General :: NVIDIA Driver - Proprietary Drivers Wont Install Properly?
Apr 17, 2010
I am currently running Ubuntu 9.10 on a Compaq Presario V3010US. My video card is an NVIDIA GeForce Go 6150 which appears to be running properly with some limitations (missing effects from CompizConfig). While utilizing the "Hardware Drivers" configuration a recommended driver is listed but when I attempt to activate this driver I encounter an error.
This error turns my attention to the log file :
This log file is extensive and I do not wish to post pages of code unless requested. The configuration does however list that "a different driver is in use". I have scoured threads to ensure that I have not posted a question that has been answered to no avail. Please bear in mind that I am in my Linux infancy and my grasp of this incredible operating system is cursory at best.
NOTICE: Some very old nVidia Video Cards from more than 9 years ago might not work with this way, but just try this method because you'll see if there's a driver available for your video card in Fedora or not.
I have been noticing that it was hard to set up my own NVidia video card, and alot of other people shared the same problem as I had. I have been experimenting with some things, and here's what I did to solve it.
It's fairly easy, anyone can do this. Read and follow these instructions:
Install all updates. Although it seems unimportant, it really is.
Go to [url] and follow the instructions to install the free and nonfree repositories
Go to System > Administration > Add/Remove Software
Search the following: nv
Click everything which has to do with NVidia. Do not check the checkboxes yet, but read the descriptions. If you've found your video card in the description, check the checkbox at the left of the title.
Install the drivers by clicking "Apply" at the bottom of your screen.
After installing, go to Applications > System Tools > nVidia Display Settings
Set the properties of your video card, such as TwinView or higher screen resolutions.
After you've set it up, click Apply to preview your settings. Change some settings if you like, and then click Apply when you're done. DO NOT EXIT YET!
Click "Save to X Confguration File, but do NOT save the file. Click "Show preview..." and copy the text in the preview.
Go to Applications > System Tools > Terminal and type "su". Press Enter and enter the root password.
Now type:
Code:
Select all of the text in the document and delete it. Then, paste the text of the "Save X Configuration" window into the text editor.
Exit out of the terminal.
Exit out of the nVidia Display Settings application. Do not save anything from this application.
Log out and log back in to see the changes.
If you want to change some settings, repeat steps 7 - 16.
I've recently jump from the Ubuntu/Mint ship, and figured I've give a polished KDE distribution a shot. Of course I turned to OpenSuSE, and I love it so far. I've resisted KDE quite a lot since 4.x came out but it's really come along. Much better than the (in my opinion) monstrous disaster that Gnome has become.
Anyways, on to my problem: I've installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers via the one-click-install shown in the wiki, and that worked great. But now my resolution at boot - that is the boot/loading screen, not my desktop - is shown at a very low resolution instead of my native resolution, like it was with OpenSuSE's default open-source Nvidia driver, which I'm guessing is Nouveau. On Ubuntu, this was pretty easy to correct; all you had to do was edit /etc/default/grub and put your resolution there, and tinker with some other options so that instead of Plymouth trying to set its own, it just carries over Grub's specified resolution. But I can't seem to do that with OpenSuSE. For one, I don't see /etc/default/grub, and more than that, I don't think you guys use Plymouth. I could be wrong on that second point, though. So, how can I change the boot screen's resolution to my native resolution? I'm using the latest Stable release (11.4) and latest Nvidia drivers. Other than that, the install is new.
I've been trying to install the driver for my NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 in Slackware 13.1 with no success. I always get the same error report: the module you're trying to build does not match the kernel source or something like that. The result: unable to build module and the installation crashes.
I have tried to:set a custom kernel source path, install it with the slackbuilds driver and kernel, extract the contents and trying to compile it myself, find possibly conflicting drivers or modules, use different versions of the same driver (I've tried installing the versions 256.53, 256.44, 195.36.31 and 173.14.27)recompile the Linux kernel in an attempt to make sure that the tools used to build the kernel were the same used o build the module.
