dilipm

Hello everybody,
I have almost tried everything, I mean everything in order to solve this problem. Well here is the way it goes::

Firstly, I am a bit new to linux..but am not that ignorant..a php java C++programmer myself I do have some inclination towards computers and OSs, anyway recently i wanted to know some shell programming with respect to my work so I thought why not install the current popular version of Linux, hence ubuntu.
Now, after I installed..the desktop looked quite neat and nice on my 1680x1050 res alienware laptop(btw my rig's specs are all at the bottom). Then a message popped up saying Restricrited drivers manager, so clicked an icon to open this window, it said that my nvidia drivers are currently not in use, do i want to enable them? I said alright clicked the check box, it downloaded a couple of drivers from the internet then installed them finally prompted for a restart. so i did....here the problems started..after the restart what do I see!!!!? A patch of reddish purple colour on the left of screen, where as the right side is totally black and if u see carefully this black patch slowly , very slowly covers the entire screen. Its totally black after sometime.

But the funny part is I could hear the startup ubuntu sound. I just typed my login into this black screen and the password to hear the login startup sounds. But I can do nothing, cannot see a thing, cannot type a thing. Anyway at this point I googled "black screen problem at startup after installing nvidia drivers on ubuntu feisty fawn". Well the fisrt link was some where here in this forum. They also did have black screen but were having different video cards...they were suggested some changes in the xorg.conf file which i also did but in vain.These other people with similar problem were atleast able to go to the console. ctl-atl-f1 thing, I even could not do that!!!!!! Anyway:

Now here is the list of solutions I tried:

I.Put my Ubuntu CD in the drive and start the live version from the CD. Checked the internet for some solutions made a note of them. Restarted my compter, from the grub menu loaded in the recovery mode. at the console opened the xorg.conf. Now in some solutions I read there were problems where the xorg.conf was setup to a CRT screen, but not to a LCD or laptop screen. So what I tried was adding such kind of options to the to the xorg.conf
At the Section "Screen" added the options
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "UFP-1"
or
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" (tried once each option after consequtive restarts)
Now what happened after restart, nothing...all I got was a blue screen saying Xserver cannot launch, please setup your xorg.conf file and then restart. And then all I got was a series of logs and errata regarding the error messages. This was my first try...

II. Now waht I thought was lemme clean install again, so I put in the Fiesty fawn 7.04 Cd again then reinstllaed the whole thing. Again after installing could see the desktop and everything, everthing is fine again saw restricted drivers manager window pop up. This time I did not install the drivers from there. Just ignored it. Opened the Desktop effects window to see what message I would get. Obviously as expected I was told to enable the 2D and 3D effects of my graphics card. But this time I went to the nvidia linux site

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d..._1.0-9755.html

which is the latest version for linux nvidia drivers and manually installed them. Now I went to the console mode manually installed theese drivers as follows:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run (remember this installation is after Ubunutu's clean install)

I was really expecting a proper desktop, but what happens, the same old bloody reddish-black screen!!!!!!!!

Now what I did was before I make any changes to the to xorg.conf I looked for the log file for xorg.conf to see what it actually says, I could not understand a word of it so I am pasting it here.

Ubuntu Pastebin

I showed this log to a guy in in an IRC chat, who explained me to add the following to the xorg.conf, similarly at the Select "screen" section. Btw I always edit the xorg.conf file in the console mode with the gdm stopped and using the "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf" to edit the xorg.conf file

Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "True"

saved the xorg.conf file ....no use at all. cant see noting at startup.....

Again gone into the console mode restore the xorg.conf file as follows
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

rebooted..it started fine but the resoultion was different maybe because I selected vesa drivers, anyway that should not be problem I guess. Now opened the synaptic pacakge manager and uninstalled any nvidia glx drivers found.

Now what i did at the console was:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new

what this did was install the drivers again, well I guess!!? and then again restarted to see the damn black screen.

....that was my second type of instalation..

III. Well now I was really fed up,so what I did was go into the console again reconfigured the xorg.conf file, then at the desktop downloaded the automatix installer where I downloaded the nvidia drivers and installed them. After restart same old problem of black screen!!!
. Again at the console I did an automatix command

automatix-nvidia-restore

which restored to previous xorg.conf file. I could restart again normally here. Later I opened automatix and uninstalled all the nvidia drivers with automatix.

Now I was really fed up, all the forums either had recently posted this or did not have solution yet. I heard in some forum regarding Envy drivers. I downloaded this and installed them.. Still again the same old black scren turned up. I reconfigured the xorg.conf file again uninstalled Envy drivers also.

