[feisty] nvidia-glx breaks xorg on a Geforce 440MX

[RubenRebelo]

Binary package hint: nvidia-glx

I'm running Feisty (since herd4) on my machine with a Geforce 440MX. Before yesterday I was using graphics drivers installed with the nvidia installer.

But with the yesterday's updates the program "Desktop Effects" demands that we use the nvidia-glx package. So, I uninstalled the drivers using the nvidia installer, and then followed the new wizard to activate the proprietary drivers.

The problem is that after the reboot, my xorg was broken..

Now I can play games if I install the drivers using the Nvidia Installer, but I can't use the desktop effects because it requires nvidia-glx, and if I install nvidia-glx, xorg breaks...

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

I'm not so sure I understand what you did.
Did you install the proprietary drivers using the restricted-manager?

[RubenRebelo (mundano)]

I will try to explain the best I can, but I'm not a native English talker..

I had the proprietary drivers installed with the Nvidia Instaler (from Nvidia website). But, after the day 15 updates, the "Desktop Manager" only works if I activate the drivers via estricted-manager.

So what I did was:

1º Uninstalled the nvidia drivers.

2º Reconfigured xorg with: "sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg" to remove all personalized options.

3º Installed the proprietary drivers using the restricted-manager.

After doing that, my xorg become broken. And to enter the graphical mode I had to edit xorg.conf and change the driver from nvidia to nv... But that way I don't have 3D...

The only way that 3D works on my PC is with the Nvidia Installer (from Nvidia website), but with that solution the restricted-manager doesn't detect that I have the drivers and wont let me use things like the Desktop Effects.

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Thanks,

now I understand :)
Could you provide a more detailed X log file (using a verbose level of at least 5)?

[RubenRebelo (mundano)]

I'm not sure if this is what you want. I generated this log using:

 startx -- -logverbose 5

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Almost :)

Can you please redo it with startx -- -verbose 5 -logverbose 5?

Many thanks.

[RubenRebelo (mundano)]

Here is the log with startx -- -verbose 5 -logverbose 5 ...

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

You driver kernel module couldn't be loaded.

Unfortunately I still don't see the reason for this, so I have to assume that the deinstallation/reinstallation left you with some files/modules or symbolic links which are messing up your configuration (note that the proprietary drivers you have installed and uninstalled where not packaged in accordance to the ubuntu standards).

The only suggestion I can give you is to check that all the relevant files are where they are supposed to be (for instance by checking the packaging information) and that there are no leftovers from the previous installation.

[RubenRebelo (mundano)]

I'm sure that is not the problem, because I only installed the "official" Nvidia drivers because the package nvidia-glx never worked for me... Even with a fresh install of Ubuntu Feisty (herd4)..

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

Ruben,

the logs you send didn't unfortunately contains the level of detail I needed for a proper debugging.
Nevertheless, you have two errors reported there:

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

In the absence of a detailed report, I don't know if the second is the cause of the first or vice versa, so I assumed the latter.

If it is a problem of dependencies, try with the following command:

sudo depmod

This should rebuild the correct dependencies.

I don't have an NVIDIA card myself, but I see quite some references in the ubuntu (and other) forums and wikis that the MX440 is not well supported in the "nvidia" drivers, but is well supported in the "nvidia(-glx-)legacy" drivers.

As a good starting point check this sites:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/index.php?s=7896291e5bdd23dd4d0b7f24ed08a209
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/

This could also help (in Italian unfortunately):

http://wiki.ubuntu-it.org/NvidiaDriver/GeForce4MX440