SLI configuration fails using binary nvidia driver

[Addie MacGruer]

Assume the package with the problem is either nvidia-xconfig or whatever "dpkg-reconfigure Xorg" calls.

My computer configuration includes two NVidia 8800GT in SLI configuration. Install of Jaunty went fine. First time on desktop, 'restricted hardware drivers are available'. Installed, rebooted, splash screen for init, then black screen of death before typing my username.

Changed to a tty, typed startx -- "(EE) No screens detected"

Have seen this before - X configuration doesn't detect which graphics card is connected to my monitor.

Console fix is:

lspci | grep VGA

which produces:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)

Since I know #1 is the one with the monitor, edit xorg.conf to read:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "nvidia"
 BusID "01:00:0" # new line
 Option "SLI" #new line
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Restart and all is good and working correctly. However, not a good introduction to Jaunty for command line newbies with SLI configs.

Keep up the good work guys.

Guideline info:
1) lsb_release -rd = Release 9.04
2) X
3) Autodetect graphics hardware on reboot
4) Failed to detect configuration and hung.

[Luke P. R. (siriusfox)]

I can confirm this problem, and the solution provided does bring graphics back up.

However, the Operating System will no longer see that I am running the Proprietary Driver in the Hardware Drivers Manager, and the System is not being accelerated by the GPU for 3D events.

[Joseph Piché (josephpiche)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please attach the the output of `sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log` (those are 2 v's not a w) and X server log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log) of when you attempt to start X with the binary driver. Also, since there are multiple packages of the nvidia binary driver, can you list which one(s) this happened with? Thanks.

[Addie MacGruer (addiemacgruer)]

Graphics driver is:

NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 180) [Recommended]

[Carlos Rubio (gandalf-bz)]

Hi all.

I just found this same issue and when managed to recover my system come to this bug report.

I had 2x7600GT running SLI in Ubuntu 7.04 and decided to move to 9.04. I did new install and found exact some error. I did try with:
NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 180) [Recommended]
NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 173)

with exact result.

I did remove one card for now so I can get the OS accelerated. I will install back the other card as soon as this bug is fixed. If this takes long time I might go back to other ubuntu version.

I think you got everything to reproduce the issue but if I can help in anyway please let me know.
(help from user perspective as I can't try to fix this by myself)

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

I've posted a new version of the -nvidia driver to our xorg-edgers PPA,
would you mind testing it either on Jaunty or Karmic and see if it
resolves this bug?

Get nvidia-graphics-drivers-180 - 185.18.14 here:

  https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

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.

[Claude Gagné (miltiad)]

I just installed Ubuntu 9.04 x64 I have the same problem described in this post with the driver 180. The solution still works thought.