unable to make Nvidia drivers work.

[NvFuchs]

Originally Posted by smk

Looking at the nvidia-*-180-* modules in synaptic pkg mgr, it shows they are version "180.44-Oubntu1" and also that this is the latest version.

According to zander's post:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show....php?p=1985816

they only added support for the GeForce 9400 in 180.51

How do I get the newer version?

Either you get it from a ppa (not official repository), or you do a manual installation. I have a rather good manual for that, but it is in german.

I recommend getting it from a ppa.
Probably there are users around here knowing one (I don't, as I don't use Ubuntu), after a quick search I found

https://launchpad.net/~gda-dachsweb/+archive/vdr

this one you could use to get 180.60.

Sorry for not checking earlier whether your GPU is supported. I thought it was, but I don't know the whole list by heart.


Fuchs

[smk]

Ok, more newbie questions. ;-)
smk

Originally Posted by NvFuchs

Either you get it from a ppa (not official repository), or you do a manual installation. I have a rather good manual for that, but it is in german.

I recommend getting it from a ppa.

What is a ppa and where do I find one?
side note: from your grammar I would never have know that English was a 2nd language for you. ;-)

Probably there are users around here knowing one (I don't, as I don't use Ubuntu), after a quick search I found

https://launchpad.net/~gda-dachsweb/+archive/vdr

I am assuming that this is a ppa,
I thought launchpad was a paid service?

Sorry for not checking earlier whether your GPU is supported. I thought it was, but I don't know the whole list by heart.

Shame on me as well. I knew I needed 180.51 from reading the threads. BUT the module names just say 180 and you have to dig deeper to see which version of 180. I foolishly assumed [and we know what that means ;-)] that the version being pushed down was the latest one. So my bad as well.

OK, so once I download it what do I do next?

fyi I tried the manual install from the .run file and it also failed complaining about missing files that synaptic says are there. :-(


smk

[NvFuchs]

Originally Posted by smk

Ok, more newbie questions. ;-)
side note: from your grammar I would never have know that English was a 2nd language for you. ;-)

I have lots of those.

I am assuming that this is a ppa,
I thought launchpad was a paid service?

It is still closed source and available as a commercial product, but the service there is free of charge.

OK, so once I download it what do I do next?

smk

You don't have to download a ppa, you have to add it to your list of repositories. A repository is a location on the web with several packages. You can tell apt-get (and the graphical frontends to it) to look in such repositories for packages.

so when you type sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx it will install this package plus all the dependencies of this package from one of those repositories. There are official ones, and there are third party ones. Including PPAs (personal repos, created by volunteers)

In order to add this one, you have to add the lines



deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/gda-dachsweb/vdr/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/gda-dachsweb/vdr/ubuntu jaunty main

to your sources.list file.

You can do that with a plain text editor (with sudo, as you need root privileges) or with a graphical frontend.

Afterwards you can sudo apt-get update and then install the nvidia-glx package from there with apt-get.

Here: https://help.launchpad.net/Packaging/PPA are some bascis regarding PPAs.


Fuchs

[smk]

OK, I get it a ppa is a repository.
I know how to add one using synaptic and this one has good instructions on it. will follow. upload and let you know what happens shortly.

So a few more newbie questions.
I gather that Ubuntu is different from other distributions related to the restricted drivers in that they put them in the repository and automate the install process. Am I correct in this?

So how does the Nvidia driver get from the nvidia developers to the Ubuntu repository?

How does the one in this ppa differ from what will end up on the Ubuntu main restricted repositories? I guess I am concerned that once I have this working, and Ubuntu pushes out a security or other kernel patch, or an update to Nvidia, will it break my install?

tks
smk

[NvFuchs]

Originally Posted by smk

So a few more newbie questions.
I gather that Ubuntu is different from other distributions related to the restricted drivers in that they put them in the repository and automate the install process. Am I correct in this?

Yes, plus the whole package management is different. Some have debian bases packages (.deb), mostly together with apt/aptitude.

Some have red hat package management (rpm), with yum or other tools.

Then there is gentoo with portage/paludis, there is arch with it's own system etc.

Originally Posted by smk

So how does the Nvidia driver get from the nvidia developers to the Ubuntu repository?

Well, usually the drivers are taken from the ftp, and then somebody builds a ubuntu package out of it. I don't know the whole procedure including testing etc., as I am not that into Ubuntu (even though I am supporter in a semi-official Ubuntu forum)

Originally Posted by smk

How does the one in this ppa differ from what will end up on the Ubuntu main restricted repositories?

