NVIDIA and Plex server issue. Now have no display output at all

[new666uk]

Sigh, I had a good run with Kubuntu generally working ok but a couple of weeks ago following a routine bunch of updates I had issues with Plex server not being seen (client and server are on same box). The media locations are all still owned by Plex so I'm not expecting a permission issue and I can access them to playback in other apps.

Unable to fix Plex, I tried to watch a movie via VLC having switched the display output to 4k as I usually do. It ran poorly with a lot of stutter leading me to look to nvidia. In driver manager, I've switched between driver version 530 (tested) and 580 (the latest supporting my 1050 GPU). Weirdly Plex seems to be able to connect to the media drives if I use nvidia v530 but not 580 but runs poorly (as does VLC in both).

Perplexed by the odd nvidia / Plex, I've purged and reinstalled nvidia driver 580 and still have the same issue. I suspect I'm no longer outputting via the GPU, only the onboard GFX as CPU usage spikes to 70 - 99% on playback. The GPU is physically installed and connected. I'm pretty sure I used

nvidia-smi

to check it's seen.Via the nvidia app I've set it to on demand and performance (on separate boot ups) but I note that the app doesn't show the menu options in the left of the image below (not mine, just illustrative)





In a moment of "what can I try next?", I installed nvidia 590 driver but upon reboot now I get no display output at all, just a "no HDMI input" message from the display itself. That was clearly my biggest error. I'm going off memory for a lot of what I did so bear with. I think I used

sudo apt update
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-590​

to install 590.



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.


Recap in brief:
4k playback is choppy in VLC and Plex
GPU may not be in use
Nvidia driver 580 seems to coincide with an issue in Plex client not seeing the server
Nvidia driver 530 results in normal Plex access
Both 530 and 580 have stuttering in 4k media play


I only tend to use the machine at weekends as a media box to watch movies hence the issue has been protracted over a couple of weeks.

Running Kubuntu 24.04 LTS.
GPU is a 1050ti and I'm using nvidia driver version 530 and 580.The 1050 GPU is only supported upto driver 580 I (now) believe.


So, are my options to torch it and reinstall 24.04 from an SD card?

Apologies for the long read and thanks in advance to anyone how can advise.

[die.boer]

Installing NVIDIA 590 was probably the immediate cause of the black screen
The GTX 1050 Ti is a Pascal-generation card. On Ubuntu/Kubuntu 24.04, the suported production drivers are generally in the 535/550/570/580 family.
If you manually installed a 590 package that isn't appropriate for your hardware or repository setup, X/Wayland may simply fail to start, resulting in exactly the "No HDMI input" situation you're seeing.
First determine whether the machine is actually booting
When you power on:
Does the keyboard Num Lock LED respond?
Can you press Ctrl+Alt+F3 (or F2) and get a text console? (TTY)
If yes, then the system itself is alive and only the graphics stack is broken.
If you can get into a TTY ,then

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-580

reboot
If you can get this far we could look at the original problems with Plex server ...

[new666uk]

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.

[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

[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.

[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.