The only time I got a different error message was when I used the slackbuild packages. It built the 'nvidia.ko' module, but it didn't work. I got a version magic notice when booting and, when I tried to start x, a fatal error "no screens were found."
Just to be sure, I made a clean full install of Slackware (only added WICD to be able to download the drivers and ran slackpkg update and upgrade all) and tried again. It didn't work.
I am using the most recent ubuntu kernel (2.6.32-22-generic) for general stuff, and a real time kernel (2.6.31-10-rt) for music recording. Everything was working fine under Karmic.
When I upgraded to 10.04, I had problems with my Nvidia video card, so I uninstalled everying related to Nvidia. And reinstalled the driver using the installer script from the Nvidia website.
I can install the driver for one kernel, but when I boot on the other, it says my X config does not work, and I am back to a low-res no-effect display.
If I then try to reinstall the driver under that kernel, then the first one stops working with the Nvidia driver.
I'm running succesfully Debian 6.0 after first trying Debian 5.0 and ran into missing partitions. This is solved by using Debian 6.0 (Beta 2).
Now it's NVidia's turn: Under Ubuntu (yes...i know it by now...) you had to install a proprietary driver for NVidia to ensure that 3D was supported. What about Debian? There's nothing like this under Debian? How do i know if 3D is supported?
since i installed nvidia proprietary driver on opensuse 11.3 my boot-image is gone. This is not really in issue but i would like to have it back. is there a way to get it back or a bootimage howto or something?
I have been using ubuntu for quite a long time, and for the first time, I am now unable to set nvidia drivers to work. I have just install ubuntu 9.10 amd64 on an AMD 64 athlong X2 with a GEForce 6500 nvidia card.
The only reason I need the proprietary drivers is to use two monitors.
I am going crazy, I have tested everything I have found on the web. I have tried all the nvidia drivers version, I have tried envyng, ... but nvidia do not work!!
I am trying Xinerama with nv, but it does not work either!!!
Here is my xorg.conf file in which I have tried to use nv driver to set dual monitor. X fails to load and it says that screen 0 is deleted, that devices are found but there are no matches in the config file. Any clue?
I installed Xubuntu the other night (completely wiped machine) and started doing all the updates on it. After a couple of reboots, I changed from the proprietary drivers, to the regular nVidia drivers. After doing this, the startup logo is displayed at a really low resolution. Is there a simple fix to change this and use the nVidia drivers as well?
I have a CentOS 5 virtual machine (VMware Workstation 7) running under a Windows host, and need the workstation's NVidia graphic card (Quadro NVS 295) to work optimally for my data analysis tools.
When I try to install the Linux driver from NVidia's webpage, I get "You do not appear to have an NVIDIA GPU supported by the 190.53 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver installed in this system". I have found my workstation's graphic card in the list of supported graphic cards in the README.
I suspect this has to do with VMware's own graphics controller having taken over, because when I do "/sbin/lspci" I see: 00.0f.0 VGA compatible controller: VMware SVGA II Adapter
Does anyone out there know how I can let the NVidia driver get installed and take over (it looks like I need its newest version for my software to render properly)?
Well at the moment i have just installed Debian 5. I've downloaded nvidia-linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run and i need someone to help me out step by step on how to install this properly.
I have a problem that pops up with some games, sometimes: sauerbraten, lugaru, and nexuiz being the ones that pop to mind.
The problem is that when the game starts/loads the mouse "cursor" in the game will not work... the thing is frozen. The "fix" is to jump to a virtual terminal, via alt-ctrl-1, and restart KDM, then I log back into the session and everything is working swell.
This problem does not occur in Osmos, World of Goo, Warzone 2100, or the Linux Ryzom client.
I thought about adding an explicit /etc/init.d/kdm restart in my /etc/kde4/kdm/Xreset file, but that seems too draconian.
