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Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

Linux Kernel, Network, and Services configuration.
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Phasitron477
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Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#1 Post by Phasitron477 »

Hey all,

I recently got a new computer, and I've been trying for weeks to get the Nvidia drivers to work with no success. There seems to be an incosistency in the Wiki about what is needed to install the driver. The first paragraph of installation on debian Stretch says "As of stretch, you don't need nvidia-xconfig anymore, and a xorg.conf file is not needed either in most situations," but then step 3 of the instructions says "Create an Xorg server configuration file." Is an Xorg file necissary or not for Stretch in this case? That being said, even after rebooting to blacklist the nouveau driver debian still didn't seem to recognize the nvidia one, so I went ahead and used nvidia-xconfig to see if that would do anything. It made it so when I booted up I got a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper left that would never start a graphical session, so I had to go into recovery mode follow the nvidia purge instructions. I've looked at the various solutions people have proposed on solving the "black screen" problem, but none seem to work for my computer. Any ideas at this point would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
Luke

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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#2 Post by Segfault »

Xorg does not load binary drivers by default, thus you need a four-line xorg.conf (or equivalent in xorg.conf.d) to tell Xorg you want the blob loaded.

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
   Identifier  "nvidia"
   Driver      "nvidia"
EndSection
That is after you are sure correct kernel modules are built, installed and loaded.

Phasitron477
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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#3 Post by Phasitron477 »

I created a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf and added the code; it still gave me a blank screen. I was able to switch to console mode however, and after removing the file I was able to boot back into a graphical session. I'm pretty sure the correct kernel modules were installed (linux-headers-amd64), but how can I confirm that they were correctly built and loaded?

Thanks!
Luke

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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#4 Post by stevepusser »

If you got the message to reboot to make sure nouveau is blacklisted after the build process, then the build was successful. If you just did it because the wiki said so, and did not see it in the terminal, it did not succeed.

If successful, you could also try adding "nomodeset" in the kernel boot commands from the GRUB menu to see if that helps.
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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#5 Post by Phasitron477 »

I got the message from the terminal, so the build was successful. I tried using the nomodeset kernel parameter, and it didn't help any. I tried switching back to the console and using startx, which told me no screens were found. The output of Xorg.0.log when I did that was:

Code: Select all

[    24.489] 
X.Org X Server 1.19.2
Release Date: 2017-03-02
[    24.489] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[    24.489] Build Operating System: Linux 4.9.0-3-amd64 x86_64 Debian
[    24.489] Current Operating System: Linux lukefischers-PC 4.9.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.30-2+deb9u3 (2017-08-06) x86_64
[    24.489] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-3-amd64 root=UUID=91a76144-ee3e-489c-a0d1-e994582d13a3 ro nomodeset quiet
[    24.489] Build Date: 07 July 2017  06:14:06AM
[    24.489] xorg-server 2:1.19.2-1+deb9u1 (https://www.debian.org/support) 
[    24.489] Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
[    24.489] 	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
[    24.489] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    24.489] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Sep 17 19:50:22 2017
[    24.489] (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[    24.489] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[    24.489] (==) No Layout section.  Using the first Screen section.
[    24.489] (==) No screen section available. Using defaults.
[    24.489] (**) |-->Screen "Default Screen Section" (0)
[    24.489] (**) |   |-->Monitor "<default monitor>"
[    24.489] (==) No device specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
	Using the first device section listed.
[    24.489] (**) |   |-->Device "nvidia"
[    24.489] (==) No monitor specified for screen "Default Screen Section".
	Using a default monitor configuration.
[    24.489] (==) Automatically adding devices
[    24.489] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[    24.489] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[    24.489] (==) Max clients allowed: 256, resource mask: 0x1fffff
[    24.489] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
[    24.489] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[    24.489] (==) FontPath set to:
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled,
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled,
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi,
	/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,
	built-ins
[    24.489] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[    24.489] (II) The server relies on udev to provide the list of input devices.
	If no devices become available, reconfigure udev or disable AutoAddDevices.
[    24.489] (II) Loader magic: 0x5566b9f34e00
[    24.490] (II) Module ABI versions:
[    24.490] 	X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[    24.490] 	X.Org Video Driver: 23.0
[    24.490] 	X.Org XInput driver : 24.1
[    24.490] 	X.Org Server Extension : 10.0
[    24.490] (++) using VT number 1

[    24.491] (II) systemd-logind: took control of session /org/freedesktop/login1/session/_31
[    24.491] (II) xfree86: Adding drm device (/dev/dri/card0)
[    24.491] (II) systemd-logind: got fd for /dev/dri/card0 226:0 fd 11 paused 0
[    24.621] (--) PCI:*(0:0:2:0) 8086:591b:1028:0770 rev 4, Mem @ 0xdb000000/16777216, 0x70000000/268435456, I/O @ 0x0000f000/64, BIOS @ 0x????????/131072
[    24.622] (--) PCI: (0:1:0:0) 10de:1c20:1028:0770 rev 161, Mem @ 0xdc000000/16777216, 0xb0000000/268435456, 0xc0000000/33554432, I/O @ 0x0000e000/128, BIOS @ 0x????????/524288
[    24.622] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    24.622] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libglx.so
[    24.629] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[    24.629] 	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[    24.629] 	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[    24.629] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  375.66  Mon May  1 14:28:39 PDT 2017
[    24.629] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[    24.630] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
[    24.630] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[    24.630] 	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[    24.630] 	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    24.630] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver  375.66  Mon May  1 14:03:26 PDT 2017
[    24.630] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
[    24.630] (II) systemd-logind: releasing fd for 226:0
[    24.631] (EE) No devices detected.
[    24.631] (EE) 
Fatal server error:
[    24.631] (EE) no screens found(EE) 
[    24.631] (EE) 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[    24.631] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[    24.632] (EE) 
[    24.645] (EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
Thanks!
Luke

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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#6 Post by dilberts_left_nut »

Phasitron477 wrote:[ 24.630] (II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver 375.66 Mon May 1 14:03:26 PDT 2017
[ 24.630] (II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
...
[ 24.631] (EE) No devices detected.
So what device do you have?
AdrianTM wrote:There's no hacker in my grandma...

Phasitron477
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Joined: 2015-04-27 05:17

Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#7 Post by Phasitron477 »

So what device do you have?
The relevant output from lshw is:

Code: Select all

 description: VGA compatible controller
                product: GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060]
                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

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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#8 Post by stevepusser »

Methinks you might be leaving something out. Isn't this an Optimus system with hybrid integrated Intel/ discrete Nvidia graphics, unless you have switched off the Intel GPU in the computer setup? The reviews I read say Optimus.
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Re: Nvidia Drivers on Alienware 13 R3

#9 Post by Phasitron477 »

Methinks you might be leaving something out. Isn't this an Optimus system with hybrid integrated Intel/ discrete Nvidia graphics
You're right! I guess I just assumed that nvidia was the only graphics card on my system before doing a little research on optimus systems.
So after installing the open source bumblebee and Primus software my computer will boot up, and freeze at the console login. When I try to use recovery mode it says something like the root account is locked, and defaults to normal boot mode, which takes me to the frozen console login. Any ideas on what I may have done wrong and if I can fix it without a complete reinstall?

Edit: The goal is still to use the proprietary driver, but I figured I'd see if the open source driver worked first

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