NVIDIA and Plex server issue. Graphical corruption

[new666uk]

Thanks. I've a feeling I might just invest the time in a fresh install. The two things that put me off are having to re-learn permissions for the various media drives and setup Plex. As it is, the machine is unusable for watching media on so I'm starting to think I've little choice.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Just two thoughts (and nothing concrete regarding your graphics glitches):

1. This

[…]
5. Tried to stop the display manager using but I'm not sure it worked:

sudo systemctl stop kdm​

[…]

will not stop anything, because Kubuntu uses SDDM since Plasma 5.
See
sudo systemctl list-units | grep -i kdm
or
sudo systemctl status sddm.service

I am also not quite sure why one would stop the display manager for this - does ubuntu-drivers also do it for an NVIDIA driver installation?


2. Installing third-party drivers from a website can pose a (functional) risk; it can be assumed that Canonical does not test the driver from the NVIDIA website but - assuming extensive testing is done at all - only the one from its own package repositories.
Furthermore, you could miss updates for such drivers and will have to install them manually every time.
Reasons why I always used the NVIDIA driver for *Ubuntu from the Ubuntu repos, the one for openSUSE from the openSUSE repos, the one for Debian from the Debian repos, the one for…
Just saying.

[new666uk]

Ok, so I have tried again today and still have the graphic glitches issue shown above having done the following, mainly using https://www.baeldung.com/linux/nvidi...st-install-run as a guide.

1.Physically removed GPU
2. Removed preinstalled nvidia drivers with:

$ sudo apt purge nvidia*​

and

$ sudo apt autoremove​

Checking in driver manager, no additional drivers are listed.

3. installed dependencies:

$ sudo apt install build-essential gcc-multilib dkms​

4. blacklisted the Nouveau driver with:

$ cd /etc/modprobe.d
$ sudo touch blacklist-nouveau.conf
$ sudo nano blacklist-nouveau.conf
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0​

5. Tried to stop the display manager using but I'm not sure it worked:

sudo systemctl stop kdm​

6. From the download folder I then ran:

$ sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-580.159.04.run​

7.0 Re-installed GPU and booted up

This boots up using the nvidia card and I can see that I'm using the manually installed driver. The kubuntu default ones (535, 580 etc) are shown in the list.

I'm completely lost on why I'm having corrupted graphics all of a sudden. Can someone help me trouble shoot what is causing that?

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]Is there benefit moving from 24 LTS to 26 LTS from an nvidia perspective?

I honestly can't say (since I no longer use NVIDIA myself, and fortunately, neither does anyone in my circle).
I suspect that only the latest NVIDIA GPUs would really benefit from it.
But you could read the relase notes of the newer drivers to see if a newer driver (which would then only be available in *Ubuntu 26.04) would help your situation.

Personally, I would be cautious with a new *Ubuntu release in combination with NVIDIA (especially regarding newer kernels) and would wait until others report that everything is working flawlessly (perhaps wait until Kubuntu 26.04.1 has been released?).

[new666uk]

Thanks Schwarzer Kater

I should have clarified, VLC and Plex playback was smooth (bar certain bad downloads) until recently. I know plex paygate gpu transcoding and I've never paid for that so video performance issues seem to apply whether its the gpu or igpu in use.The corrupted graphics is recent too, I'm lost in where to start trouble shooting that.

I don't believe I have the Plasma Wayland session you mention, it's not something I would have know about.

Is there benefit moving from 24 LTS to 26 LTS from an nvidia perspective?

[Schwarzer Kater]

… and just two thoughts regarding your original post:

• If VLC runs poorly in 24.04, try using the Flatpak version instead (newer version, newer codecs).
• On a friend's very old laptop (Intel iGPU) playback in VLC was unbearably choppy - installing mpv (from the *Ubuntu repos) and using it instead of VLC solved the problem in that case.

[Schwarzer Kater]

I'm glad to read that your system is booting with video again.

I understand that you are using Kubuntu 24.04 LTS. Just for clarification, here is an excerpt from the release notes.


From the Kubuntu 24.04 LTS release notes:

"A Plasma Wayland session is available for testing by installing the plasma-workspace-wayland package, but is not supported. […]"


Escpecially with NVIDIA I would stick to the supported session (X11) in Kubuntu 24.04 LTS if at all possible.

[new666uk]

And running video in 1k or 4k output is poor with a lot of juddering despite the GPU only running at 25%

[new666uk]

Update.

I regained access by physically removing the GPU thereby forcing the onboard intel graphics. From there I purged and them reinstalled the nvidia drivers then reinstalled the GPU.

Currently running nvidia 580, the latest to support my GPU and the aforementioned graphics glitches witj text in particular being blurry but them resolving after a moment.

Attached shows the graphics issue. Where do I start trouble shooting that?

[new666uk]

thanks, I'll try to look at that tonight.

[Schwarzer Kater]

Yes, you could access the files of your installation from another system you booted from (you would have to mount the partition(s) of your installtion first, of course).
But to change/install the GRUB boot loader on the mounted system you would need to chroot.

So for your main goal you could boot from a live USB stick and chroot into your broken system to alter /etc/default/grub, reinstall it, and be able to access Kubuntu's GRUB boot menu afterwards.
Here is an example from the Debian Wiki: GrubEFIReinstall

You probably don't have a /boot partition, only /boot/efi.

AFAIK the rescue mode of the Debian installer doesn't work anymore for *Ubuntu - but I could be wrong and that would be the more convenient alternative to chroot in the terminal..
Here is a link to the Debian 13.5 ISO, in case you would want to try out its rescue mode: debian-13.5.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso

Good luck.

[new666uk]

Thanks. Just a thought, when I run a live USB, is there a way to see the files on the hdd with the current install? I'm fairly sure it only has the linux install on that drive and none of my personal files but I'd like to check first.

Alternatively, can I install the correct nvidia driver via the live usb but onto the hdd?

I should add, using nvidia 580 I had weird graphic glitches, especially with text being blurry.

[Schwarzer Kater]

[…]
Now, with no output at all, I've tried to use both Escape and Shift (on separate attempts) to log into Grub on boot in an effort to revert the driver back to nvidia v580 but still no output detected on the display.
[…]

Not helpful right now, but hopefully for the future:
step 4. of Kubuntu 24.04 LTS - important things to do after an installation.

Years ago, when I still had NVIDIA graphics cards one working solution for such a problem was to

• remove the wrong driver first with
  sudo apt purge nvidia-*
  then
• reboot to temporarily use the default nouveau open source driver and
  then to
• install the right one with the ubuntu-drivers program.

[new666uk]

Thanks. I was in PE a few years ago on the drive from Durban to CT.

I'll try a live USB tonorrow and see where I get.

[die.boer]

Thanks die.boer alway good to meet another Saffa, I used to live in Durban and Ladysmith

I pulled out an old PS2 keyboard I had spare as the wireless one I usually use may not be active in the boot cycle. Numlock lights up but no joy. I can see the hdd light flashing with activity and mashing Escape during startup seems to produce a shorter cycle. I tries to blind type the above in and reboot but still the same. Pressing Escape on startup must do something as it only requires a single press of the power button to switch off instead of a press and hold.

ah nog n suid afrika boytjie , my vrou is van durban ,maar ons nou in PE...
anyways , so you can't even get into GRUB at all ?
next step would be to boot a live kubuntu USB and then mount the installed system from there , but it's a bit tricky...
much easier to just do a fresh install in my opinion