Nvidia drivers which one??

[technogran]

Hope someone can help me with installing the correct Nvidia driver for my system as now that there are two, I have found out to my cost (in the past!) that if I install the wrong one, I am in trouble!
My set up has the NVidia GeForce 7300LE on board, and as I did install one with no problems back when there was only one to choose from, I need to know which one to choose to install. Any help with this kindly appreciated.

TG :) ;D

[dibl]

Here's the list of products supported by the latest Nvidia driver which is version -100.14.11: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html Your 7300 LE is on it.

So, you want the package nvidia-glx-new, available in the repo. There may or may not still be a problem with Gutsy's Restricted Manager pulling in nvidia-glx (which has driver version -9639) -- that's what it did to me. If it does that to you, do the following:

- Open Adept, mark nvidia-glx for removal and let it be removed. Don't reboot or anything like that.

- Then mark nvidia-glx-new for installation and let it be installed.

- Then in a console run
sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite to have it write out the new xorg.conf file

- Then in a console run
sudo nvidia-settings to set your default resolution and refresh rate, and use the "Save to X Configuration File" button to save the setup.

Now you can restart the xserver with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, and you should see the Nvidia logo splash for the new driver, and get the screen that you defined. ;)

[technogran]

Thanks for that dibl, your a life saver!

TG ;D

[sourkraut]

Hi, I am having problems with my graphics as well (google earth and Vdrift) and I have researched the problem and I believe that it has something to do with my Graphic card drivers. I looked on the link that was posted and my card was on the list N6200/TD/128M/A It is not the newest card but it was on the lest nun the less. I went to adept manager to install the driver, but I did not have to remove the previous driver because it was not installed according to adept manager. (so why do I have graphics?) I installed the driver via AM and then went to the console and entered recommended code. Following results after second piece of code:
ERROR: NV-CONTROL extension not found on this Display.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA GPUs on ':0.0'.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA Frame Lock Devices on ':0.0'.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA VCSCs on ':0.0'.

X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 167
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 167
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device


Any thought as to what might cause this? And how can I have graphics if no driver is installed?

Sourkraut

[sourkraut]

whoopS!! just got worse,
I did not activate the driver before the previous post like it says to do in Adept Manager. Then I did and ran the the two lines of recommended code again. and now I am writing from the live cd!! Cant get past the login in screen.
can someone please tell me how to roll back or change to a driver that might work. Is it possible that the ASUS card is not a Nvidia?
Well I sure am learning a lot!!
Any help is good help!!

[dibl]

ERROR: NV-CONTROL extension not found on this Display.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA GPUs on ':0.0'.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA Frame Lock Devices on ':0.0'.


ERROR: Unable to determine number of NVIDIA VCSCs on ':0.0'.

This much of the error output represents a "real" problem - wrong or non-functional driver.



X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 167
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 167
Major opcode: 144
Minor opcode: 3
Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device

Ignore this stuff, for now. It is irrelevant to any graphical or performance issues -- you would only care if you have a wacom tablet device.



Any thought as to what might cause this? And how can I have graphics if no driver is installed?

The installer attempts to detect your card and install a driver, and occasionally is semi-successful with the "nv" driver for Nvidia cards -- I think that's what happened.

If you're running Gutsy, or trying to, with that 6200, I'm thinking maybe the nvidia-glx package is the one you want. Mark it for installation in Adept Manager, then after it is installed (and BEFORE you restart the xserver), run the two routines that I posted above on Sept. 11, and let's see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'm going to point you to the Envy script installer, which makes life a little simpler, but requires a tweak to work with Gutsy.

:)

[sourkraut]

Thanks for the fast response!!
I did not even notice before that this was under Gusty, sorry I am still with Fiesty,
I am running off the live cd right now, and when I go to the adept manager it does not represent what I have on my computer so far.
I would like to avoid a re-install.
I read somewhere else that it is possible that I am using a mensa (sp) driver.

[dibl]

If you just want to get a basic GUI working on you system, probably you can reboot from hard drive, get your black screen, and then proceed according to this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3085112.0

Then if you want to install the appropriate Nvidia driver for your 6200, follow this:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3086232.0

Let us know if there are more problems with it. :)

[integr8e]

When you boot your system, if all you get is a black screen with a blinking cursor, you probably either have the wrong graphics driver enabled or have accidentally installed a corrupted driver (I know from experience sometimes drivers become corrupted during the download process, you just have to reinstall them). If your on the live cd, click KMenu (application menu, bottom left on the taskbar) and choose "System Settings". Once it opens, click the "Monitor & Display" icon in the Computer Administration section. Click the "Administrator Mode..." button on the bottom of the screen and type your password when prompted. Click the "Hardware" tab, under the "<-Overview" tab, and look at the section entitled "Graphics card: . . ."; click the "Configure" button at the right of that section. If you look close to the bottom left of the window that opens, you should see "Detected graphics card:" followed by a graphics card name and a "Select" button under that; check to see if the card is an Nvidia one (you don't need to click the button).