Finally from all the forums and IRC chat all I could conclude was it has something to do with xorg.conf file options, no matter what driver I install there is no use. So what I finally started was to learn about the various display, screen and kinds of nvidia driver optins to edit in the xorg.conf file. I hope somebody can give me solution by then. I cannot sleep at nights until I solve this thing. I am right now not learing bash but learining how to configure xorg.conf file. Surprisingly there are not much proper documentations regarding specific options with respect to specific video cards to edit in the xorg.conf file. I hope there is any other kind of option which you help me, if i missed something. I had to write such a detailed message because I found many similar problems in various forums, surprisingly some solutions above I wrote above did work for some and did not for some. Its still is not working for me . Anyway I hope somebody can help.


NOTE: Please check the actual log I gave in the link above for any clues of the black screen mystery????!!!!!!HELP

MY LAPTOP SPECS

Alienware laptop 3 years old

Nvidia GeForce FX Go5700 128Mb Video Ram
1 Gig of RAM
Pentium 4 ,3.0 Ghz with HT
60gig hard drive.

dilipm

this is the most pathetic forum I have ever seen...not even a moderator to take a look at this problem...anyay lemme shed some new light.....I mean some nlatest logs

this is the nvidia installer log

Ubuntu Pastebin

this is the nvidia bug report log

Ubuntu Pastebin

and my current xorg.conf file

Ubuntu Pastebin

Finally my last 2 xorg.conf log files

this is the xorg.0.log

Ubuntu Pastebin


this is the Xorg.0.log.old

Ubuntu Pastebin

Plesae understand that in the xorg.conf file....u will see "nv" instead of "nvidia", I had to change it back to nv only to log on in ubuntu...But when its "nvidia" its black screen again...And the ohter change I made was added the line
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"
and changed the default depth to 24...thats it ...

Duros

This isnt the speediest forum around, but flaming really isnt going to get you any help. Also, reason for lack of posts might include people just not knowing ;P

I'm not a linux guru by any means, or even anywhere close to it, but I do know when you need to contact the manufacturer of the problematic hardware to get an answer. In this case nvidia has a dedicated email address to such problems:

linux-bugs@nvidia.com

And as far as I can tell, it sounds like it's a compatibility issue more so than an installation issue. Try the email above.

dilipm

Great mr.Duros....u just joined in this forum and u r trying to give me a suggestion...I actually posted the same problem in quite a lot of forums ...As a matter of fact I am already following the problem in nvnews.net forums.....U can check in there if u want there r quite a number of replies...not like this one....anyway thnx for ur suggestion.....Mr.Duros the only resaon I am updating this post myself here in this dead forum because, I care about his problem as it one of the most frequent problems with respect to nvidia and ubuntu.....go to google and search for this problem ...you will find many active post mine being in most of forums.....

anyway.....

I made a mistake the nvidia bug report generated was after I changed back to open source drivers i.e after I changed nvidia to nv. So what I did was installed the nvidia drivers again and after the black screen I did the nvidia bug report....these are the actual new log links...I hope it helps

installer log file

Ubuntu Pastebin

bug report

Ubuntu Pastebin

and I think this is the xorg.conf file after the black screen

Ubuntu Pastebin


I hope this would help....thank you

Duros

I am having problems understanding this part of this post...

dilipm

sorry just ignore that part...just check the problem part...thanx

dilipm

Well I have to say...as this is the most dry and dead linux forum ever....I am happy to shed some light here...I have finally got it working ..Please check this link for the whole solution

Pleaseeeee help!!!!! Fiesty Fawn vs. nvdia drivers!!!! - Ubuntu Forums

thankx

karthikmurs

ha ha lol dude.... not much of ubuntu fans here!!! well am much into fedora! and i am never disappointed here!!! so jus stop generalizing your conclusions...

karthikmurs

well bout ur prob, i guess i went thro similar drill with fc6! linux distros have prob with nVIDIA pci card drivers.

well, i 'd like to suggest you some things on your next install..
1) install in text mode.
2) Install graphics card drivers..from command prompt only.
3) edit xorg.conf( as it is caled in fc6.. not sure if its same here) and make the
default screen res to 1024x768 (for a time being)
4) edit inittab to change default boot method.
5) choose correct monitor type ( commant in fc6: system-config-display)
First choose correct monitor. Later change disp settings.
6) jus make sure startx n other commands work prop after having tried the
above suggestions.

dilipm

thanx!!!!!!!!!!!