(Partially solved, thinkfinger) Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

[Teunis]

(I accidentally posted this first on the 7.10 Forum)

I did a successful new install of 8.04 with KDE 3.5 on a Toshiba Tecra S5-12M.
It started up with the VESA driver and I downloaded the latest driver (173.14.09) from the NVIDIA site and installed it without many problems.
The computer was rebooted a few times over the next days and worked fine.

Yesterday I could not run the NVIDIA X Server Settings and next I noticed the driver was not ticked in the Hardware Drivers Manager. (All in the System menu).
Although everything seemed to work fine I ticked the box in the Hardware Drivers Manager and next the driver seemed to be re installed and I could now get back into the X Server Settings.

This morning the computer booted into the login screen but after entering my details the screen went to console, not X or KDE.
A few lines of log were visible, the last one stating "running local boot scripts /ect/rc.local

When I switched to Console F7 I noticed a message that NVIDIA driver 173.14.05 was already installed.

So it appears there are (pointers to) two different drivers on the system.

Switching to another Console (F1-F6 seem available) I was able to log in (again!) and via startX I got into the KDE desktop of my account.

Yet I can't do a normal shut down via the K-menu, only the option 'log out' is present and it brings me back to the Console where I can then do a 'sudo shutdown -h now'.

I mucked around, deinstalling the NVIDIA new drivers via Adept, rerunning the NVIDIA script, rerunning nvidia-xconfig etc. but so far no luck to log in the regular way.

Any hints?

My xorg.conf:

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder63) Thu Jun 5 00:10:21 PDT 2008


Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier  "Layout0"
  Screen   0 "Screen0" 0 0
  InputDevice  "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
  InputDevice  "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
  RgbPath    "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
EndSection

Section "Module"
  Load     "dbe"
  Load     "extmod"
  Load     "type1"
  Load     "freetype"
  Load     "glx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier  "Mouse0"
  Driver    "mouse"
  Option    "Protocol" "auto"
  Option    "Device" "/dev/psaux"
  Option    "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
  Option    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

  # generated from default
  Identifier  "Keyboard0"
  Driver    "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier  "Monitor0"
  VendorName  "Unknown"
  ModelName   "Unknown"
  HorizSync   30.0 - 110.0
  VertRefresh  50.0 - 150.0
  Option    "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier  "Device0"
  Driver    "nvidia"
  VendorName  "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier  "Screen0"
  Device    "Device0"
  Monitor    "Monitor0"
  DefaultDepth  24
  SubSection  "Display"
    Depth   24
  EndSubSection
EndSection

Oh yes, in the -Section "Module"- there is a -load "type1"- which shows up in the logs a failed and non existing. I tried to comment it out (#) but it makes no difference.

Starting up through the restore and or safe modes doesn't help either

[dibl]

Re: Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

I use EnvyNG to install the Nvidia driver, and I leave the Restricted Driver Manager closed, completely.

But, I have the impression that you use RDM to install a driver, OR you install the downloaded driver. One or the other, not both. I think they are now in a fight on your system. :P

[Teunis]

Re: Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

You are right dibl, I accidentally had the driver from the repositories installed when I clicked on the tick box in the Hardware Drivers Manager.

I uninstalled this driver via Adept but there must be links to it left. and I wonder where to find them...

[dibl]

Re: Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

I have lost track of where the "trace remains" of the installed drivers end up. If I were you, I would install and run envyng -- it has an option (#2 on the menu) to "remove the driver", which will do what you need. Then you can choose #1 "Install the driver" and get a clean installation.

sudo apt-get install envyng-core

Get out of the X server with Ctrl-Alt-F1, log in, and issue

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

to shut down X. Then

sudo envyng -t

Do the removal and the installation. Then you can restart the X server with

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm start

and you should be good to go.

[Teunis]

Re: Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

I just couldn't get the system to start up and shut down as it should.
As it was a new install it wasn' t a big thing to do a reinstall but after a few hours the same problems appeared but this time I had certainly only used the recommended envyng install for nvidia.

But I've just found the reason for it, I installed the thinkfinger tools for the fingerprint reader and used, against recommendation, the sudo command to acquire the finger print samples.

In the thinkfinger wiki is a warning this could cause "hidden permission problems", well I just found one

I found a clue because in a log I found some indication KDM was not able to save an image of the previous session, indeed a permission issue connected with (pam) authentication!

Through Adept I uninstalled thinkfinger and behold, everything is back to normal
Now I have to try to access that finger print reader without sudo...

[toad]

Re: (PArtially solved) Boot problem on new install with Nvidia

Wow! Well spotted. Perhaps you could rename the subject line to something with thinkfinger...