NVIDIA drivers for Ubuntu 15.04 GTX 970 black loading screen

Question

I can't seem to get anything to work on Ubuntu. I've struggled with everything that goes into installing, update and maintain the operation system and software.

But I've manage to get it installed and rebooted once.

Now I want my NVIDIA drivers for GeForce GTX 970 but this has me confused:

lspci | grep VGA
VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)

Because the computer overview says my graphics is "Gallium 0.4 on llvmpip (LLVM 3.6, 256 bits)"

I've tried most of the ways to install NVidia drivers:

.run file from GeForce website
Software Sources -> Additional Drivers
add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

I update everything and reboot. I'm expecting everything to work.

I'm greeted with the loading screen, but it's black instead of purple and frozen. I can't exit this any other way than to shut down manually.

And I'v come to my last solution every time, reinstall Ubuntu from LiveCD/USB My .Xauthority is own by me. My sources.list is normal (I've messed up that one some times)

The nvidia driver should be v352 or v355 but both are not working.

I'm on a fresh installation of Ubuntu right now. I just restarted to install the Software Updates:

Vivid-security
Vivid-updates
Vivid-backports

I'd like a secure method to ensure I'm using my NVidia graphics card and I'd like to know where I can read the potential errors I might get.

Without any drivers:

lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D' show:

VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)
Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 3670
Kernel driver in use: nouveau

"About this computer -> Overview" still says Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe.

With drivers (in rescue mode as I can't get past loading screen):

`lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'` show:

    VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd Device 3670
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia

It looks like the driver is installed correctly. This must be a bug in this driver. — Pilot6, Aug 08 '15 at 15:21
I'm going to test some drivers and see if any of them works. — OskyEdz, Aug 08 '15 at 15:26
When I add the apt-repository it tells me to make sure I use another method to remove it. But that wouldn't Change anything right? — OskyEdz, Aug 08 '15 at 22:07
I may have set some backlight thing, but I did it on the LiveCD and that's disconnected. — OskyEdz, Aug 09 '15 at 07:14
I'm starting to use the computer now without drivers. I don't know if it will have much impact. I'm mostly concerned about gaming. — OskyEdz, Aug 09 '15 at 14:36

score 4 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 27 '15 at 11:29

4

Let me tell you this. I have tried even more than you have, I have even visited Linux forums and requeted for support, searched entire internet, asked dozens of people in IT and I never got it work...Same thing. I have NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphic card and it looks like our card can't seem to be able to communicate well with Linux system. I have tried installing various distributions of Linux like Centos, Scientific Linux, Ubuntu (latest versions) and I can't install them, all I get is a black screen so unfortunately there is no solution for that. The only thing we can do at the moment is to wait until they add support for latest NVIDIA GeForce graphic cards.

answered Aug 27 '15 at 11:29

jedi

529

Exactly same issue here. So it looks like we cant even get native resolution on our $400 card. I didn't remember seeing anything on NVIDIAs box that said "Windows only" – sintaxi Dec 08 '15 at 03:52
Exactly, it should say "Windows only". Long live Linux...:/ – jedi Dec 09 '15 at 10:33
Update: sudo apt-get cache search nvidia-* The latest driver I see is nvidia-361 - NVIDIA binary driver - version 361.18. Check the latest drivers also on http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en – jedi Mar 05 '17 at 18:17

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

1

Try setting the nomodeset kernel option after installing the driver.

A good tutorial for Ubunutu for that would be here.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

Community

1

answered Aug 24 '15 at 18:51

Cold999

61

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 06 '15 at 02:20

1

The following configuration is working for me. Ubuntu 14.04 + Kernel 4.1 + nvidia-346 ( i7-6700K + Nvidia GTX 9700 + Dual UHD Monitors ).

The driver was installed via the edgers ppa in root shell ( select advanced on boot and reboot with networking enabled).

I have tried Kernel 4.2/4.3 but neither worked.

I have tried nvidia -33x, -35x and 340 with kernel 4.1. None of them works.

answered Nov 06 '15 at 02:20

Prashant Saraswat

276

1

On a hunch I updated to kernel 4.3. I also added the new graphics-drivers ppa and then updated the nvidia drivers to 355 ( the latest available as of now). All seems well. The reason I wanted to update all this was because my second monitor was not waking up from sleep and needed to be restarted. Lets hope all these updates fix this problem :) – Prashant Saraswat Nov 06 '15 at 02:31

NVIDIA drivers for Ubuntu 15.04 GTX 970 black loading screen

3 Answers3