Recommended nVidia driver V173 gives no/corrupted display on Dell Dimension 4600 under Intrepid Ibex (Ubuntu 8.10)

[swulf]

I have just upgraded a fully operational Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) installation on a Dell Dimension 4600 to the latest release (Intrepid Ibex, 8.10).

After an initially successful reboot the system recommended a change to an 'NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 173)' for better performance. I activated it and when I rebooted I got a blank (black) screen and the boot appeared to stall. The initial Ubuntu screen, shown during the boot process, did appear however, but turned black probably about the time it would be trying to start the X server.

A hard reboot of the machine got a slightly different result. This time it got to a corrupted version of the login screen, showing nothing but a pale blue background and a white text entry box. The system was unresponsive at this point.

Following this I rebooted into Recovery Mode and performed a 'fix X settings'. I was able to log in successfully again but using what must have been original graphics driver settings.

Now I notice that graphics performance is much worse than I had under the earlier Hardy (8.04) install. Some things I notice:

a) Often, when menus are appearing the contents while appear momentarily 'smeared' or 'streaked' during the drawing process. I have not seen this effect before (on 8.04)

b) Video performance in Totem or VLC is strange - the video will not be visible until the player application window is moved slightly

These are the two dominant effects. Certainly graphics performance is worse than I got from Ubuntu 8.04.

Please advise how I can assist you in determining a solution.

For your information my graphics card is marked as follows:

'nVidia Corporation
Model: P162
8911 Ver: 330
3A1D206427
REV A00'

lsb_release -rd:

Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

[LumpyCustard (orangelumpycustard)]

The problem was that before version 177, there was a bug that didn't detect the screen res properly.

On looking on the nvidia site I can no longer find version 177, but it did mention that this low-res bug was fixed in the changelog.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi chris-carter-iee,

Please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[swulf (swulf)]

Hi,

Here you are:

$ lspci -vvnn
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface [8086:2570] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0155]
 Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Region 0: Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: agpgart-intel
 Kernel modules: intel-agp

00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 82865G/PE/P PCI to AGP Controller [8086:2571] (rev 02)
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 64
 Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
 Memory behind bridge: fd000000-feafffff
 Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f0000000-f7ffffff
 Secondary status: 66MHz+ FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort+ <SERR- <PERR-
 BridgeCtl: Parity- SERR- NoISA- VGA+ MAbort- >Reset- FastB2B-
  PriDiscTmr- SecDiscTmr- DiscTmrStat- DiscTmrSERREn-
 Kernel modules: shpchp

00:1d.0 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 [8086:24d2] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0155]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
 Region 4: I/O ports at ff80 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.1 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #2 [8086:24d4] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0155]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin B routed to IRQ 19
 Region 4: I/O ports at ff60 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.2 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #3 [8086:24d7] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0155]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin C routed to IRQ 18
 Region 4: I/O ports at ff40 [size=32]
 Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
 Kernel modules: uhci-hcd

00:1d.3 USB Controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #4 [8086:24de] (rev 02)
 Subsystem: Dell Device [1028:0155]
 Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
 Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 16
...

[bugbot (bugbot)]

This bug report was filed against an old version of Ubuntu.
Can you confirm whether this is still an issue in natty?

If you don't mind, it would be very helpful if you could update the bug
report in launchpad to 'Fix Released' if it is no longer an issue for
you, or if it is still occurring under natty, please tag the bug 'natty'
so it's easier for us to track.

[bugbot (bugbot)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.