Intrepid: Latest update destroys X server configuration (Nvidia GeForce fx 5200 nvidia-glx-177, also problem with 173)

[oss_test_launchpad]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Updated yesterday. Testing before with the nvidia-glx-173 driver. This went fine. (173 was the only option the restricted drivers menu gave me.)

Since the latest update, the computer boots in VESA mode only. If the you start to activate the driver by clicking it in the restricted drivers menu, nothing happens.

Nv driver is no alternative because it does not get along with the colors (strange rasterized login screen background - no fluent color transition, but some kind of color steps).

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

get to /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/ and start removing any directory which starts with a number e.g. 173.14.09, 177.67, 177.68 but not kernel-2.6.27-2-generic-i686.

then type:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-177-kernel-source

and attach the output

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

There you are:

----
user@user-computer:/var/lib/dkms/nvidia$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-177-kernel-source
Paketlisten werden gelesen... Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Lese Status-Informationen ein... Fertig
0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 1 erneut installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
Es müssen 2783kB an Archiven heruntergeladen werden.
Nach dieser Operation werden 0B Plattenplatz zusätzlich benutzt.
Möchten Sie fortfahren [J/n]? j
Hole:1 http://at.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/restricted nvidia-177-kernel-source 177.70-0ubuntu1 [2783kB]
Es wurden 2783kB in 3s geholt (791kB/s)
(Lese Datenbank ... 174148 Dateien und Verzeichnisse sind derzeit installiert.)
Vorbereiten zum Ersetzen von nvidia-177-kernel-source 177.70-0ubuntu1 (durch .../nvidia-177-kernel-source_177.70-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
Removing all DKMS Modules

Error! There are no instances of module: nvidia
177.70 located in the DKMS tree.
Done.
Entpacke Ersatz für nvidia-177-kernel-source ...
Richte nvidia-177-kernel-source ein (177.70-0ubuntu1) ...
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
Adding Module to DKMS build system
driver version= 177.70
Doing initial module build
Installing initial module
Done.
----

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

just to be sure type:
sudo rmmod nvidia
sudo modprobe nvidia

and restart your computer

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

---
user@user-computer:~$ sudo rmmod nvidia
ERROR: Module nvidia does not exist in /proc/modules
user@user-computer:~$ sudo modprobe nvidia
user@user-computer:~$
---

Will now reboot as you say.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Problem remains unchanged after reboot.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

can you attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.0 ?

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

can you attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old ?

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

There you are.

[Rafael Sachetto (rsachetto)]

I had the same problems after the update, but doing this (as Alberto Milone sad):

get to /var/lib/dkms/nvidia/ and start removing any directory which starts with a number e.g. 173.14.09, 177.67, 177.68 but not kernel-2.6.27-2-generic-i686.

then type:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-177-kernel-source

Corrected my problem!

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Are you using 64-Bit?

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

hardly a bug in the synaptics driver.. trying nvidia instead.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

oss_test_launchpad:
set the driver to "nvidia" in the Device section of your xorg.conf

then press CTRL+ALT+F1 (you will see only the command line)

type:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop (or kdm stop if you use Kubuntu)
startx -- -logverbose 5 &> $HOME/bugreport.log

if the xserver fails again you can simply attach bugreport.log which you will find in your home directory.

[Rafael Sachetto (rsachetto)]

oss_test_launchpad:

I'm using a 32-bit system

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Okay, suggested steps performed. "nvidia" was already listed in the "Device" section. Maybe I should remark something: Before trying that, I had noted that in the "Restricted Drivers" menu "nvidia-177" was marked as "activated" but it was not clicked on (the checkbox was empty"), so I clicked it on. Maybe that's why it reads "nvidia" in the "Device" section?

Attached the desired logfile.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

oss_test_launchpad:
this is the problem:
Data incomplete in file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
 Undefined InputDevice "Generic Keyboard" referenced by ServerLayout "Default Layout".
(EE) Problem parsing the config file
(EE) Error parsing the config file

can you attach your /etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

The keyboard issue is discussed in various other threads, eg

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pommed/+bug/131818
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/139836
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/139836
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/160171.

