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System in question is running Kubuntu 16.04.3 LTS.

I installed the latest Nvidia drivers a few weeks ago after installing a GTX 1050. This system worked for a bit. It booted fine, games ran great.

Today I powered down the system to remove a blank hard drive I needed to put in another system, and rebooted. I received boot errors and had to go in the recovery console to remove that drive from /etc/fstab. I rebooted again, and the system boots okay but X does not fully initialize. I get the Kubuntu logo and progress meter, then a blank screen with nothing other than the mouse cursor. I can ctrl+alt+F1 or ssh to get into a shell. All services seem to be running fine except for X.

I looked at a few questions on this site, but nothing seems to work.

Install Nvidia driver instead of nouveau

This system is definitely using the Nvidia drivers, not Noveau.

user@host:~# lshw -c video
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: NVIDIA Corporation
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:35 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:f7000000-f707ffff
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: Display controller
       product: Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f7400000-f77fffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

The only other video controller is the Intel i7 gen3 integrated graphics. However, the monitor is plugged into the GTX 1050 and has been working fine for several weeks. There is no option to disable the CPU-integrated graphics in UEFI setup.

I did try blacklisting Noveau, but it did nothing so I backed out that change. As you can see above, the Nvidia driver is the one being used.

Ubuntu 16.04 + Nvidia Driver = Blank screen

The option for nomodeset is already present in the grub configuration:

menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-0a962b91-f511-4b4c-9248-ef00fe9a3768' {
        recordfail
        load_video
        gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
        insmod gzio
        if [ x$grub_platform = xxen ]; then insmod xzio; insmod lzopio; fi
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ext2
        set root='hd0,msdos1'
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1  0a962b91-f511-4b4c-9248-ef00fe9a3768
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 0a962b91-f511-4b4c-9248-ef00fe9a3768
        fi
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-97-generic root=UUID=0a962b91-f511-4b4c-9248-ef00fe9a3768 ro  quiet splash nomodeset $vt_handoff
        initrd  /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-97-generic
}

I have not upgraded the kernel since September 19, which was before installing the Nvidia driver. When I installed it (ran the .run file) I selected the option to install a binary kernel module that would automatically get used by new kernel versions installed after the driver.

This system does not dual boot: it is a dedicated Kubuntu system. I have rebooted multiple times since installing the Nvidia drivers without a problem. Every once in a while when logging out the screen seems to freeze for a little bit and gets corrupted, but eventually corrects itself. This particular problem does not correct itself. I booted it up earlier today and left it for around six hours. It was right where I left it when I returned home. If I try the trick where I boot into recovery mode then continue as normal, the same thing happens. If I use an older version of the kernel at boot, the same issue happens. I also tried removing the video card and reseating it in case I bumped it (although I am getting video through the card regardless), did not help.

I am not sure what to do next. Is there something else that will fix this, or what are my next steps to troubleshoot this problem?

Community
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  • I am afraid your options are limited at this time. First, the nvidia .run file is not the best way to install the nvidia driver, use the repositories, makes it easier to remove - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia . After running tht .run file you typically loose support from Ubuntu. You will have to file a bug report with nvidia. https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/522835/linux/if-you-have-a-problem-please-read-this-first/ – Panther Oct 15 '17 at 05:19
  • @bodhi.zazen maybe I should uninstall them, then reinstall from PPA? –  Oct 15 '17 at 05:22
  • you can try. Why are you using a ppa ? – Panther Oct 15 '17 at 05:25
  • If I do not use the binary .run from Nvidia, and noveau does not support the GTX 1050, what else would I use? –  Oct 15 '17 at 05:31
  • The "NVIDIA drivers provided by the Ubuntu repositories" as per the link I already gave you https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia – Panther Oct 15 '17 at 05:36
  • Instructions in that link did not work. Looks like the package names changed after that was written. I am installing the binary drivers now from the Ubuntu repositories. Hope this works! –  Oct 15 '17 at 05:45

1 Answers1

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This particular issue was caused by the fact that I installed the drivers from Nvidia directly, running their .run file directly. I am not sure exactly what the issue was, but I first ran apt purge nvidia-* to remove the drivers. I then followed the instructions here, but with different package names, to update to an older, but more stable, binary driver: apt install nvidia-375.

After doing that from the command line tty and rebooting, X came right up.