sábado, 12 de marzo de 2011

Ubuntu Kernel updates and Nvidia drivers problems

I have a PC with this on board nvidia chip:

00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2)

Many times, after system updates which includes kernel updates, X Window configuration for nvidia fails to start X Server.
From that scenario, I've found two possible solutions:
1) Use the command line installer, like these:

sudo nvidia-installer --update


These approach, of course assumes that you are connected to the Internet, which is not always true if you are using wireless, for instance, by default Ubuntu uses gnome's network-manager to start your wireless networking.

2) Use an alternative xorg.conf to start with a minimal configuration and use the System/Administration/Additional Drivers
Remembering 1998, my first year with Red Hat Linux 5.2, back then, I came up with this minimal X Window configuration, with vesa driver, which should work in most chipset.
By replacing
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
whith this one, you can start X Window from command line:


--- start xorg.conf-vesa ----

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection

--- end xorg.conf-vesa ----


startx


And use the System menu to fix you NVidia Driver configuration. After downloading and installing the package, you will need a reboot, and voila, you're again with your NVidia Driver up and running.