This has been a recurring problem on several machines with several 7000, 8000, and 9000 series Nvidia cards running under the proprietary driver, on both 32-bit and 64-bit AMD processors ever since Lenny and up through Wheezy. And it occurs on the following desktop/windowing environments: KDE4.4, icewm, fluxbox, blackbox, E17.
I would guess that it's a driver issue or a driver+xorg configuration issue.
PS: Please don't suggest that I should use the open source driver.
Being a total beginner to linux, I can't seem to find a decent guide on how to install these drivers without much hassle, even though I've been searching for almost couple of hours now.
First, my system specs, taken with Hard Info Processor: 2x AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor Memory: 3091MB (1865MB used) Operating System: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS
-Display- Resolution: 1360x768 pixels OpenGL Renderer: GeForce GT 220/PCI/SSE2 X11 Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
Now, I've installed the "default" (dunno if that would be the correct categorizing) driver with the "Hardware drivers" utility from System->Preferences->Hardware drivers because I've failed numerous times trying to install the package from nVidia site ; I would always get an error while trying to run the package : "It seems that X server is running on your linux, please deactivate it to install this package" or something like that, but I'm sure it was about X running.
There is one thing missing (I think) a clear guide to clearing out Nvidia and replacing it with nouveau. For all but hardened gamers, nouveau on 11.4 delivers. It also removes one more barrier to what I think is the intended goad of Tumbleweed.The problem IMHO is not that there are no clear guides. The problem is there are too many. No sooner does one person do a guide (that is clear) and someone else who does not like some point writes another guide that they think is more clear (but in fact is less clear in other aspects). And this goes on ad infinitum.IMHO we have too many guides - many of which are sufficient clear ... but the VAST number only serves to confuse users more.
Having typed that, IMHO this is NOT a Tumbleweed specific issue, but its MUCH WIDER in scope and hence does not belong as a discussion in this Tumbleweed thread.
I've just installed Debian and then installed the ATI driver to correct the resolution and to hopefully give me better performance, it seemed to give the opposite effect and has made my computer painfully slow and choppy.
I want to run both World of Warcraft and Steam under wine, but WoW won't work with the latest 195.x.x driver, and steam won't work with the previous 185.x.x driver.
Is it possible to have both installed, and to switch between them as needed for different applications? Or will I really have to choose between one or the other?
If anyone else out there is being driven crazy by the fact that their fonts are too big in KDE (with the proprietary nvidia driver), here's all the places you need to change it to make it work:
In /etc/X11/xorg.conf, under Identifier "Screen0", add: Option "UseEdidDpi" "FALSE" Option "DPI" "90x90"
I'm using an Nvidia Geforce 6x card (can't remember the exact number). When I do not have the proprietary driver enabled, the Ubuntu logo and status bar, as well as various boot up messages, look very nice. They are scaled properly and I'm impressed with how they look. When I do enable the proprietary driver, the screen resolution during boot up is much smaller, and therefore everything looks ugly. The little status bar under the Ubuntu logo suddenly fills up and "freezes." The transition from login screen to desktop is jerky.
Unfortunately if I disable my card, I cannot use desktop effects or even view flash videos in full screen mode. (I'm assuming nouveau still has work to do.) Is there any way I can have proprietary drivers enabled and a nice boot up experience?
After using Arch Linux for a while, I tried Ubuntu 11.04 again. Most of it was a pleasant surprise, except for the nvidia drivers. I currently have the nouveau drivers, but when I activate the nvidia drivers and reboot, it's installed but not in use. I figured I should run nvidia-xconfig (as suggested by nvidia-settings) but that makes my computer boot into a tty. Removing the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file makes it boot in nouveau again.
How do I install the Nvidia drivers? Ive tried the drivers from nvidia.com too, with the same results. I really want to be able to play my games, and nouveau just isnt going to cut it.
I have an nVidia GeForce 7600GS with a dual monitor setup. A 19" Dell @ 1280x1024, and a 19" widescreen Acer @ 1440x900. The Dell is attached via DVI, and the resolution is detected properly, and set, but the Acer is connected via VGA, and so the native resolution is unkown to the nvidia control panel. It will only let me set the resolution up to 1024x768. I had it create the xorg.conf file, and i tried to edit it manually, changing its
I had, with much delight, accomplished a dual boot install of Ubuntu 9.1.0 and Windows 7 the other day and everything was working perfectly fine. However, I decided to activate the proprietary Nvidia drivers that were available in the drivers menu and my system subsequently no longer operates. After installing and rebooting Ubuntu will no longer work and becomes stuck on a black screen with two white dashes in the top right had of the screen.
This hang up occurs directly after the first white Ubuntu logo appears during the startup and the only key that will work during this screen are Crtl + Alt + F1, which only bring up a second black screen except with a solid white dash in the top right screen. At that point no key will work. I have tried to fix things in recovery mode and used envyng to remove the nvidia drivers as well as other operations, however the same result still appears when I try and run Ubuntu. I own a Sony Vaio Z690C if it makes any difference.
I did a clean install of Ubuntu 11.04 on my desktop which has a Nvidia GForce 7300LE card. Installation was successful, however, the moment I install Nvidia Current driver the system hangs. The only way I was able to get the system working was by doing a fresh install.
When I tried to configure the screen resolution using NVIDIA X server settings, I was told to run 'nvidia-xconfig'. I ran it, restarted X but my resolution is still stuck at the maximum of 1024x768. I've tried running the above many times with the same results. I even tried aptitude reinstalling but still the same.
I have openSUSE 11.4 with standard KDE and two screens attached.Here's the question: How do I configure dual monitors when using the proprietary nVidia drivers?The openSUSE 11.4 installation put in the "nouveau" drivers for my nVidia card and I was able to configure dual monitors using KDE's Configure Desktop --> Display & Monitors GUI configurator. I could also set up dual monitors using a script based on xrandr (e.g. "xrandr --output VGA-1 --auto --pos 0x0 --output DVI-I-1 --auto --pos 1920x0")My screens are detected as VGA-1 and DVI-I-1 by the nouveau drivers.
OK, today I switched to the proprietary nVidia drivers. Only one of the screens is now detected and displayed in the KDE monitor configurator and that's marked as "default" rather than as a VGA or DVI connection.When I run xrandr to configure monitors, I get error messages if I refer to VGA or DVI hardware.
More info -- RPMs nvidia-gfxG02-kmp-desktop-260.19.36_k2.6.37.1_1.2-23.1.x86_64 x11-video-nvidiaG02-260.19.36-24.1.x86_64
I have a BIG issue with my fresh Maverick install : when I install proprietary drivers via the graphic utility, either one proposed, the screen resolution is then max in 640x480. But I have hardware acceleration and compiz effects !
I tried, I think, everything. Forcing the resolution in xorg, in monitors.xml, try the newest ones via the ppa, install an older (and used to be working I'm positive) one with .run (which just prevent any graphic display).
Thought I'd put this together based on what I just did as it's hard to find a place where you get complete info in one place for this topic.
Not taking any credit as it's just piecing together stuff found on the net.
Of course this is for my specific hardware and system so YMMV: - Palit Sonic GT 240 card - Lucid 10.04.1 64-bit - Intel DG33FB board and E7200 CPU - LG monitor L194WT at 1440x900 res
Reason for choosing the latest NVidia drivers instead of the ones available from the System > Administration > Hardware Drivers option is that the latest ones contain specific fixes for my card, that are not available in the others.
Prerequisites:
All of the following is based on a freshly installed 64-bit Lucid 10.04.1 system. Some actions may need modification if you have already been tinkering with Nvidia drivers.
1. Backup your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file if any. The default clean install of 64-bit Lucid 10.04.1 doesn't create this file so unless you have generated and modified the xorg.conf file for your specific needs, skip this.
