lightdm improperly report low graphics card

[Bruno Medeiros]

Today, after reinstall my nvidia drivers, I started to get an error after X starts, before lightdm login screen, saying thar my computer was in low graphics mode and asking me what to do. Whatever option I choose, the screen backs to the terminal.

I thought for hours that I had a X driver problems, and tried a lot of drivers, nouveau, nvidia-current, nvidia-current-updates... No success. After search a little bit on the internet, I found this site, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1970586 saying that after change to gdm the problem were gone. So I did, everything is working fine, with gdm + unity-2d-shell.

I found other users complaining about similar problems:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/128375/low-graphic-mode-after-upgrade-to-12-04
http://askubuntu.com/questions/125453/your-system-is-running-in-low-graphics-mode-with-an-ati-radeon-3200-graphics-car
http://askubuntu.com/questions/129776/how-do-i-fix-running-in-low-graphics-mode-ubuntu-12-04
http://askubuntu.com/questions/127606/your-system-is-running-in-low-graphics-mode-on-an-acer-aspire-5552

Please ask if you need more info.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: lightdm 1.2.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-24.37-generic 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-24-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu7
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 1 14:48:02 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lightdm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Bruno Munoz (bruno-bmunoz)]

same probleme here,
It seems like a running condition between lightdm and nvidia drivers.

sometimes it starts perfectly (less than 10s boot sequence)
sometimes I arrive in the "running in low graphics mode" windows.

workaround: switch to terminal, and just launch a
$ sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart
and the login screen came back

may be a nvidia drivers related

[Lisa Nelson (lisa50469)]

I have the same error. Installed 12.04 with one monitor, then replaced the monitor with a diff one...
Using the normal video drivers, nothing special.
I did have to rename the host. I edited hosts and hostname.

[Gary Mellor (garyjmellor-deactivatedaccount)]

Also affecting me. The following points may be of interest:

1. Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce G210M with 512MB DDR Dedicated Memory.
 2. Machine: Lenovo G550 NTDF3UK (Laptop)
 3. Previously I upgraded (on the standard driver) from 11.10 to 12.04 and this issue did not occur.
 4. I erased and reinstalled my entire OS (for fun) and then the issue started. I have tried with the default driver and also with the proprietary driver in 'Additional Drivers' and both exhibit the same issue.
 5. If I keep rebooting my machine it eventually recovers and logs me into the desktop. Sometime it logs me in first time, other times it takes around2-3 reboots and then it is fine again until the next time.
 6. I've attached my output from SysInfo in case anything in there is of interest (GM_SysInfo).

Does anyone know a timeline for this fix because this is really spoiling what is an excellent Ubuntu release and it is incredibly tedious to keep rebooting to get to a desktop (I don't know of a 'smarter' way to start the desktop (running startx from within low graphics mode does not invoke the launcher or the panel).

[Gary Mellor (garyjmellor-deactivatedaccount)]

 Interestingly, I completely reinstalled 11.10 earlier today and then did the upgrade to 12.04 again and I saw the low graphics mode problem straight away whereas before this was not a problem.

[Bruno Munoz (bruno-bmunoz)]

quicker than your reboot:
ctrl alt f1,
logon in terminal
$ sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart

here is my sysinfo

[cue (keino)]

Same here, but I got used to it by booting into recovery mode and then I choose to resume to boot normal.
It always boots successfully. I am used to this workaround since 11.10...
But this should just be a workaround!
Next time I will try sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart.

[cue (keino)]

I can confirm that sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart did also work for me.
I have an nVidia card.

[Andrew Rowe (emlinhanhdy)]

when I upgraded from 11.10 to 12.04, this would only happen once every 10 reboots. However, I ran into a total networking corruption after trying to get SonicWall's netExtender to install. after i created the symbolic links for libssl and libcrypto, the networking went out the window. I tried to revert back, but undoing everything and removing the symlinks didn't fix anything. resigned to reinstall 12.04 fresh on a new SSD, the low graphics message is on every boot not. I ESC twice, login to the terminal and sudo lightdm start & all is good.
An annoyance & would like to see this fixed...but if Nvidia is involved, my breath isn't being held too long.

[Andrew Rowe (emlinhanhdy)]

that's..."every boot now"

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

seems like bug #873495