nvidia drivers breaking lightdm

[Jakir]

Okay so I followed the guide on your wiki for my nvidia gtx 760m driver on debian 9 and installed it using the commands:

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apt update
apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's/[^-]*-[^-]*-//') nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver
apt-get install nvidia-xconfig
sudo nvidia-xconfig

But now when I try to log in I get a screen that says:

[FAILED] Failed to start Light Display Manager.
See 'systemctl status lightdm.service' for details.

I read a guide that said that the problem can be fixed by editing/creating the file /ect/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and adding the lines:

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blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off

So I did that and nothing changed. I did notice there was a file named "blacklist nvidia-nouveau" or something along those lines in there. Should I add the code to that file?

[dilberts_left_nut]

Code: Select all

See 'systemctl status lightdm.service' for details.

So did you?

You checked that your card needs the legacy drivers?

Installing the nvidia package should blacklist nouveau already.

I read a guide

Anyone can write a "guide", most of them are clueless.

[stevepusser]

Yeah, but that sounds like the guide in the Debian wiki, possibly with some steps omitted in the post. If they were actually skipped, that might be why problems occurred. One thing is to make sure the OP has sudo enabled, and what the actual outputs of the commands were. And also make sure it's not an Optimus system with Intel and Nvidia graphics.

[Jakir]

Code: Select all

See 'systemctl status lightdm.service' for details.

So did you?

You checked that your card needs the legacy drivers?

Installing the nvidia package should blacklist nouveau already.

I read a guide

Anyone can write a "guide", most of them are clueless.

Yes, this is what it said:

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Lightdm.service - Light Display Manager

  Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/lightdm.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Active: inactive (dead)
    Docs: man:lightdm(1)

But I have no clue what it means or how I'm supposed to fix the problem with this information.

[Jakir]

It works now but I did receive a few warnings!

I checked the guide, again. This time I ran the pre-check phase to determine my gpu and it confirms it is being read as a GeForce gtx 760m. Then I checked the current nvidia drivers (I was previously using the second newest because it said it supported the 7xx line) and it listed itself as supporting the 760m so I installed that instead. The instructions were simpler and only required running the code:

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apt update
apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed 's/[^-]*-[^-]*-//') nvidia-driver

and restarting.

I noticed when I installed the nvidia graphics pack the last 3 lines were:

W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3_tso5.bin for module tg3
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3_tso.bin for module tg3
W: Possible missing firmware /lib/firmware/tigon/tg3.bin for module tg3

Is there some way to download those firmwares?

[jibberjabber]

Yes there is.

where to download tigon/tg3_tso5.bin for module tg3

[Fernando Negro]

If you install the *wrong* version of the proprietary NVIDIA driver, you will have problems.

I have had Xorg/LightDM (repeatedly) not initializing (black screen at the end of the boot process, or monitor turning off during boot) on fresh Ubuntu and Debian installations, after having I installed the proprietary NVIDIA driver, because of what I later realized were the wrong versions of the driver I wanted to install.

Debian (at least) is a very stable GNU/Linux distribution. So, if there's something not working properly after you install it, it's immensely likely that it's the end user's fault, for having done something not right.