Ubuntu fails to boot after attempting to install Nvidia driver

Question

I attempted to install an Nvidia driver on my system using the method described here, however when I rebooted my system the following happened during startup:

I was able to restore normal function by booting Ubuntu in recovery mode and running apt-get purge on the Nvidia driver. But how should I properly install the Nvidia drivers, or what could have gone wrong? I'm running Ubuntu 17.10 on an HP spectre x360 with a GeForce MX150 GPU.

Which Nvidia driver did you install? – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 01:24 — Organic Marble, Mar 01 '18 at 01:24
I tried installing nvidia-390 – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 01:25 — Alecto Irene Perez, Mar 01 '18 at 01:25

Organic Marble · Answer 1 · 2018-03-01T01:33:35.783

2

This procedure has worked for me. A quick attempt to validate that nvidia-390 was the proper driver for your card resulted in a finding that nvidia-384 might be the proper one.

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-390 nvidia-settings

Then restart your system.

If this does not work, I would repeat, replacing nvidia-390 with nvidia-384.

edited Mar 01 '18 at 01:33

answered Mar 01 '18 at 01:28

Organic Marble

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Ubuntu listed Nvidia-390 as the recommended one, although 384 was also an option. I'll try 390 first and get back to you. – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 01:31
Do I reboot after completing those steps? – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 01:32
I tried that with both Nvidia 390 and Nvidia 384, although the problem persists. – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 01:48
Sorry! that has always worked for me. There is a recent problem with gcc compiler versions breaking kernel modules, if you have a custom gcc version it could be that. Here is one such question https://askubuntu.com/questions/1010467/ubuntu-virtualbox-error/1010485#1010485 it concerns virtual box but this same problem broke my video drivers. – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 01:51
That's the best explanation I've heard so far – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 01:57
My system has gcc 7.2. How can I revert back to 4.8.4, at least for the purposes of installing the Nvidia drivers? – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 02:00
Take a look at this question https://askubuntu.com/questions/26498/choose-gcc-and-g-version especially the answer from Ale. – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 02:17
That may not be the right gcc version for 17.10, and I don't know how to tell what the right version is. For example, I have seen that the correct version is 5.4 for 16.04 – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 02:19
I installed gcc and g++ version 4.8.5 and linked them so that gcc and g++ are by default 4.8.5... Should I also install an older version of the kernel, or should I go ahead and attempt to install the Nvidia drivers? – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 02:24
Okay that... Actually worked. Or at least nothing broke when I rebooted. Thank you so much! Is there any way to verify that it installed correctly / way I could test it out? – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 02:39
Ubuntu told me it had issues with the package – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 02:55
You can do modinfo nvidia-390 | grep vermagic and if the result contains the word retpoline then the module is compiled properly. (replace the 390 if you installed a different driver) – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 02:55
I purged Nvidia-390 and tried installing nvidia-384, although after rebooting I got a crash report (the same thing happened with nvidia-390) – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 03:00
Modinfo told me that the module wasn't fouhd. The exact error message of the crash report is; – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 03:00
We've now exhausted all my knowledge on video drivers and Ubuntu! I hope you have some form of a working system now. – Organic Marble Mar 01 '18 at 03:00
"Sorry, a problem occurred while installing software. Package: Nvidia-384 384.1111-0ubuntu0.17.10.1" and I got a similar message with nvidia-390 – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 03:02
Thanks so much for your help. My system "works"; it just doesn't have an Nvidia driver for the GPU – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 01 '18 at 03:03
Hey Organic Marble - I just wanted to update you. I wiped Linux 17.10 and installed Linux 16.04, and everything worked. – Alecto Irene Perez Mar 04 '18 at 00:14
I am glad to hear it. Thanks for closing the loop. – Organic Marble Mar 04 '18 at 00:17

Ubuntu fails to boot after attempting to install Nvidia driver

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