nvidia proprietary drivers are broken

[DimanNe]

I upgrade Kubuntu 14.04 to 14.10 and noticed that all desktop effects became slow.

In my dmesg I have these lines

[ 17.039854] init: Failed to spawn nvidia-persistenced main process: unable to execute: No such file or directory
[ 17.040940] init: nvidia-prime main process (2139) terminated with status 1

And it seems that something wrong with path/directories where scripts perform search for nvidia binaries.

For example, in /etc/init/nvidia-persistenced.conf we can find this:

exec /usr/bin/nvidia-persistenced --user nvidia-persistenced

but, I really have not nvidia-persistenced binary in /usr/bin/, it is in /usr/lib/nvidia-331/bin/

Also, after installing nvidia-331 I have not nvidia-xconfig command in shell, but I have /usr/lib/nvidia-331/bin/nvidia-xconfig

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.10
Package: nvidia-331 331.89-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-11.16-generic 3.16.1
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-11-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.7-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Sat Aug 30 15:53:02 2014
InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-07-05 (55 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140416.1)
SourcePackage: nvidia-graphics-drivers-331
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to utopic on 2014-08-30 (0 days ago)

[DimanNe (dimanne)]

Found good workaround (almost solution): Installing native drivers from Nvidia solves issue.

I installed this version - http://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/77525/en-us
1) Download file from nvidia site
2) Add nouveau driver to blacklist (add "blacklist nouveau" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist (create this file, if it does not exist))
3) then run sudo update-initramfs -u
4) then reboot
5) chmod +x _here_is_path_to_downloaded_nvidia_driver_, then run it

Before step 5 you probably need to reboot to level 3

After this, Kubuntu works perfectly (like before upgrade)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Installing the nvidia driver from the nvidia installer can break your system.

Also, nvidia-persistenced failed because (for some reason) the driver failed to load. There's no way to see what went wrong now, since you used the installer.

If you feel like reinstalling Ubuntu and trying the driver that we provide again, I will help you diagnose the problem. In the meantime I'm marking the bug report as incomplete as no relevant logs are attached.

Next time you might want to file the bug report using the following command so that the relevant logs are automatically attached for you:

ubuntu-bug nvidia-331

[Yohan Boniface (yb-z)]

I still have the same problem, what kind of information I can provide to help diagnose the issue?

[Yohan Boniface (yb-z)]

Not sure this really helps, but may still give a hint:

$ tail /var/log/nvidia-prime-upstart.log
Sorry but your hardware configuration is not supported

lspci gives:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106GLM [Quadro 2000M] (rev a1)

[DimanNe (dimanne)]

1)
> Next time you might want to file the bug report using the following command so that the relevant logs are automatically attached for you:
> ubuntu-bug nvidia-331

I did it exactly the same way.

2)
I can install ubuntu nvidia driver again, so, what logs are you interested in?

3) Any way, without installing ubuntu nvidia driver, is it normal that all nvidia binaries are placed in /usr/lib/nvidia-331/bin? It seems that system just does not "know" that binaries and other staff is in /usr/lib/nvidia-331/.

[DimanNe (dimanne)]

Ok, to accelerate investigation, I installed ubuntu nvidia drivers, attached logs.

[DimanNe (dimanne)]

lsmod

[DimanNe (dimanne)]

And here is set of logs if I blacklist nouveau module (add file disable-nouveau.conf /etc/modprobe.d/ with this content
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
)

[Yohan Boniface (yb-z)]

Something else I noticed, not sure it's expected:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf
There are 3 choices for the alternative x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf (providing /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu_GL.conf).

  Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0 /usr/lib/nvidia-331/ld.so.conf 8604 auto mode
  1 /usr/lib/nvidia-331-prime/ld.so.conf 8603 manual mode
  2 /usr/lib/nvidia-331/ld.so.conf 8604 manual mode
* 3 /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf 500 manual mode

[Yohan Boniface (yb-z)]

Another info: if I switch to nvidia-304 AND update-alternatives to use nvidia-304 AND reboot, I'm back to normal screen resolution, BUT I'm only able to log in using Gnome, no way to have Unity.
If then I reboot once more, update-alternatives has been put back to mesa again, and screen is in low resolution again and every UI effect is slow again.

[Riccardo Padovani (rpadovani)]

I have a similar problem with Ubuntu 14.10: with yesterday updates I was not able to boot, the screen was black and I can do nothing (neither CTRL+ALT+f1): I started a recovery mode and removed nVidia drivers, then the system boots without problem.

When I tried to install nvidia drivers 331 from the update center they were installed but not activated: neither sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf worked after the reboot.

With nVidia driver downloaded from nVidia site all works well.

Plus, I'm able to reproduce it on a dedicated partition: I have a live usb with a daily of the end of July: I install it, I install the nvidia-331 from the Additional driver tab, I reboot and all works well, then I update my workstation (apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade) and at the next reboot I'm not able to do nothing, but reboot.

Let me know what can I do to help you to fix this bug.

[Henk Terhell (hterhell)]

Also I am facing a problem after updating the alpha version (which worked OK) to beta version of Lubuntu 14.10 I no longer could get the desktop interface, only a blank screen appeared after a few seconds of showing "Lubuntu 14.10" in the centre of the screen.
Reinstalling Lubuntu14.10 beta on the same partition - after formatting - resulted in the same problem. The initial GUI after reinstalling 14.10 beta appeared in the normal way, but after changing the graphic driver to nvdia-304 and update/upgrade the Lubuntu GUI has failed to appear again.

From the blank screen after booting, alt-F2 shows the option to login in terminal mode.
Following errors are shown upon login:

[ 154.944358] systemd-logind[908] Failed to start unit user1000.service: Unknown unit: [e-mail]
[ 154.944432] systemd-logind[908] Failed to start unit user1000.service: Unknown unit: [e-mail]

The command startx also failed to provide the GUI (see attachment fout.txt)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[gorgooger (gorgooger)]

The question is what calls update-alternatives to switch back to mesa, this is what brakes everything ...
What I have observed restarting the lightdm switches back to mesa.
That should not happen.

[gorgooger (gorgooger)]

Ah ... the restart of Xorg also switches back to mesa ... what is happening there?

[Attila Foldesi (foldesi-attila)]

My bet is the gpu-manager, check the logs at /var/log/gpu-manager.log

You can disable it by adding "nogpumanager" to /etc/default/grub around where you should have "quiet splash" or similar,
then make sure your /etc/X11/xorg.conf is in place, and correct & reboot.

(this baby in 14.04 currently rewrites the xorg.conf to something that is highly incorrect, and rather small for hybrid systems with dual GPUs)

[salsalito (salsalito)]

I solved the problem of my nvdia GT 520M by doing :

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia