No X with nvidia-current 270.41.06-0ubuntu1.1

[Steven "Kreuvf" Koenig]

X refuses to start on 32 bit PAE Ubuntu after todays kernel and nvidia updates.

When starting the PAE kernel, I get the following message in Xorg.0.log:
[ 42.536] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[ 42.536] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so
[ 42.536] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[ 42.536] compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[ 42.536] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[ 42.539] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your
[ 42.539] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages.
[ 42.540] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[ 42.540] (II) Unloading nvidia
[ 42.540] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)
[ 42.540] (EE) No drivers available.
[ 42.540]
Fatal server error:
[ 42.540] no screens found

I had the same symptoms when I started using the PAE kernel with nvidia drivers installed using the non-PAE kernel (long time ago). Starting the non-PAE kernel gives me a working X, but unused nvidia driver since the driver was installed while running the PAE kernel.

lsb_release -rd:
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04

apt-cache policy nvidia-current:
270.41.06-0ubuntu1.1

What I expected to happen:
X and gdm starting up and allowing me to graphically log in as usual.

What happened instead:
No GUI since X refused to start.

What I have not tried so far:
Reinstall nvidia-current while running the non-PAE kernel.

[Steven "Kreuvf" Koenig (kreuvf)]

Erm... fixed by removing nvidia-current and reinstalling while running PAE kernel.

What I did in more detail:
Remove nvidia-current while running non-PAE kernel.
Restart with PAE kernel.
Log in without X.
Delete xorg.conf.
Start gdm and login.
Reinstall nvidia-current.
Restart with PAE kernel.
Works.

I have no idea why it did not work from the beginning like that.

[Steven "Kreuvf" Koenig (kreuvf)]

Sorry for the spam. Driver removal and reinstallation were done via "Additional drivers".

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Filofel (filofel)]

The cause of the problem seems to be that when Natty updates the kernel, for some reason, it does install
linux-headers-2.6.38-xx
linux-headers-2.6.38-xx-generic

but does NOT install
linux-headers-2.6.38-xx-generic-pae.

As a result, it can't rebuild the nvidia-current drivers for the new pae kernel.
And the next boot results in no X.org...

Manually installing
linux-headers-2.6.38-xx-generic-pae
then removing and installing again nvidia-current properly rebuilds the nvidia driver.

[dino99 (9d9)]

That version is no more supported; please open a new bug report if the actual archive found version also has the same issue.