If it is, which it should be, reboot your computer; press the escape button when prompted to cancel the normal boot load, and select the recovery mode option (should be right under the top option). This should boot you to the command prompt; type: "dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg". Just choose the defaults for everything except the driver; for the driver, select the "nv" driver (not "nvidia") if you have an Nvidia card, or "vesa" if you don't.

You should then be able to boot up; let us know what happens. (ignore the " " marks, they are only for reference and clarification purposes)

[sourkraut]

HI
I can get to the login screen, after typing in my password it goes to a black screen and then back to the login screen.
I tried changing the drivers using dpkg-reconfigure..... but no luck with either the vesa or the nv. And for using envy I can not get to the GUI to try it, and my console skills are null and void.
how to proceed.

[dibl]

I tried changing the drivers using dpkg-reconfigure..... but no luck with either the vesa or the nv.


I'm going to gently challenge your assertion here -- are you 100% certain, that on the very first question you chose "NO" to auto-detect the card? I think you accepted the default "YES" and let it auto-detect, and that is the root of your "no GUI" problem. Try it again, and do a "no" on that first choice after you start
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

:)

[sourkraut]

I went back and used the code>
dpkg-configure -phigh xserver-xorg
and there was no question there about autodetect,
but what I did get was a scroll menu with driver manufactures on the first screen. and on the second screen was the resolution, also a scroll menu.
I ran glxinfo and got this:
name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method,
GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe,
GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control,
GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control,
GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync,
GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer,
GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer,
GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample,
GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (1.5 Mesa 6.5.2)
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture,
GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite,
GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two,
GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_program,
GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate,
GL_EXT_blend_logic_op, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract,
GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint, GL_EXT_copy_texture, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements,
GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays,
GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs,
GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture,
GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias,
GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object,
GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels,
GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3,
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3,
GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_INGR_blend_func_separate,
GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, GL_NV_blend_square,
GL_NV_fragment_program, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_point_sprite,
GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_vertex_program,
GL_NV_vertex_program1_1, GL_SGI_color_matrix, GL_SGI_color_table,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture,
GL_SGIX_shadow, GL_SGIX_shadow_ambient, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x24 24 tc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x25 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x26 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x27 24 dc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x28 24 dc 0 24 0 r y . 8 8 8 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x29 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x2a 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x62 32 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Ncon

So it appears that I am using mesa and not vesa or nv.
(this is how it all started, trying to get smoother graphics)

[dibl]

I went back and used the code>

dpkg-configure -phigh xserver-xorg




:)

The command is "-reconfigure", and I did not advise you to use the -phigh option for the basic VESA GUI configuration. I understand that straight VESA is not an attractive driver for a guy with an Nvidia 6200, because it can do better than that. But, to work with the system, I personally find it helpful to get SOME KIND of functional GUI, first, and then to make it better with the proprietary Nvidia driver. Once you have the proprietary driver installed with Envy, the only console skill you will need, relevant to video driver concerns, is
sudo envy -t

:)

So, quick review. The newest Nvidia driver, ver. -100.14.19, released 18 SEP, will run the GeForce 6200, it says here (http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html)

That's the one you'd like to end up with running on your system. To get there, I recommend a basic 2-step process:

1. Get a GUI, by following this guidance: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3085112.0

2. Working in your VESA GUI, go get the Envy installer and use it, by following this guidance:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3086232.0


Do these things, and I think you'll be running eye-candy pretty soon! ;)

[sourkraut]

BOOM BANG CRASH!!! Holly eye candy dibl!!!!
It worked, and I am back up and seeing a wonderful smooth GUI.
Thanks for you help.
The card was detected via the auto-detect of ENVY. So that was rather nice. But the automatic package feature was not working for me.
Thanks again.

[dibl]

Cha-ching!

Good for you, Mr. Kraut! ;D


Don't forget that one console command I told you you'll need to know in the future. When the next kernel upgrade is installed, your pretty Nvidia driver will be non-functional, and you'll boot to a "text prompt" with a message about a broken xserver with no screens. Don't panic -- just use that command "sudo envy -t" and all will soon be right in your world once again.

:)