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I cannot enable desktop effects from system>preferences>appearance. There also seems to be a big problem with my graphics in general, because many times I get a blank screen on booting. I have to reboot in recovery mode, and choose the "run in failsafe graphic mode" or "resume normal boot" and do my work in a simple CLI interface.

My machine has these specs, with a Windows 7/Ubuntu 10.04 dual boot. I was waiting for Oneric hoping that it'll have updated compatibility with my hardware. However, seeing the beta1 preview I have chosen to stick with the LTS for the same reasons I downgraded from 11.04. I have all the basic functionality that I need for work, but graphics is a big issue (black screen on bootup, no desktop effects) to make it my stable primary OS.

As you can realize from my post, I am a Linux n00b. How can I fix my graphics issues? On a sidenote, sometimes even when idle, my laptop begins to make a lot of noise and then subsides. Is this related to my graphics problem, as this doesn't happen on my Windows boot. If so, I really need to fix it. I don't play any games or run Blu-ray or heavy video, etc. (Please tolerate my ignorance as I came to Ubuntu from a Mac background) I did some searching but I can't troubleshoot my problem.

I guess the following output is relevant 

 lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 0116 (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0dcd (rev a1)
Lekensteyn
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yayu
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1 Answers1

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You seem to have a nVidia GT 555M graphics card. This is an Optimus laptop which is not supported by Linux systems (to be precise, only Windows 7 supports it, so Vista and before won't be able to use it too).

Your black screen is related to the nvidia driver which does not support Optimus laptops. The noise may be your fan, the crash is likely overheating.

See also Is a NVIDIA GeForce with Optimus Technology supported by Ubuntu? for a way to use your nvidia card anyway (Bumblebee). After installing it following the instructions in Is a NVIDIA GeForce with Optimus Technology supported by Ubuntu?, you should get back your graphics. If you do not want to install Bumblebee, you've to run the next command to set your default GL driver back to Mesa:

sudo update-alternatives --set gl_conf /usr/lib/mesa/ld.so.conf
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Lekensteyn
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  • So even Oneric or later releases wouldn't support it? – yayu Sep 16 '11 at 19:43
  • Nvm, according to this it wouldn't. – yayu Sep 16 '11 at 19:44
  • At this moment nVidia Optimus is not supported nor does nvidia have plans to support it for Linux distros. The best you can get now is Bumblebee. – Lekensteyn Sep 16 '11 at 20:07
  • I followed steps 1-4. On rebooting I get the error "Ubuntu is running in low Graphics Mode / The following errror was encountered. You May need to update your configuration to solve this, (EE) No devices detected. – yayu Sep 16 '11 at 20:18
  • If the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf exists, remove it and reboot. Otherwise, could you run bumblebee-bugreport and either submit the report to the mailing list bumblebee@lists.launchpad.net or mail it to lekensteyn@gmail.com ? – Lekensteyn Sep 16 '11 at 20:32
  • I removed the file, the boot is normal now. However, desktop effects still don't enable. – yayu Sep 16 '11 at 20:44
  • @yayu: did you install the nvidia driver from nvidia.com? If yes, you need to uninstall it by running sudo nvidia-uninstall (probably from recovery mode or a text console). After that, reinstall the libgl1-mesa-glx package. – Lekensteyn Sep 16 '11 at 20:54
  • Come this weekend, I retried your option as this seems to be the only one. On optirun firefox I get the message The Bumblebee daemon has not been started. To start the daemon, run: sudo /etc/init.d/bumblebee start However there is no such file in /etc/init.d/ I have generated the bumblebee bugreport and sending it to you. Thanks a lot for your help all this while. – yayu Sep 24 '11 at 01:39
  • The bugreport contains two weird lines in the driver output (which may be a bug of the reporter). Could you comment the output of ls -la /usr/lib/libnvidia* and ls -la /usr/lib/libvdpau.so*? Also, recent versions of bumblebee-bugreport already include the bumblebee.log file, so you do not need to add it manually. A Bumblebee user faced a similar issue in Lucid with the same log spam in Xorg.0.log ("FBDEV(0): FBIOPUTCMAP: Invalid argument") and resolved it by upgrading from 10.04 Lucid to 11.04 Natty. For best hardware support, I recommend upgrading. – Lekensteyn Sep 24 '11 at 08:18
  • If you do not like Unity or the new GNOME look, you could try themes or even a different desktop manager like KDE. – Lekensteyn Sep 24 '11 at 08:18