[regression 13.10] [NVS 4200M] black screen with monitor setup error box after login

[Rebecca Palmer]

After upgrading to 13.10, the login screen was in reduced resolution, and after logging in I got a black screen with an error box that monitor setup had tried and failed to find a supported resolution (can't remember the exact wording), also in reduced resolution.

The text tty (Ctrl+Alt+F1) was functional, but trying to start any graphical applications from it failed with "cannot open display". Checking /var/log/Xorg.0.log from there found a "failed to load NVIDIA kernel module" error.

dpkg -l *nvidia* listed nvidia-310 as installed and nvidia-304 as removed-conffiles remaining. After purging all of those (sudo apt-get purge <package(s)>), the system would start normally on Nouveau, but would then hang (mouse pointer movable but other screen contents frozen) after a minute or two. Reinstalling compiz didn't help.

I then enabled the nvidia 319 driver from System Settings > Software & Updates > Additional Drivers, and the system then worked.

This dialog now listed only 304 and 319, suggesting it is known that nvidia-310 doesn't work in 13.10, and the nvidia-310 description now says it is a transitional package to nvidia-319...but this evidently hadn't worked (nvidia-319 had not been auto-installed.

From upgrade apt.log:
  Installing nvidia-319 as Depends of nvidia-310
    Installing nvidia-settings-319 as Recommends of nvidia-319
      Installing libvdpau1 as Depends of nvidia-settings-319
    nvidia-319:amd64 Recommends on nvidia-persistenced [ amd64 ] < none > ( none ) can't be satisfied!
[...]
Investigating (0) nvidia-310 [ amd64 ] < 310.44-0ubuntu2 -> 319.32-0ubuntu7 > ( restricted/misc )
Broken nvidia-310:amd64 Depends on nvidia-319 [ amd64 ] < none -> 319.32-0ubuntu7 > ( restricted/misc )
  Considering nvidia-319:amd64 1 as a solution to nvidia-310:amd64 0
  Holding Back nvidia-310:amd64 rather than change nvidia-319:amd64
[...]
 Try to Re-Instate (1) nvidia-310:amd64

(Possibly related: I now get about 3 "System program problem detected" prompts on startup, instead of the one I used to get in 13.04; I don't know what they're for as I don't enter my password at unknown prompts.)

[Rebecca Palmer (rebecca-palmer)]

Possibly relevant: this machine had ocl-icd-libopencl1 installed, and nvidia-319 Conflicts: with that. If that is the problem, removing libopencl1 from nvidia-319 (as already proposed to fix bug 1174205) would also fix this bug.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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