Finding the Best Driver Linux Mint 15 Cinnamon, GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

I am new to Linux, running Mint 15 and Cinnamon on an older HP laptop:

HP Pavilion 6605us
AMD Athalon 64 X2 Dual Core TK-55 1.8 Ghz processor
2GB RAM (maxed, unfortunately)
Nvidia GeForce 7150M / nForce 630M

I’ve tried all 4 options in the device drivers area with the following results:

  • xserver-xorg-video-nouveau (version 1:1.0.7-0ubuntu1) - Jumbled screen, completely unusable.
  • nvidia-304 (version 304.88-0ubuntu1) - Sometimes boots fine, sometimes hangs at boot, sometimes appears to hang but eventually boots, sometimes crashes with the message "The display server has been shut down about 6 times in the last 90 seconds. It is likely that something bad is going on. Waiting for 2 minutes before trying again on display :0."
  • nvidia-304-updates (version 304.88-0ubuntu2) - Same as above.
  • nvidia-173 (version 173.14.37-0ubuntu1) - Boots fine, but I cannot close the laptop while logged in. If I do, it will lock up with a black screen with a small jumbled square in the center. I have to force a restart.

I’m thinking there may be a driver that will work, but I’m not sure where to start. Any advice on how to address these issues. What driver should I start with next, work my way down through the next oldest?

nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (42.3 KB)

2

For latest nouveau you can add the oibaf ppa which will then lead to better performance with your board hopefully.

3

I’m a Linux moron, what does that mean and how do I do it?

The Nouveau was a jumbled screen mess. Lines and distortion and buttons appeared in one place but you had to click in another to actually get things to happen. I couldn’t even shut it down.

4

If you can open a terminal, the command is sudo add-apt-repositoryppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers followed by sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

5

As for nouveau - file a bug report at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/ and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/ (RedHat employs some nouveau hackers).

6

The only way to boot with nouveau installed is to use software rendering. It’s not usable otherwise.

Do you think if I install the nouveau and add the oibaf ppa that will make it useable?