When you are lucky and the guy who built it (the one offering it in the PPA): there is not a big difference, despite the fact that the one in the PPA is newer. Good built packages respect the way Ubuntu handles drivers, so there is no big difference. It is not an official package, and you wont get support if it breaks your system.

Plus a person could get you to install malicious software that way, as packages in PPAs are not tested / reviewed.

Originally Posted by smk

I guess I am concerned that once I have this working, and Ubuntu pushes out a security or other kernel patch, or an update to Nvidia, will it break my install?

Updates should not be a problem, apt should always get the most recent version of a package available (if it or a dependency of it is not blocked)

Kernel updates should (I might be wrong on that) not break anything when you install packages from a PPA, but they definitely break things when you install manually with the NVIDIA-Linux-blabla.run installer. (You'll have to rebuild after each kernel update)

tks
smk

You are welcome, I hope it works (as I am off to bed soon)

Fuchs

[smk]

OK, I followed your instructions as close as I could

i used synaptic to update the drivers from the ppa. does this actually install them?
verified via synaptic that they are the 180.60.
GUI hardware driver tool will still not "activate" them.

used ctrl+alt+F1 to get to console screen.

Was unable to do startx or gdm stop or killall x various errors.

ran the script. log file attached.
also did reboot and same no nvidia driver errors.
looking forward to your feedback.
I will stay with this tonight until you call it a night. ;-)
thanks
smk
p.s. I will be out at a client most of Wed. I will look for your responses but will probably not be able to get back to this until Thursday morning.

[NvFuchs]

I really start wondering what might be wrong with your system, this is more painful than usual.

Now it seems that he simply fails to load the nvidia.ko module without any good error message ...

Could you please give me the output of

sudo modinfo nvidia

and

sudo updatedb && locate nvidia.ko

Thanks in advance,

Fuchs

[smk]

I ran these from my home directory

Originally Posted by NvFuchs

Could you please give me the output of
sudo modinfo nvidia

modinfo: could not find module nvidia.

sudo updatedb && locate nvidia.ko

No output in the terminal window, just came back to the prompt.

Seems like I must have messed up big time somehow.

regards
smk

[NvFuchs]

Originally Posted by smk

I ran these from my home directory



modinfo: could not find module nvidia.

Either the packages provided by this repo are broken, you did not install all the packages needed (might be that the kernel module is in a different package, but in my opinion then there should be a dependency on it) or something went wrong during the installation

No output in the terminal window, just came back to the prompt.

Seems like I must have messed up big time somehow.

regards
smk

Well, yes. But it doesn't have to be your fault.
It might as well be a problem with the repo.

In fact I guess the best thing would be to:

1) Remove the repos
2) Remove all manually installed drivers, including those from the repo
3) Find a good repository on the net with a more recent driver and with sane packages (I am quite sure that an Ubuntu Forum can provide you some)
4) Install a recent driver from this repo
5) retry

I am sorry that you have such a hard time installing the drivers, this should usually not be the case.

Fuchs

[smk]

Do we have any way to check with NV to verify that they are supporting the Debian, Ubuntu 64 bit Server kernel?

I hate assuming.

What about doing a manual (I think I am using this term correctly) install from the .run files that NV has posted on their web site?

smk

[technogeeky]

Originally Posted by smk

Do we have any way to check with NV to verify that they are supporting the Debian, Ubuntu 64 bit Server kernel?

I hate assuming.

What about doing a manual (I think I am using this term correctly) install from the .run files that NV has posted on their web site?

smk

I am using the Ubuntu 64 bit Server kernel successfully with the 185.18.10 drivers as well as the latest 180.xx drivers, although I am using Xinerama thus precluding Composite.

[smk]

Originally Posted by technogeeky

I am using the Ubuntu 64 bit Server kernel successfully with the 185.18.10 drivers as well as the latest 180.xx drivers, although I am using Xinerama thus precluding Composite.

Thanks for the info. I am a relative newbie, can you please provide the details on how I get the 185.18.10 drivers, and how to install them.

What is Xinerama?
What is Compsite?
and why one vs, the other?

Did you use precompiled drivers with a package manager, or the .run file that needs to be compiled from the NV site?

I know how to add a ppa to Synaptic and apt.

Do I need to remove all the previous drivers manually?

Since I have been messing with the system trying to make this work, I want to be sure that I have my system in the correct state before starting an install.
What do I have to remove first?
What has to be on my system before I start?

Looking forward to your response.
Reading my response I sound like a 4 year old asking why to everything,but from experience I have learned that I will not be successful with out this level of detail. Your forbearance will be much appreciated.

thanks from
Not so technogeeky , trying to become more Linux technogeeky. ;-)
smk