Fix my broken GeForce GTX driver and install CUDA

Hi everyone,

Can anyone tell me what I can do to fix my broken GeForce GTX driver? Right now, the Display of my GeForce GTX driver on Ubuntu is blank. I can only use command lines.

I want to

  1. remove the broken driver for GeForce GTX driver
  2. install the latest GeForce GTX driver so that my display works on Ubuntu
  3. install CUDA so that I can make use of my investment of GeForce GTX

Thanks.

Regards,
Ernie

Hey there,

what model card is it?
also, what driver did you try to install?
finally, what version of Ubuntu?

My card is NVIDIA - GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB GDDR5X PCI Express 3.0 Graphics Card - Black Model 9001G4132500001

Currently, my driver is broken. Please suggest a new driver which will work with my card. I was trying to install Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver | 430.50 | Linux 64-bit | NVIDIA

Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS

Thanks in advance.

  • Don’t use the .run installers, use --uninstall option to uninstall them
  • install the driver from repo (sudo apt install nvidia-driver-430)
  • download the cuda .deb
  • add the repo to your system (first three steps from install instructions on download page)
  • don’t install cuda
  • instead, run sudo apt install cuda-toolkit-10-1
  • set PATH variable if necessary
    If this doesn’t resolve the issue, please run nvidia-bug-report.sh as root and attach the resulting .gz file to your post. Hovering the mouse over an existing post of yours will reveal a paperclip icon.
    [url]https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1043347/announcements/attaching-files-to-forum-topics-posts/[/url]

Thanks for your reply.

My current problem is that I can’t uninstall the current broken driver. Last time, I used UI to upgrade driver to the latest version. Hence, I don’t know where the .run installers are. Don’t know how to use --uninstall.

I run “sudo apt install nvidia-driver-430”, and got the message
. "nvidia-driver-430 is already the newest version (430.26-Oubuntu0.18.04.2)
. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 4 not upgraded

Unfortunately, I have the blank screen now after signing in on UI.

Is there anyway I can uninstall the prior Nvidia driver without using --uninstall option because I don’t know where is the .run file? The other way is to figure out a way to find the .run file and run --uninstall option.

Thanks in advance. I think once I uninstall the broken driver and follow your instruction, I will be able to use CUDA.

Note: I have attached my blank screen and the result of running the command “sudo apt install nvidia-driver-430”


Looks like you didn’t use the .run installer at all.
Please run nvidia-bug-report.sh as root and attach the resulting .gz file to your post. Hovering the mouse over an existing post of yours will reveal a paperclip icon.
[url]https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1043347/announcements/attaching-files-to-forum-topics-posts/[/url]
If you have internet connection, you can use pastebinit to upload it from console.

  • install pastebinit (sudo apt install pastebinit)
  • unzip logfile (gunzip nvidia-bug-report.log.gz)
  • upload logfile (pastebinit -i nvidia-bug-report.log)
  • note down and post the url you’re given

To uninstall the packaged driver you’re using, run
sudo apt remove “nvidia*”
in an empty directory.

I have problem to upload the log file. Even my internet is up, pastebinit doesn’t work for me. It just gives the home page and not the right URL. With command line, I can’t mount external drive to copy the log file.

I did "sudo apt remove “nividia*” and re-install nvidia-driver-430. I still have the blank screen.

I am thinking to re-install Ubuntu. Can you suggest how I install the right driver and CUDA after I re-install Ubuntu

Nothing besides sudo apt remove “nvidia*” “cuda”, you could boot to runlevel 3 to avoid X startup loop when the driver is removed.

Please ignore my previous post, that was meant for a different thread.
If you’re going to do a clean reinstall anyway, the best way to install the driver is right during install, choosing the option to “Install Third-Party-Software” and then select the nvidia driver. This will also set up module signing in case you have secure boot enabled and save you a lot of hassle.

Thanks for your information. Now, I really need to spend time fixing my GPU issue.

I am wondering whether you know how to wipe out all the harddisk data and reinstall Ubuntu. I can easily flash Ubuntu bootable disk on USB. However, booting from USB still have the same GPU issue.

I tried to wipe out my internal hard disk to force the re-installation instead of upgrade. Wipe doesn’t wipe out the internal harddisc. I still have the corrupted GPU on my internal hard disk.

I am thinking to wipe out all data. Use USB to re-install (just like the very first time when there is no OS). Do you happen to know how?