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My pc, gtx 750 with nvidia 347 driver ubuntu gnome 14.04, boots only to black screen. When I look into the /var/log/syslog I get this error with the nvidia driver.

nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or  required key missing - tainting kernel
init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process (223) terminated with status 1
gdm-simple-slave[1176]: Failed to give slave programs access to the display. Trying to proceed.

I installed the drive by hand stopping gdm and the install process did not create any error. The plymouth error is very strange since I define "noplymouth" in grub.

I am not very familiar with error messages. What do those messages mean and more importantly how do I fix it? Is there a way to get rid of plymouth all together since it only displays the ubuntu logo at the beginning.

thanks for reading

Update: Just read that the kernel taint message is normal and nothing to worry about. The plymouth message is still strange and it is multiple times in the syslog file.

oldmansaur
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  • how did you install the driver by hand? Because lots of different issues might happen if you did or didn't do something to complete the process. e.g. this tutorial http://askubuntu.com/questions/66328/how-do-i-install-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-from-the-run-file/423619#423619 – JoKeR Mar 21 '15 at 16:04
  • I dropped to command line (Alt-ctrl-F1) I switched of gdm (sudo service gdm stop) then I ran the driver file from nvidia(346.47). – oldmansaur Mar 21 '15 at 16:07
  • please read the tutorial that I posted in upper comment I used it on 12.04 and 14.04 and it works when you do everything right. – JoKeR Mar 21 '15 at 16:17
  • Thanks for the quick reply I just did this. When I run nvidia-settings I get (nvidia-setttings:1775)Gdk-ERROR **: error:XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set in the environment. What does that mean? – oldmansaur Mar 21 '15 at 16:43
  • don't pay much attention to that it's ok run gksudo nvidia-settings instead if so. – JoKeR Mar 21 '15 at 20:57

1 Answers1

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While the question is old, I believe that an explanation of what tainted means is in place.

nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.

A tainted kernel is a kernel that is touched by some action which makes it difficult to debug. This can for instance be a closed source kernel module - as in this case. There's different kinds of taints. This link is somewhat specific to Novell/SUSE, but the main content is applicable to Ubuntu as well.

The Nvidia module taints the kernel because it is not open source.

vidarlo
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