nvidia-settings closes when pressing 'Apply' button, but changes aren't applied

[Roberto González Correa]

1. I recently did a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 (64 bits) on my machine, which has an Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics card. When I try to change the screen resolution, changes are not being applied and nvidia-settings is closing when I press the 'Apply' button.
2. I run nvidia-settings in a terminal, and I got the following error message after pressing the 'Apply' button (see the attached file):

The program 'nvidia-settings' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 528 error_code 2 request_code 158 minor_code 25)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

3. This seems to be a duplicate of Bug #1273652.
4. I contacted Nvidia custom care support, and they suggested me to try the latest driver version (304.123). Unfortunately, when I checked "nvidia-graphics-drivers-304" at Launchpad, I found it's only available for Utopic, Precise, and Vivid (indeed, it doesn't appear in my Additional Drivers wizard).

If you help me to install version 304.123 on my system, I'll give Nvidia Linux maintainers all the feedback they are requesting from me, and I'll be in a better condition to colaborate with you to solve this issue (installation instructions provided by Nvidia website are hard for me to follow). Feel free to e-mail me if you think I can help in any way.

5. You can find additional information about similar issues in the following links:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/412181/nvidia-settings-received-an-x-window-system-error-error-was-badvalue-intege
http://askubuntu.com/questions/452030/nvidia-settings-does-not-work-since-upgrade-to-14-04
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=76073

6. System settings:

OS version: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (64 bits)
Nvidia driver version: 304.117
nvidia-settings version: 331.20-0ubuntu8

P.S: apparently, this is not the first time a bug like this affects nvidia-settings on Ubuntu. If you read the comments at the second and third links in point 5 (above), there is people who solved the issue after they installed an nvidia-settings package which version number matches the driver one (or vice-versa).

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: nvidia-settings 331.20-0ubuntu8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-39.66-generic 3.13.11.8
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-39-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sat Nov 1 14:33:26 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-11-01 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140417)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=es_CL:es
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=es_CL.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: nvidia-settings
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Roberto González Correa (rob-e-gonzlez)]

1) I have installed driver 304.123 from Nvidia following the instructions provided at

http://askubuntu.com/questions/451221/ubuntu-14-04-install-nvidia-driver

2) I got the following error message:

The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Continue installation anyway?

I chose 'Yes' and the installation process continued and finished, apparently, successfully.

3) I sent the log file (same file I attach here) to Nvidia Customer Care support team, and I'm waiting for their feedback now.

4) I was able to change my screen resolution (run gksudo nvidia-settings, because changing my screen resolution requires root privileges), so 304.123 seems to solve the issue. If Nvidia technicians confirm that everything is ok, I think 304.123 should be made available for Trusty, so any user who need it could install it with the 'Additional Drivers' wizard.

It's all for now.

[Roberto González Correa (rob-e-gonzlez)]

1) As Nvidia Customer Care team suggested, I manually installed driver 304.123 (instructions at http://askubuntu.com/questions/451221/ubuntu-14-04-install-nvidia-driver, answer nº 23).
2) Running gksudo nvidia-settings enabled me to change my screen resolution, but my nettings were not being preserved after rebooting my machine.
3) I went to System Settings --> Monitors, and changed my screen resolution from there. My new settings were preserved after rebooting this time.

It seems driver 304.123 solves the issue, but it's not available for Trusty yet.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Mark (mark-k)]

This is probably the same issue as bug 1273652.