nvidia fix

I had this same problem just a few hours ago, the latest 331 is broken. Downgrading to the previous driver or any other, included the open-source nouveau won't work, the only solution is uninstall all nvidia packages and install the driver from the .run you can download from the nvidia website. http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us There, select your graphic card, architecture, etc, and download the installer. When it's done, you'll need to install it from the commandline without X running. Pres Ctrl+Alt+F6 and after login: sudo service lightdm stop sudo apt-get remove nvidia-319 nvidia-331 # (change this line to match the drivers you have installed). Now, asuming your driver has been downloaded to the "Downloads" folder: cd Downloads chmod +x NVIDIA* sudo ./NVIDIA*.run I've used the asterisk here because I can't know if the driver you downloaded is the exact same name as mine, since it depends on your GPU. You could use autocompletion with the tab key to use the exact .run name. Follow the on screen instructions. When you finish, reboot: sudo shutdown -r now If after rebooting you see the same problem, log again in a TTY and try: sudo nvidia-xconfig This should regenerate a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf Just a quick update for anyone who used my solution: Today a new update of some gl libraries has broken my system again. I've had to re-install the NVIDIA run package, it complained about some of its libraries being altered and restored them to its working state. There seems to be a compatibility problem between libraries from the official repositories and the ones packaged in the driver. This is the reason I don't like to install things from outside packagers... To reinstall the driver, kill the X with sudo service lightdm stop and reinstall the .run with sudo ./NVIDIA....run shareimprove this answer edited yesterday answered Jan 2 at 22:46 darent 2,199513

1   I get the following error on installing from these drivers : -> Installing NVIDIA driver version 331.20. -> Running distribution scripts executing: '/usr/lib/nvidia/pre-install'... -> done. -> The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Continue installation anyway? (Answer: No) – Patryk Jan 2 at 23:08 1   I forgot to tell you that, I got exactly the same message. First I choosed No out of caution, but then when I was about to give up and reinnstall the whole system, I've tried again and selected yes to continue anyway, and the installation finished OK. – darent Jan 2 at 23:11 Did the same and now I booted back to the system :) Thanks. – Patryk Jan 2 at 23:12 1   Glad it helped. I was planing to spend today gaming and because of this, I've been hitting my head against the PC the whole day. Just remember one thing, your drivers are now installed from a source outside the package system, so if you later decide to install drivers from xorg-edgers or the official ppa's, you'll have to first uninstall this driver manually. If you try to use apt-get or the software-center to overwrite this drivers, it could break the configuration. – darent Jan 2 at 23:15 If you have secure boot enabled in bios, you have to disable it otherwise the installation will fail. – EApubsJan 3 at 4:26 1   Just a quick update: I just restarted the system after upgrading some packages and it was broken again. Aparently, a new version of xserver-xorg-video-nouveau broke the nvidia driver installed manually. If this happens to you, since you said you were trying different drivers, just remove it with sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau and reboot. It should load again the privative drivers. – darent Jan 3 at 19:30 @darent, even with your fix, I get an error on startup "none of the selected modes are compatible with possible modes". It looks like the gui is loading in 800x600 resolution. – Gopherkhan Jan 4 at 6:22 This got me closer on 13.10, but not quite fully. I'm on a Lenovo y580 with an optimus-supporting 660M. I'm wondering if the bumblebee combination has messed something up further....what exactly is causing the rollbacks to not work? I had 310 working earlier, but just switched to the drivers in edgers a few days ago...– Gopherkhan Jan 4 at 6:24 Okay, I got it. The problem was with an incomplete ppa-purge of xorg-edgers. I had to re-add the ppa, then purge it again. After that, everything worked fine. – Gopherkhan Jan 4 at 7:25 I hope they realize this and release a new package soon, so we can add the ppa again and not depend on checking nvidia website for updates. I've been using xorg-edgers for months and never had problems with the nvidia drivers before (the ati drivers are a disaster, but that's a whole other story). – darent Jan 4 at 15:05 Just a quick update for anyone who used my solution: Today a new update of some gl libraries has broken my system again. I've had to re-install the NVIDIA run package, it complained about some of its libraries being altered and restored them to its working state. There seems to be a compatibility problem between libraries from the official repositories and the ones packaged in the driver. This is the reason I don't like to install things from outside packagers... To reinstall the driver, kill the X with sudo service lightdm stop and reinstall the .run with sudo ./NVIDIA....run – darent yesterday

http://askubuntu.com/questions/399153/after-apt-get-upgrade-system-always-boot-to-low-graphics-mode