There is also a lot of discussion on the touchpad issue elsewhere.

This is the /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

----
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Configured Video Device"
 Driver "nvidia"
 Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Monitor "Configured Monitor"
 Device "Configured Video Device"
 Defaultdepth 24
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
 Identifier "Default Layout"
  screen 0 "Default Screen" 0 0
 Inputdevice "Generic Keyboard"
 Inputdevice "Configured Mouse"

 #Uncomment if you have a wacom tablet
 #InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
 # InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
 # InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
 Inputdevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection
Section "Module"
 Load "glx"
EndSection
----

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Remove the ServerLayout section and the modules section so that it looks like the following:

Section "Device"
    Identifier "Configured Video Device"
    Driver "nvidia"
    Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Default Screen"
   Monitor "Configured Monitor"
   Device "Configured Video Device"
   Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Then restart the xserver and let me know how it goes

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Sorry, I don't quite get how exactly you want it to be. With the touchpad section or without? And how would you close it?

Could you please be so kind as to paste the whole xorg.conf as you recommend it to be?

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

See the attached file

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

This worked. You now have all the information needed to investigate this?

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

At least we know that it wasn't the nvidia driver.

It looks like either you or some other application modified the xorg.conf and broke it. The references to the touchpad, keyboard and mouse shouldn't have been put in the serverlayout section since they didn't have their own sections.

I would like to know whether it was you or some other application. If it was you we can simply mark this report as invalid, otherwise I'll have to fix a bug in the application which did this to your xorg.conf.

Let me know.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

I did not modify anything manually. I just did an update (see above) and then the problem occured.

How can we find out which application did this?

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Unless you used displayconfig-gtk my only guess is that Jockey used Guidance to set up your xorg.conf and something weird happened with input devices. Let's assign the bug report to Jockey for now. I'll look into this problem.

[Tomas Cassidy (tomas-cassidy)]

The steps provided by Alberto in comments 1 and 3 appear to have fixed my problems with the nvidia driver.
glxgears is now happily reporting:

25952 frames in 5.0 seconds = 5190.263 FPS

I'm not entirely sure what the steps did, so I can't really describe what the actual problem was.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

1 - Problem booting up after last update, so started xfix. System then ran with the nv driver with the know color problem but the right resolution. After logging out and restarting, system ran on VESA again. Apparently, there are problems with xfix, too: Firstly, it does not seem to know what to do with the proprietary driver. Secondly, the configuration does not seem to be preserved. In the "restricted drivers" menue, once more the driver was marked "activated" but the checkbox belonging to this entry was empty.

2 - Should one file a separate bug against xfix?

3 - Btw. jockey crashed several times during the last few days.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

yes, those are different bugs therefore you should file different bug reports.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to report them.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

reopened bug for *173 drivers NS marked it as new

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

John: does this comment solve the problem (replace nvidia-177-kernel-source with nvidia-173-kernel-source)?
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-177/+bug/263528/comments/1

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Same thing as mentioned when opening this bug report happened when updating today. At first reboot after updating, it only made it as far as to the console. Second time, it started in VESA mode. I have been getting this error message for a couple of days: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xkeyboard-config/+bug/67188. Maybe this is related?

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

1.) Why was the priority of this bug set from "High" to "New"?
2.) Why was this bug's summary changed from relating to 177 to 173 instead of filing a new bug for 173? The 177 problem remains.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

3.) This looks REALLY bad: Once more replaced the xorg.conf with Albert Milone's (see above), but this time this has no effect whatsoever. VESA mode, nothing else.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

I did set the priority to high, and then set it back to new because the part of this bug which caused Xorg to drop to VESA mode is probably fixed (was related to problems with nvidia module itself and DKMS) , this bug would need to be tested with upcoming intrepid alpha 6.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

The problem described in the bugreport was caused by what I showed in comment 16:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-177/+bug/263528/comments/16

It was only a problem of bad configuration of the xorg.conf. This problem is not related to the NVIDIA driver and this is why I had marked it as invalid for such driver. The report is still open against jockey (since it's the one which possibly configured the xorg.conf).

