Nvidia driver doesn't work in 12.10

Question

I have GeForce GTX 560 Ti. I's worked fine in 12.04 with nvidia drivers. Unfortunately, after todays 12.10 update, something broke down.

I've tried nvidia-current, nvidia-current-updates and nvidia-experimantal. Always the same behaviour: Bad resolution in lightdm, after logging nothing except wallpaper. No unity panels, "win" key doesn't work.

After removing nvidia drivers everything work.

Solution 1

Before switching to the nvidia drivers you need to install linux-source and linux-headers (see bug 1068341). After the source is installed, try switching to the nvidia drivers.

Here is how:

Before you start, install all updates (and reboot the computer, if you are told to).

1. Switch to a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-F1).

2. Login as your username.

3. Install linux source (sudo apt-get install linux-source) and headers (sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic).

4. Uninstall nvidia driver - this depends on which version you installed (sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current or sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current-updates or sudo apt-get remove nvidia-experimental-304).

5. Reinstall nvidia driver (sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates).

6. If it successfully installs, restart the computer (sudo shutdown -r now).

More In-depth How-to

The following link gives a more in-depth overview on how to handle the nvidia driver. It should be applicable to more cases, that are similar, but not exactly the same as the one described here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

Solution 2

For all of you in this situation (like I was) there is an easy solution:

1. After logging into the session (only wallpaper seems to appear and bad resolution), right click and click on change wallpaper. Then click up in the left in Show all configurations (my system is in Spanish so maybe the label names are subtly different), then Software sources and finally you just need to change back to X.Org Nouveau.

2. After applying the changes press Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal and type sudo reboot. After this the system should be working properly again.

3. Now try to install the NVIDIA drivers again. Install the meta package, not a specific version.

   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
   

4. Go to system configuration panel and in the software sources select the NVIDIA driver you prefer. (I normally prefer to use the proprietary tested one but it is only my preference)

Solution 3

In the special case of a Ubuntu 12.10 with Nvidia hardware acceleration on a Macbook Pro Retina this set of instructions was tested and works correctly.

Solution 4

For step by step instructions to resolve the issue follow rft183's answere.

If something goes wrong

To use the nouveau driver again run the command:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau --reinstall

Afterwards the monitor resolution could not be set anymore. Deleting the monitors config helped:

rm ~/.config/monitors.xml

View more solutions

Comments

[Luis Alvarado]

This should help many users: askubuntu.com/questions/61396/…

[konradk]

I've installed linux-source and then nvidia drivers, but still the same problem.

[rft183]

I wasn't sure if linux-headers was necessary, but try installing them. It should be linux-headers-3.5.0-17-generic in the software center. Then try switching to the nvidia drivers. If that doesn't work, I have a more 'manual' way :)

[konradk]

Yes, that's it:bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/… Linux headers helped. Thank you!

[rft183]

Cool, I'm glad it worked. I added myself to the list of people that bug affects.

[Shahe Tajiryan]

Do I have to install the nvidia-current-updates? Or can I get the nvidia-current or nvidia-expetimanetal-304?

[rft183]

I haven't tried the others, but I would guess that they would work.

[rft183]

Thanks for pointing out the linux-headers-generic metapackage. I have updated my answer to reflect that.

[Boris B.]

Headers are sufficient for most of kernel module compilations, typically one needs full source only for compiling the actual kernel.

[xavier.seignard]

Hello, I tried that solution, with no luck. My laptop has 2 video cards, it's an optimus based. For now I'm stuck with the nouveau driver, and it's really annoying because I develop webgl apps so I really need this nvidia driver. Any idea? Regards

[Boopathi Rajaa]

Did you install kubuntu-desktop after installing ubuntu. ?

[speciousfool]

These instructions do not work on retina macbook pros

[pratnala]

No luck. I'm on a non-retina MacBook Pro

[webstrap]

I have the same graphic card on a desktop pc, but it does not help. The driver is not shown in the prop. driver settings and i have low resolution AND the i can scroll the screen to right (the second screen) that is just complete blue. Can't even switch to tty anymore. Only after i try recovery boot, and select there normal boot, some graphic driver loading seems to be skipped and i have full resolution, both screens and nvidia drivers used.

[lumbric]

I set up a fresh 12.10 and followed your instructions. The nvidia still couldn't load (modprob nvidia said "nvidia_current_updates not found") and also the configuration for nouveau was kind of messed up. I tried it a second time: fresh 12.10 install, then first installing all updates (I suppose this included a kernel update, but I didn't check that in detail), then installing linux-headers-generic and linux-source and finally installing nvida-current-updates. Then nvidia drivers were working. That's why I added "install updates first" to your answer.

[damada]

In my case, the problem persisted. I noticed that using a guest account, everything was fine, so it a user setting was broken. 'dconf reset -f /org/compiz' solved the issue (though some compiz settings were resetted also)