[xubuntu-users] No video, only console after upgrade from 10.10 to 11.04

[Chuck Bearden]

On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Chuck Bearden <cfbearden at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 2:07 PM, Chuck Bearden <cfbearden at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 12:29 PM, Charlie Kravetz
>> <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>> Hash: SHA1
>>>
>>> On Wed, 7 Sep 2011 12:13:06 -0500
>>> Chuck Bearden <cfbearden at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Charlie Kravetz
>>>> <cjk at teamcharliesangels.com> wrote:
>>>> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>>> > Hash: SHA1
>>>> >
>>>> > On Wed, 7 Sep 2011 11:42:36 -0500
>>>> > Chuck Bearden <cfbearden at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> >> I finally got around to upgrading to 11.04 today, via the button in
>>>> >> the upgrade manager. It all seemed to go smoothly, except that when I
>>>> >> rebooted, I landed at the tty console. tty1-6 are all console login
>>>> >> screens, and tty7 has the notices from the boot ("Starting Tomcat
>>>> >> servlet engine" "Checking battery state" e.g.).
>>>> >>
>>>> >> If I start gdm, I get a message
>>>> >>   gdm start/running, process <pid>
>>>> >> but no graphical session. 'gdm-binary' does appear in the output of 'ps'.
>>>> >>
>>>> >> My graphics card is an nVidia G68 [Quadro NVS 290] based on the output
>>>> [...]
>>>> >
>>>> > Something I found by accident is that sometimes, when upgrading, you
>>>> > have to remove or rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf to be able to get to the
>>>> > desktop. Then you must reinstall the hardware video driver, which will
>>>> > rebuild the xorg.conf file. Reinstall it using System -> Additional
>>>> > Drivers or Settings -> Additional Drivers, depending on which one is in
>>>> > the menu for that release.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the suggestion. Another user mentioned removing the xorg.conf
>>>> file. I'll have to figure out how to reinstall the hardware driver without
>>>> the support of the graphical interface. I suppose I can use dpkg to figure
>>>> out what's installed and just reinstall all of it.
>>>>
>>>> I did search the Ubuntu forums, but somehow I missed that suggestion.
>>>>
>>>> Chuck
>>>>
>>>
>>> After renaming xorg.conf, I was able to restart and use gdn to login to
>>> the gui.
>>
>> When I delete the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and reboot, my system does
>> leave me at the gdm login chooser. When I choose
>>
>>  Applications -> System -> NVIDIA X Server Settings
>>
>> I get a dialog saying
>>
>>  You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver.
>>  Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-
>>  xconfig` as root), and restart the X server.
>>
>> And, I think this must be correct, since my two monitors mirror each
>> other instead of representing one large desktop as they used to.
>>
>> When I choose
>>
>>  Applications -> System -> Additional Drivers
>>
>> the Additional Drivers dialog tells me that the NVIDIA accelerated
>> graphics driver (version current) is "activated but not currently in
>> use."
>>
>> Output of 'lshw -C display':
>>
>>  *-display
>>       description: VGA compatible controller
>>       product: G86 [Quadro NVS 290]
>>       vendor: nVidia Corporation
>>       physical id: 0
>>       bus info: pci at 0000:02:00.0
>>       version: a1
>>       width: 64 bits
>>       clock: 33MHz
>>       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
>>       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
>>       resources: irq:52 memory:fa000000-faffffff
>> memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:f8000000-f9ffffff
>> ioport:dc80(size=128) memory:fbd00000-fbd1ffff
>>
>> I appear to have loaded the nouveau driver, and /var/log/Xorg.0.log
>> seems to confirm this.
>>
>> So I do what the NVIDIA X Server Settings dialog said: I run
>> 'nvidia-xconfig' as root from the command line, and then I restart the
>> X server, either by restarting both /etc/init.d/x11-common and
>> /etc/init.d/gdm, or just by restarting /etc/init.d/gdm, but nothing
>> appears to happen. tty8, which is where X sessions used to be, is
>> idle.
>>
>> Any thoughts as to why the Additional Drivers dialog says that the
>> nouveau driver is activated but not currently in use? I'm guessing
>> that this is why the NVIDIA X settings dialog thinks I'm not using an
>> nvidia driver and so it won't let me configure my dual monitor
>> situation.
>>
>> I think I'll try downgrading to the older v 173 nvidia drivers.
>
> One other thing: 'glxinfo' gives this output:
>
> name of display: :0.0
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual or fbconfig
>
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
> Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
>
> Like I say, I'm going to try switching to the older driver, and I'll let
> you all know if it works.

Downgrading from nouveau to version 173 of the nVidia drivers seems to
have worked. I guess my card isn't completely supported yet. It was
great to see the bounding mouse Xubuntu splash screen!

Chuck