Nvidia 295.53: Unity 3D does not work at all with the new nvidia driver

[angus]

After applying the new 295.53 driver, 3D Unity still doesn't work. I login ok but then I get a black screen and movable cursor.

$ sudo lshw -C display; lsb_release -a; uname -a; dpkg -l | grep nvidia
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: C73 [GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 10
       bus info: pci@0000:00:10.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:22 memory:e2000000-e2ffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:e6000000-e6ffffff memory:7ff00000-7ff1ffff
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
Linux ubu1 3.2.0-24-generic-pae #37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 10:47:59 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
ii nvidia-common 1:0.2.44 Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
ii nvidia-current 295.53-0ubuntu1~precise~xup1 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library
ii nvidia-current-dev 295.53-0ubuntu1~precise~xup1 NVIDIA binary Xorg driver development files
ii nvidia-settings 295.53-0ubuntu1~precise~xup1 Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver

I enclose the bug report "nvidia-bug-report.log" generated by running the command:
$ sudo nvidia-bug-report.sh

[angus (angus-post)]

forgot to say I'm on 32bit 12.04 ubuntu

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Peti (woelfter)]

I am using ubuntu 12.04 32 bit and I need to add

UNITY_FORCE_START=1

to /etc/environment. Without this setting, only unity2d is starting with nvidia GeForce 7300.

Output of unity_support_test -p:

OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce Go 7300/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL version string: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 302.11

Not software rendered: yes
Not blacklisted: no
GLX fbconfig: yes
GLX texture from pixmap: yes
GL npot or rect textures: yes
GL vertex program: yes
GL fragment program: yes
GL vertex buffer object: yes
GL framebuffer object: yes
GL version is 1.4+: yes

Unity 3D supported: no

I have tried almost all suggestions and drivers described in Bug <a href="/bugs/982710" class="bug-link">#982485</a>, even 302.11 from edgers repository, but no change at all, on unity 3d only wallpaper and desptop context menu are available.

With same hardware ubuntu 10.04 was working like a charme, even 3d. I wanted to switch to 12.04, but more than one month after release, unity 3d is still not available on hardware on which 3d was working before. I am very disappointed.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

You have both discovered the reason that Unity 3D was blacklisted on these cards in the first place. Unfortunately NVIDIA's driver is a locked box and we can't see inside it to determine the problem. You could try reporting a bug to NVIDIA about this issue. Alternatively you could install the open-source nouveau driver, which is rapidly improving.

[Peti (woelfter)]

@madbiologist: I had tried nouveau driver as well but performance on unity 3d is inacceptable.

What I do not understand: on ubuntu 10.04 with same hardware and older nvidia driver, 3d was working like a charme: I had no crashes, compiz' wobbling windows and some 3d games working perfectly.

I would have expected the next ubuntu's LTS version working as well, but it does not.

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Are you saying that in Unity 2D you cannot play 3D games? I'm not sure if that is to be expected or not (I haven't had time to research much info about Unity 2D), but it doesn't sound right to me. The page at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity2D also seems to be saying that other 3D stuff should still work.

Performance improvements for the nouveau driver are being worked on.

[Peti (woelfter)]

No. Want I wanted to say is that 3d stuff was working on ubuntu 10.04 with the same hardware (Nvidia GeForce Go 7300) and older driver.

I simply would like to use unity 3d, compiz effects etc on that machine because I like such graphical effects. And I don't get the point why hardware that was supported on 10.04 should not work any more on 12.04.

[angus (angus-post)]

I agree with Peti in that all was well for me in my previous installation (11.10).....oh why did I upgrade???
Well, I assumed that stuff that worked in 11.10 would still work in 12.04.....wrong!

It's enough to drive me to mint!....but then I'd lose the unity desktop which I actually like!

[angus (angus-post)]

....I have just seen that NVIDIA have released a new driver 295.59 (11th June 2012) so I'm going to try it in the hope that it's an improvement!