X won't start at boot with either nvidia driver on GeForce GT 730 (bionic)

[Stephen Brown]

The video card is a GeForce GT 730, which worked well with Ubuntu 16.04.
After changing to Xubuntu 18.04, I can only run the Nouveau driver and the lack of acceleration is quite noticeable. When I try to enable the "tested" NVidia driver (390), the system never presents a log-in prompt, I just get a colorful display of large blinking gibberish. I have to go to the boot options, go directly to root prompt, and remove the NVidia driver. This make the system usable again, but I'm back to the Nouveau driver.
I get similar symptoms with version 340.107 of the NVidia driver.
It's a little hard to collect debug information when I can't get to a prompt to look at log files... Suggestions are welcome.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu7.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.0.0-29.31~18.04.1-generic 5.0.21
Uname: Linux 5.0.0-29-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.7
Architecture: amd64
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Sat Oct 5 13:56:41 2019
DistUpgraded: Fresh install
DistroCodename: bionic
DistroVariant: ubuntu
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes
GraphicsCard:
 NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 730] [10de:0f02] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. GF108 [GeForce GT 730] [19da:8199]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-04-13 (175 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
MachineType: System manufacturer System Product Name
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.0.0-29-generic root=UUID=d19b5e72-689e-4877-93dd-0d4bf5f7cc98 ro drm.debug=0xe plymouth:debug
SourcePackage: xorg
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 09/07/2018
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 4024
dmi.board.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.board.name: PRIME X470-PRO
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
dmi.board.version: Rev X.0x
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: Default string
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Default string
dmi.chassis.version: Default string
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr4024:bd09/07/2018:svnSystemmanufacturer:pnSystemProductName:pvrSystemVersion:rvnASUSTeKCOMPUTERINC.:rnPRIMEX470-PRO:rvrRevX.0x:cvnDefaultstring:ct3:cvrDefaultstring:
dmi.product.family: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: System Product Name
dmi.product.sku: SKU
dmi.product.version: System Version
dmi.sys.vendor: System manufacturer
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.97-1ubuntu1~18.04.1
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 19.0.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx 19.0.8-0ubuntu0~18.04.2
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core N/A
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau N/A
xserver.bootTime: Sat Oct 5 13:56:03 2019

[Stephen Brown (n8hfi)]

If it helps interpreting the logs: when the log file snapshot was taken, I was of course running the Nouveau drivers, 'cause that's the only way the system works. But the boot attempt immediately preceeding that was with the NVidia 390 drivers installed.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Searching nvidia.com for that GPU seems to recommend installing driver '430.50'. So please try:

  sudo apt install nvidia-driver-430

At present that will give you 430.26 but version 430.50 is in bionic-proposed so will come in a future update for Ubuntu 18.04, soonish.

[Stephen Brown (n8hfi)]

The video card in question has died...
The machine wouldn't boot at all with the video card in the machine. So I think the bug report should be retired, not so much resolved as unresolvable. I can't collect any more data on the symptoms and I can't swear the problem wasn't an early indication of hardware failure.

Thanks to all who had suggestions.

I did manage to try the NVidia 430 driver before it died. It didn't work, but it had different symptoms. X wouldn't come up, but I could ctrl-alt-f1 to get to a command line and switch back to nouveau, instead of having to boot to command line.

It was replaced with an even older card (GeForce 9500 GT), which also didn't work with the NVidia drivers, and had an unreliable fan, so I had to put an extra fan in the case until I got around to applying a crowbar to the notoriously tight wallet and get a brand new Radeon RX580.