Latest Changes to Note When Installing nVidia 331.XX Drivers

[Guest]

I am running Kubuntu 13.10 64 bit. I have an nVidia GT520 based graphics card in my HP xw8600 workstation. I have installed the nVidia drivers for a long time. But there have been some changes done to the drivers that you should know about. If you try and install the latest nVidia 331.49 drivers from the edgers PPA and you have a desktop nVidia card, you won't be able to startup your x-server at all. It installs the bumblebee driver in addition to the regular desktop version. This will pound your graphics and it won't start up. I then discovered that if you remove the bumblebee driver, joy will return to your desktop. Of course, I about went nuts spending hours trying the hardway and a zillion other methods to install the latest driver. This is the process you need to use to properly install the driver:

sudo add-apt-repository ppaorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-331
sudo apt-get --purge remove bumblebee
sudo reboot

If you've installed it already and your graphics card won't work, just install this part from the terminal session you will be stuck in:

sudo apt-get --purge remove bumblebee
sudo reboot

Ugh......Works good now. I thought I was going nuts.

[dequire]

Sounds like a bug should be filed with kubuntu-packaging to fix this issue. Thanks for supplying a solution - I'm sure it will be affecting others as well.

[SteveRiley]

Dequire, it's an Xorg-Edgers packaging issue, not a Kubuntu packaging issue.

nvidia-prime and bumblebee are listed as recommended dependencies for nvidia-331 (but not for previous versions). Because APT's default is to treat recommends as real dependencies, these packages may return in a subsequent update. To prevent this, create the following APT preferences file:

steve@t520:~$ [B]cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/no-bumblebee-prime[/B]
Package: bumblebee
Pin: version 0.0
Pin-Priority: -1

Package: bumblebee:i386
Pin: version 0.0
Pin-Priority: -1

Package: nvidia-prime
Pin: version 0.0
Pin-Priority: -1

Package: nvidia-prime:i386
Pin: version 0.0
Pin-Priority: -1

[dequire]

Dequire, it's an Xorg-Edgers packaging issue, not a Kubuntu packaging issue.

OOps - my bad.

[pnunn]

Hi Guys,
I've done a very silly thing in following these instructions on my flaky installation and have now got to the point where the nvidia module isn't loading and I'm stuck on a VGA screen.

As you'll see from other posts, I hit this problem weeks ago and the only solution I could come up with at the time was to install the driver manually from the nvidia site. This worked to in a fasion but gave me some on going problems so when I saw this I though, lets give it a go.

So.. what I've done since.

Tried the instructions here, ended up with vga.
Tried to remove the manual drivers by /etc/init.d/lightdm stop -> NVIDIA-blah --uninstall (said no drivers were installed), rebooted
Installed the 331 package again (which it did) and then tried to enable additional drivers. There is an nvidia_331 entry, which is marked as enabled but not active. Turned it off, rebooted.
Re-enabled this in additonal drivers, rebooted
apt-get --purge remove nvidia-331 rebooted
installed nvidia-331 rebooted
Copied across a working xorg.conf (saved from a previously working nvidia install on this same machine). rebooted.

I'm out of ideas. No errors that I can see in the Xorg.0.log..
nouveau is disabled (in /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-331_hybrid.conf

HELP... please
Thanks.

OK, blew away everything I could find nvidia and re-installed nvidia-current. Still no good.

Gave up, eventually (after hours and LOTS of reboots) and re-install the 331 without package manager (using the install script) and back to a sort of working system.
Seem the package version is completely screwed now.

[pnunn]

OK, about to give up on this and try another distro. This is getting in the way of doing work now.

I install the drivers using the NVIDIA installer and then startx and all is good. I reboot, and the nvidia module fails to install so I get no screens. Re-install the nvidia driver, startx and away we go again.

I'm also now missing all the sound outputs which I'm guessing is related to the module not loading correctly. I'll do a very small amount of digging to see if I can find a resolution to this, but if not, I'll give SUSE a try.

This is nuts.

Peter.

[SteveRiley]

I'm running the Xorg-Edgers PPA on my nVidia-equipped ThinkPad T520 and it's working without incident. Here's my procedure:

1. Install Kubuntu. Observe that the Nouveau drivers loaded.
2. Create the APT preferences file I posted earlier.
3. Enable the Xorg-Edgers PPA.
4. Install nvidia-331 and nvidia-settings.
5. Create a very simple /etc/X11/xorg.conf (below).
6. Reboot and enjoy.

I do not use Jockey or any other automatic driver installation tool. An installation script inside the nvidia-331 package automatically creates the necessary Nouveau blacklist files in /etc/modprobe.d.

BoardName will vary depending on the card/chip you have. Identifier may be different if you have switchable graphics.

steve@t520:~$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "NVS 4200M"
    Option         "TripleBuffer" "1"
    Option         "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "1"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
    Option         "RegistryDwords" "PerfLevelSrc=0x2222; PowerMizerLevel=0x3; PowerMizerLevelAC=0x3; PowerMizerDefault=0x3; PowerMizerDefaultAC=0x3"
EndSection

[pnunn]

Thanks Steve,

In desperation I did the following..

apt-get --purge remove nvidia everything.
updatedb
rm -rf nvidia everything
rebooted (odiously to text)
checked that no nvidia module existed..
re-enabled edgers
apt-get install as you detailed above
nvidia-xconfig
reboot
lightdm half started. Hung with a black screen just after loading the VirtualBox dkms modules.
the nvidia driver had loaded however
startx got me to a splash screen (low res) then blew up saying versa couldn't start because of a bonded drive (fair enough).
blew away all nvidia again.
Installed the stand alone driver again from the installer.
Rebooted and so far its all working (not game to reboot again though).
No idea why the packaged drives don't work, but given up on them for the moment.

Peter.

[SteveRiley]

startx got me to a splash screen (low res) then blew up saying versa couldn't start because of a bonded drive (fair enough).

Do you mean perhaps "VESA couldn't start"? That's a clue -- VESA is a fallback driver that gets loaded when the proper drivers fail for some reason.

Typically, it's useful to examine ~/.xsession-errors, /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and the LightDM logs in /var/log/WHATEVERITISIFORGETIDONTUSELIGHTDM/. Usually there will be information here that helps to diagnose what's wrong.