xserver-xorg crashes when handling newer nvidia cards

[SleepZ]

I have an nVidia GeForce 6800GS (the rest of my hardware specs aren't important) and I tested out the Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake Beta 1 Desktop CD. Unfortunately, after Ubuntu started autodetecting my hardware it tried to utilize the xserver and unfortunately crashed into the command line.

It was using the nv driver. Not sure if the nv driver just doesn't support the graphics card or something else should've been enabled, but it didn't work. A quick look into my xorg.conf and replacing the "nv" with "vesa" got it working of course.

When Ubuntu is detecting hardware it should give newer nVidia graphics cards (Anything above the FX series I believe) a plain vesa driver or anything else that would work. This same thing happened with my ATi Radeon 9800XT back in 5.10, but the same thing might be happening to newer ATi cards too.

[Christian Reis (kiko)]

I've just run into a user that has the same problem.

[SleepZ (davidrak)]

Yay, you saw it. Thought it'd be lost like a needle in a hackstack. :)

My brother has the dvd of the final release of Dapper. I'll test it out again and see what happens.

I'd also like to note that my brother tried Dapper on his computer while he is running an nVidia GeForce 7800GT and booting up the standard Desktop Dapper (as a livecd). It didn't crash xorg, but when it starts to load the components of Gnome the loading graphic looks completely garbled and it freezes Gnome there. Of course the safe graphics mode works.

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

The nvidia and ATI issues are very unlikely to be related; please file them separately and with full details. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TriagingXBugs

[DaBigEd (chris-dinneen)]

Any progress on this one??? I'm using the edgy live cd and cannot boot the x server because it crashes similar to mentioned above.

[SleepZ (davidrak)]

You try booting with "safe graphics mode"?

----------------------------------------
> From: <email address hidden>
> Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:53:29 +0000
> Subject: [Bug 41979] Re: xserver-xorg crashes when handling newer nvidia cards (and probably ati too)
> To: <email address hidden>
>
> Any progress on this one??? I'm using the edgy live cd and cannot boot
> the x server because it crashes similar to mentioned above.
>
> --
> xserver-xorg crashes when handling newer nvidia cards (and probably ati too)
> https://launchpad.net/bugs/41979

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Have you tried with Feisty beta?

[SleepZ (davidrak)]

just tested, same result. here's a pic of it if that helps.

http://img151.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cimg1380bc7.jpg

now at first it just has the green and tan bars and the hard drive light is showing that its being accessed (i guess in this case its the cd drive since its a livecd). then after like a minute the light is not showing and the other discoloration shows. normally i use the safe video option when booting with the ubuntu livecd and that works. then i'm able to install the proprietary nvidia kernel modules.

i hit ctrl+alt+backspace to end the xserver, but instead of being dropped to a terminal login or anything it shows the previous services that started and sits there. so i can't really get the xserver log (looking back now i guess i could try to login how i normally do with the safe video option, switch out vesa with nv in the xorg.conf, restart the xserver, and then be able to kill the xserver and get to the terminal. i'll try to do that some other time so i can get you the logs)

here's my video card chipset info btw:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV41 [GeForce 6800 GS] (rev a2)

[xtknight (xt-knight)]

Maybe it's related to Bug 45797 ?

[folkoy (pluron)]

This seems a duplicate of Bug #102683 . The screenshot is exactly what's I've got. The problem seems to be with the autodection of monitor.

Try putting back the driver as "nv" and assuming your monitor is plugged in port 0 of the videocard add the line below in the section describing the "nv" driver of your /etc/X11/Xorg.cong;
Option "CrtcNumber" "0"

The paragraph describin your driver should look like this ("..." are other lines that may be there already) ;
Section "Device"
        Identifier "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600 GT]"
        Driver "nv"
        Option "CrtcNumber" "0"
        ...
EndSection

Fore more description about this option you can do;
$ man nv

Does this dix the problem?

[SleepZ (davidrak)]

Wow that's weird. Actually, I think I might've tested the feisty beta or something. I just popped in the final release and tried to test out the default install (instead of safe graphics) and, lo and behold, everything worked fine! Yay its finally fixed! This bug can be closed. Thanks everybody!!! :)

[folkoy (pluron)]

The problem where the "nv' driver doesn't auto detect the monitor is not fixed for ALL configuration. On my PC this is not fixed. I need to add manually the line below for it to work;
Option "CrtcNumber" "0"

[Bryan Hiestand (bhiestand)]

I'm not sure if it is the exact same root cause, but this happens to me on two widescreen Dell displays on two Nvidia graphics cards under 7.04. My desktop is AMD-based, GeForce 7800 GT with a Dell 2005FPW monitor (screen really made by LG). Laptop is Dell Inspiron 8500 with GeForce Go 4200. On both systems I can boot into graphics safe mode, download automatix, use it to install nvidia drivers, and then manually change resolution in xorg.conf to 1680x1050. Both systems are now working perfectly, but I would like to be able to use the live CDs.

I'm not sure if it's related, but back when I was running breezy badger it did the same thing to me on my laptop after I allowed synaptic to update nv drivers, and I had to boot into recovery mode and switch drivers.

SleepZ, I know you said it was now working for you, but you never said what monitor you are using. If you don't want to tell me the model, can you at least tell me the resolution or aspect ratio? I'm wondering if this is only happening with widescreens.

[SleepZ (davidrak)]

Oh ok, didn't think this would be a monitor issue. I have an HP Pavilion MX70. Its a 19" CRT. If you still need it I can find out what resolution Ubuntu defaults to when first booting up, but its not a widescreen so the aspect ratio should be 4:3.

[Dmitry Kotik (dkotik)]

I have encountered a similar problem with 7900 GS

[Dmitry Kotik (dkotik)]

This bug has been mentioned a lot on the forums. My ubuntu is also crashed right now because of the nvidia drivers (no usable screen). This solution was posted as a work-around:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-fix-nvidia-acceleration-in-feisty-nvidia-8800-and-legacy-users.html

The problem with the work-around is that it requires the user to maintain the driver themselves. I haven't tested the work-around yet.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Dmitry:
The odds are your bug probably isn't the same as this one. If you have a very recent card (as in only released in the last 9 months) and your card does not appear on http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-9755/README/appendix-a.html then the binary drivers that Feisty ships will not recognise your card.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Dmitry:
Oh and the problems with the 8800 cards and the nv open source drivers in Feisty are covered by Bug #91556 ...

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Marking this closed, as the newer -nv driver includes support for 6800 GS, 7900 GS, and lots more.

The bug with monitor mis-detection is a separate unrelated bug, well reported elsewhere, it's an issue in dexconf and related toolsets.

[Levy (michel-levy)]

After adding jaunty to my sources.list, with the new added package, it's become impossible
to use the nvidia proprietary driver.