Failing Nvidia Drivers

[Dozy]

Hello LinuxMCE community,

I have been anxiously following this project for over a year and a half now, and I would just like to say I'm thoroughly impressed by your hard work. This is an amazing project! With that said, the reason I have been following the project so closely is that the last iteration of LMCE (0710) was incompatible with my videocard and I could not get past the Kubuntu splash screen before my screen went black.

Obviously I was thrilled when 0810 alphas started being released but still I have been unable to get LMCE up and running stably on my core. I have attached a copy of the components I used to build my core. I had not yet heard of LMCE when I was putting this rig together, otherwise I might have chosen some more typical hardware, however I have not come across any documentation that says anything I have used would be incompatible.

I have tried installing 0810 from the DVD and the web-install method countless times to no avail, and I have finally succumbed to posting and asking for help. I always end up with a black screen at the end of the install and I do not know what the problem is. Sometimes it appears that the core is attempting to netboot and cannot find the image it is looking for, other times i just have a black screen with nothing.

On my most recent attempt to install 0810, I installed kubuntu just fine, ran updates and rebooted. I picked the recommended nvidia driver and rebooted again (*before running install scripts). This time, I was sent straight to the recovery console. I tried to do a normal boot and received nothing but a black screen. This leaves me wondering if LMCE is actually installing fine, and the nvidia driver (which is reportedly installed when using the web-install scripts) is causing me not to see the AV wizard.

I have tried the number keys, and arrow keys, and all other proposed solutions and nothing seems to be working. I am using an Nvidia 9800GTX video card that has two DVI outputs. I am using a DVI-to-HDMI converter to send the signal to a Samsung DLP, (my primary TV, as the core is to be used in the main media room) however i have also tried using other monitors as well as DVI-to-VGA.

This is my first real foray into the Linux system, so maybe there is a simple solution that I am not seeing.

I really hate to post and beg for help, but I am really unsure what else to do. If anybody could offer any advice on how to get LMCE up and running on my core, I would be extremely grateful.

Thanks community!

[THEVILLAIN]

check the link http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Display_Drivers
Make sure you are using the at least version 190 of nvidia driver.  You can check with # sudo dpkg -l \*nvidia\*

# sudo apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r'

Have you gone through the "what if i get a black screen troubleshooting?"
You can use the ALT-F2 or CTRL-ALT-F2 to change over to console mode, login and check logs, such as /var/log/xorg.0.log

Run these command and reply with your results.
# dkms status
# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[Dozy]

Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I believe it is the 190 driver that is causing me the issue. When I install Kubuntu, the display works fine (well, one of the DVI ports works fine, the other has an extremely small resolution that cannot be changed). After I apt-get upgrade, update and reboot everything is still functioning. However, after i select the 190 driver and reboot I get nothing. I have also tried to simply skip the restricted drivers to see if that works, but I believe the 190 driver is automatically loaded when running the LMCE install scripts from the net. I will try the driver straight from NVIDIA as suggested on the wiki page you linked, and bypass the Kubuntu option to see if that helps.

I've been through the "black screen troubleshooting" page as well as just about every post on the Installation Issues page as well as the Users page and the Wiki over the past several months. I was really trying to avoid posting to ask for help by any means, but I just don't know what else to try.

Sorry if I was a little vague in my first post, I just got too frustrated after the last install attempt and I was writing from memory after a few days.

I will try a fresh install, then run the commands you gave me and post the output.

Thanks again.

[pw44]

For your board 9800GTX, i think the best would be using the latest drivers. (195)
nvidia-195-libvdpau    195.36.08-0ubuntu1     Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix
nvidia-glx-195           195.36.08-0ubuntu1     NVIDIA binary Xorg driver

[Dozy]

One question, Do the web install scripts automatically install the 190 driver? As in, will the scripts downgrade me to 190 if I install the 195 drivers before installing MCE?

In other words, will I be able to install Kubuntu, update, install drivers, reboot and run install scripts, or will I have to download and install the 195 driver from the recovery console?

I'm not intimidated by command line, I am just fairly unfamiliar with with it, particularly in Linux.

[THEVILLAIN]

I don't think the install scripts will downgrade your video drivers from 195 to 190.

You can always run 'aptitude' to hold back versions of any packages from being upgraded.

no need for you to re-install.  i goto the console screen with ALT-F2, then start sshd, and login that way to view /var/log/xorg.*

you can always do # ls -latr /var/log  to see which logs are being updated last.

tell us the output returned by these commands.
sudo dkms status
sudo dpkg -l \*nvidia\*
sudo cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf

[Dozy]

dkms status output:

nvidia, 195.22,  2.6.27-15-generic, i686: installed
nvidia, 195.22,  2.6.27-7-generic, i686: installed
nvidia, 195.22,  2.6.27-17-generic, i686: installed

cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf output:

Section "Monitor"
identifier  "configured monitor"
end section

Section "screen"
identifier "default screen"
monitor "configured monitor"
device "configured video device"
defaultdepth 24
endsection

Section "Module"
load "glx"
endsection

Section "Device"
identifier "configured video device"
driver "nvidia"
option "NoLogo"  "True"
endsection

sudo dpkg -l /*nvidia/* output:
all lines followed by <none> and (no description available) except for three. Those lines begin with ii

nvidia-common 0.2.4.2 Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
nvidia-glx-195  195.22-0ubuntu NVIDIA binary Xorg driver
nvidia-setting 190.36-0ubuntu tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driv



To me it looks like the problem could be that I have the 195 driver but somehow my system is set on 190?

Does this give enough information to help solve the problem or is there something else I should try.

Thanks

[THEVILLAIN]

dkms status reports the driver being loaded.

which kernel is being loaded ?
# sudo uname -r

try this
# sudo apt-get install  nvidia-195-modaliases nvidia-195-kernel-source
stop X
# /usr/pluto/bin/Stop_X.sh

Then run the nvidia driver installer again
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-195.36.15-pkg1.run

reboot or  try to run the AVWizard again
# /usr/pluto/bin/AVWizard_Run.sh

What do the logs say ?  see /var/log/xorg.*