GB Linux swap partition.

When I returned, 15 or so minutes later, I was faced with a log-in screen (I had set the log-in to automatic) and my password was rejected. I rebooted the the computer and the scrren output pasted below appeared. Do I have a hardware problem? From reading on the Internet I have been led to think I have a failing HDD or RAM. The screen output repeats on and on and eventually will end with a desktop-like display of a Linux Mint log-in screen which also will not accept the user name and password I set initially.

Screen Image Output Text Follows:
[ 12.776641] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page found
[ 12,776668] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
[ 62.444062] ata4,00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x60000000 SErr 0x0action 0x6 frozen
[ 62.444085] ata4,00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[ 62.444099] ata4.00: cmd 60/38E8:e8:40:00:00/00:00:00:00/40 tag 29 ncq dma 28672 in
[ 62.444099] res 40/00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 62.444118] ata4,00: status: { DRDY }
[ 62.444127] ata4,00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[ 62.444139] ata4,00: cmd 60/90:f0:80:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/ tag 30 ncq dma 73728 in
[ 62.444139] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 62.444156] ata4,.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 93.164052] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x2 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 93.164073] ata4.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[ 93.164087] ata4,00: cmd 60/90:08:80:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 1 ncq dma73728 in
[ 93.164087] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 93.164106] ata4,00: status: { DRDY }
[ 123.884051] ata4,00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x10000 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 123.884072] ata4,00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[ 123.884086] ata4,00: cmd 60/90: 8O :80 :00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 16 ncq dma 73728 in
[ 123.889086] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 123.884105] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 156.652066] ata4,00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0X40000000 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 156.652090] ata4,00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
[ 156.652104] ata4,00: cmd 60/90:f0:80:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 30 ncq dma73728 in
[ 156,652104] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 156.652122] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
[ 189.420040] ata,4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x40000000 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 189.420060] ata4,00: failed command READ DMA
[ 189.420073] ata4,00: cmd c8/00:90: 80 :00 :00/00:00 :00:00:00/e0 tag 13 dma 73728 in
[ 189.420073] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 189.920091] ata4,00: status: { DRDY }
[ 220.140056] ata4,00: exception Emask 0xO SAct 0X0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
[ 220.140078] ata4,00: failed command; READ DMA
[ 220.140091] ata4,00: cmd c8/00:90:80:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/e0 tag 13 dma 73728 in
[ 220,140091] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
[ 220,190110] ata4,00 status: { DRDY }
[ 220,509204] blk_update_request: I/0 error, dev sda, sector 128

[MalcolmW]

Not having anything further from my mentor, mr_raider, I decided to replace the laptop's hard drive with a used drive purchased at a modest price. As a result I have a working copy of Linux Mint 18.2 Xfce following a successful install!

mr_raider thank you for your tremendous help. It is much appreciated and I learnt a great deal from your input.

Malcolm