Problems with xorg-server and nvidia-drivers for Notebook

sensimuc · n00b Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 13

Hi guys,

im having some troubles to make my xorg-server work.
The problem i can see in the xorg logfile is the message "Fatal server error:[ 170.748] no screens found" and i have no idea whats could be the reason for it.

I started the installation with stage3 for the amd64 architecture (first time; on my old desktop machines i was always using x86 without any problems).
I tried to follow the instruction in the X and nvidia installation guide but still without any success.
I created two configuration files:
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/nvidia.conf (manually created)

DawgG · l33t Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 866

the "Device"-sections in xorg.conf and nvidia.conf contradict each other (different names for the same device where one is enough). try to temporarily move one of the files somwhere else (i suggest xorg.conf because it manually decribes a lot of stuff that is ususally configured automagically) and see if X starts.
i don't know if any of the optimus/igd-stuff interferes, though.
GOOD LUCK!
_________________
DUMM KLICKT GUT.

sensimuc · n00b Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 13

Deleted all xorg.conf* files but no changes. Still the same error

What i noticed in the kernel log is the following:

DawgG · l33t Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 866

creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

sensimuc · n00b Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 13

I tried creaker but nothing helped.

I "wasted" all day yesterday to try several things (using nouveau driver, intel driver and many things more). After a while i found out that this nvidia OPTIMUS technology has nearly no real support from NVIDIA for linux since several years now. Finally i gave up to use the nvidia-drivers (tried also the brandnew 319 nvidia drivers released 2 days ago after reading that nvidia released first time linux drivers with a kind of OPTIMUS support). I also found out that there are three different generations of bios out there (which was also explained to me by my notebook manufacturer). The first and second generation u mostly could change settings in the bios (choose with card u want to use -> nvidia gpu or (mostly) intel gpu), With that u would loose of course the main feature of this optimius technology but at least it works somehow with the nvidia drivers. Plus to this it depends also somehow on the notebook manufaturere what kind of bios he is using. Sadly im having the third generation of this bios variant where u just cant change anything regards the video card.
Some people managed it to make their cards working (of course not with all features) but it seems to be a long journey (found many forum postings and blogs where people needed several days to make it finally work) and some notebooks just dont work. No matter what kind of driver u use, with or without Bumblebee.

As i dont planning to use linux as a gaming platform now im waiting for my hdmi wire to check out if its possible to connect a external screen. I can live with using only the intel gpu and forget about the nvidia gpu (even the money is totally wasted then). With every live-cd i tried to boot i could see that at least the nouveau drivers seems to work (i was only able make it work with intel drivers yet). So im still having hope that i can manage it somehow. Will check it out on monday when the wire arrives. Would be just a nightmare for me to be forced to use windows for the next years as my operation system only because of this xxxx nvidia company.

The conclusion of all this is for me that i will never buy again a card from nvidia if i can avoid this. In the past i had never any problems but these have been desktop machines. Thats the reason why im kind of shocked that they dont offer a real linux support of this optimus technology as these cards are used in nearly all notebooks nowadays.

Some resources for guys having the same or similar problems:

Bumblebee project for Optimus support:
http://bumblebee-project.org/

News for the new 319 nvidia driver with optimus support
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM0NzE

Explaination of the Bumblebee team what the 319 nvidia drivers really supports/does:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&p=707978

creaker · l33t Joined: 14 Jul 2012 Posts: 651

I can suggest you one option. I did it several times, when I can't install driver on Debian in "true" Debian-way (dkms) and on Arch in Arch-way (PKGBUILD). Everytime when distro-related "way" failed, I installed nvidia driver in native nvidia way. You can try it.
Just download bundle from nvidia site (current version is http://uk.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/310.44/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.44.run), reboot into safe mode, navigate to saved bundle and run 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-310.44.run'. Also xorg,conf would be configured during installation.
Instead of 310.44 you can download version that matches your nvidia version, just google it.

Last week I did it on Arch with my custom kernel because PKGBUILD failed and put a nvidia module into wrong directory, so kernel can't locate and load it.

I didn't try it on Gentoo because emerge installed nvidia correctly.

sensimuc · n00b Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 13

Thanks for ur reply creaker.
Dont get me wrong... But the problem is not to install the driver itself; i could manage it (apart from the stange error shown in the kernel log). The driver was shown always correct with lsmod; even if its not a gurantee as far as i could read that its working properly.
The problem seems more to be (imho) that even with the original nvidia driver the optimus technolgy is NOT supported by nvidia (yet). Their support is only for windows >= 7. Some articles saying that they startet finally to put some more attention on this as rumors are saying valve made some pressure since they are offering a linux steam client. From what i read so far it means the only way to get it working somehow is to configure ur bios (if ur notebook/bios offer such options) and/or hope that the bumblebee projekt/package helps. In my case i couldn't find a way yet (but im not a linux super guru

...so can be of course that i did something wrong or was missing something. What i ll try on monday is to make the external screen work. I don't really care with what driver this would be but for me is essential to have a external screen support.

Like i wrote yesterday i was only able to make the xserver work (only notebook screen) with the intel driver (first gpu is a intel). Anyway it was ok as i dont need really a extensive gfx cpu for working (programmer). The live cds (gentoo & ubuntu) showed me its at least possible to use the nouveau driver which was already a step forward for me.

So the only important question for me now is whether a external screen will work or not.

one_and_only · Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 2:31 pm Post subject:

Don't have Optimus card myself, but it seems that it should work (or at least have some initial support) with the latest driver, so maybe it's worth check out that one (currently masked, but I''ve never had much problems with Nvidia's beta drivers):
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/539249/unix-graphics-announcements-and-news/-linux-solaris-and-freebsd-driver-319-12-beta-/

sensimuc · n00b Joined: 24 Oct 2009 Posts: 13

Ok...just to let u know....im now using the intel driver and managed it with the external laptop screen via hdmi....so this is actually the most important for me...glxgears show me about 70fps what is probably horrible for that kind of card but f.... it...most important for me was not to use windows the next years

who knows when nvidia will finally release some proper linux drivers which are not only working for SOME constellations...

thx to the open source community with all their tutorials, tools and everybody who was helping me to find a workaorund...cool stuff

@one_and_only
i tried the 319 driver already some days ago but without any success (wrote it in one of my posts)...anyway...thx for the suggestion