A number of problems can make the xserver start in failsafe mode but they are different bugs and should be dealt with in other reports.

For this reason I'm marking this report as invalid for the nvidia driver.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Alberto i have the 173 drivers and kernal source. i filed a new bug on this since its all about the resolution on my side.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

may be same bug but all my files are attached to the new bug. ill give bug number as soon as i find it.

its bug# 270073
https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-173/+bug/270073

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

John: as I said, a number of problems can trigger failsafe mode (which defaults to 800x600), therefore, unless the problem is caused by what I showed in comment 16, let's discuss this in other bug reports, such as 270073.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Alberto Milone wrote:
> John: as I said, a number of problems can trigger failsafe mode (which
> defaults to 800x600), therefore, unless the problem is caused by what I
> showed in comment 16, let's discuss this in other bug reports, such as
> 270073.
>
>
As it stands jockey failed to work 3 or 4 times than i used it after you
suggested it and it worked perfect.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

John: Martin Pitt and I have worked on Jockey and the switch to X-Kit (from the Guidance parser) might have fixed the bug which prevented you from using the NVIDIA driver.

I'll mark this bug as "fix released" for jockey.

Thanks for reporting.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Alberto Milone wrote:
> John: Martin Pitt and I have worked on Jockey and the switch to X-Kit
> (from the Guidance parser) might have fixed the bug which prevented you
> from using the NVIDIA driver.
>
> I'll mark this bug as "fix released" for jockey.
>
> Thanks for reporting.
>
> ** Changed in: jockey (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Alberto Milone (albertomilone)
> Status: Confirmed => Fix Released
>
>
Thanks. Sorry im late in responding i havent checked email in about a week.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[kunami (mastah-killa)]

I am experiencing what seems to be the same (or at least a similar) bug, with ubuntu going into low graphics mode after the update to 177. I'll attach the tarball with the log dump that one can get from the low graphics mode menu in Intrepid.
The card is a Nvidia 8400M G and I have not edited Xorg.conf.
In the meantime, I'll try some of the described workarounds.

[kunami (mastah-killa)]

...and on the first thing suggested, there's already a problem.

--------------------------

$ sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-177-kernel-source
A ler as listas de pacotes... Pronto
A construir árvore de dependências
A ler a informação de estado... Pronto
0 pacotes actualizados, 0 pacotes novos instalados, 1 reinstalados, 0 a remover e 0 não actualizados.
É necessário obter 0B/2713kB de arquivos.
Após esta operação, serão utilizados 0B adicionais de espaço em disco.
Deseja continuar [Y/n]?
(A ler a base de dados ... 153091 ficheiros e directórios actualmente instalados.)
A preparar para substituir nvidia-177-kernel-source 177.82-0ubuntu0.1 (a usar .../nvidia-177-kernel-source_177.82-0ubuntu0.1_i386.deb) ...
Removing all DKMS Modules

Error! There are no instances of module: nvidia
177.82 located in the DKMS tree.
Done.
A descompactar substituto nvidia-177-kernel-source ...
A instalar nvidia-177-kernel-source (177.82-0ubuntu0.1) ...
Cleaning up the DKMS tree
Done.
Removing all DKMS Modules
Done.
Adding Module to DKMS build system
driver version= 177.82
Doing initial module build

Error! Your kernel source for kernel 2.6.27-9-generic cannot be found at
/lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/build or /lib/modules/2.6.27-9-generic/source.
Installing initial module

Error! Could not locate nvidia.ko for module nvidia in the DKMS tree.
You must run a dkms build for kernel 2.6.27-9-generic (i686) first.
Done.

---------------------

Previous updates have worked, so this is a bit odd, since I haven't uninstalled anyhting.