2. Install the following packages
Code:
If this doesn't work, run
Code:
And paste the output of that in the command above so you get, say
Code:
3. Remove the following packages using Synaptic's 'Completely Remove' option - nvidia-173-modaliases - nvidia-96-modaliases - nvidia-current-modaliases - nvidia-common
4. Create a new text file disable-nouveau.conf in the directory /etc/modprobe.d/ with the following contents
Code:
5. Download the latest NVidia drivers applicable to your card from here:[url]
6. Save the downloaded file (e.g. NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-260.19.29.run in my case) to an easily accessible location like your home folder. Make this file executable by running, say
Code:
7. Check that the driver was correctly downloaded.
Code:
8. Run Update Manager, Check for updates and Apply any found
Installation:
1. Restart and choose the recovery option from the Grub options list.
2. Choose the Root Shell option in the list of options presented subsequently.
3. At the root shell run the following
Code:
If you skip this, the driver installer will inform you of the need to do this.
4. This will present you with a login prompt. Login with your admin username and password.
5. Navigate to the folder where the driver installer is present and run it, like
Code:
6. Accept the license text.
7. Say Yes to installing the 32-bit Open GL drivers.
8. I think you need to say Yes/ Accept once more time to initiate the driver installation.
9. Once the driver is installed it will ask you whether it should configure xorg.conf for you, say Yes. This will create the xorg.conf file if not present in your system and modify an existing one if present.
10. Back at the prompt, shutdown the system
Code:
11. Restart and use the normal startup option in the Grub options list, if all goes well you should see your beautiful desktop.
As this question pops up quite often on IRC and, as a quick search told me, on this board as well, I decided to put together some directions that, with some or the other variation, also apply to other Linux distributions and have never failed me. The following is confirmed to work for Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal 64bit with a NVIDIA GeForce GT 240 and on Kubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal 32bit with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900XT graphics card.
This HowTo will describe how to install the proprietary NVIDIA graphics card drivers using exclusively the command line. I strongly suggest you try this method for a fresh install of graphics drivers before trying any other method, especially a GUI-driven one (I never used a GUI for package management on a Debian-ish system, but I hear that the Ubuntu Software Center supposedly has a way of installing proprietary graphics drivers).
The restricted packages repository should be enabled by default. To the more experienced users: This HowTo uses apt-get for demonstrating the install process. If you prefer using aptitude, feel free to replace the commands accordingly. First steps. As well be doing everything on the command line, first open a terminal application from your desktop environments menu or from a shortcut icon on your panel, if you have one. You should be greeted by a prompt that looks like this:
I have used the NVidia proprietary drivers for awhile. Yes, I know about nv and I even know about the prepackaged ones, but I've never minded getting the latest from NVidia, dropping out of X, and running the install which automatically rebuilds everything.
I recently took the synaptic update to 2.6.32-24. It worked fine and -- I guess -- migrated my driver. I didn't think about it. For no particular reason today I tried to build the latest NVIDIA driver (256.53 -- had been on an earlier 256 series). The build failed with some conftest failures. Even trying to rebuild the working driver failed. Reverting to 2.6.32-23 allowed both to be built and they work. So something the NVIDIA installer is expecting headerwise must be different between 2.6.32-23 and -24.
Installing Mythbuntu 10.10, which I finally got installed properly. At first I installed the open-source video drivers just to make sure the installation worked, then I installed the "version current" proprietary drivers using the graphics drivers manager...tool...thing. However, when I restarted the computer, it has a text-mode splash screen and I stay in the first virtual terminal.
If I try to go to the GUI "terminal" [Ctrl-Alt-F7], it appears to be partway through some kind of check:
Code:
I ran sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg to try to get back to the open-source drivers, but it didn't give any text output and went straight to the next line of command prompt, when I restarted it did the exact same thing. Any tips for at least getting back to the open drivers? I'd like to not have to reinstall again (I'm dual-booting WinXP,). The card in question is a GeForce 6200 AGP.