Ubuntu 18.04.3 - NVIDIA driver cannot be installed

Graphics / Linux Linux
#1

Hello,

I have a dual boot (Ubuntu 18.04.3 and Windows 10) laptop Acer Aspire 7 series, with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB GDDR5 Dedicated VRAM). Every time I install an NVIDIA driver (because I also want to install Cuda and run some deep learning algorithms), my laptop stops working. It doesn’t stop/freeze immediately after the installation. It stops/freezes after I reboot.

Also, immediately after the installation, I tried to verify that the installation was completed correctly, by typing nvidia-smi in my terminal. I got the error message that “NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn’t communicate with the NVIDIA driver”.

I tried to switch off secure boot and add nomodeset in my kernel parameters, but it wasn’t successful.

#2

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.
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1043347/announcements/attaching-files-to-forum-topics-posts/

#3

The resulting .gz file
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (1.19 MB)

#4

Please follow this:

  • delete /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  • remove the kernel parameter ‘nomodeset’
  • make sure nvidia-prime is installed (sudo apt install nvidia-prime)
  • switch to nvidia (sudo prime-select nvidia)
  • remove stray blacklist files (sudo rm /lib/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf)
  • update the initrd (sudo update-initramfs -u)
  • reboot
    If this doesn’t resolve the issue, please create a new nvidia-bug-report.log.
1 Like
#5

I did all the above. During the 5th step, this was printed:
~$ sudo rm /lib/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf
rm: cannot remove ‘/lib/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf’: No such file or directory
rm: cannot remove ‘/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf’: No such file or directory

#6

After the reboot my computer froze with a black screen.

#7

Please reboot to recovery after black screen and create a new nvidia-bug-report.log
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
#8

I am trying to install pastebinit but it fails in the root terminal.

#9

create log, prime-select intel, reboot, upload.

#10

I did
~$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
to be able to enter my computer.
After that prime-select intel was executed and the report log re-executed.
nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (1.17 MB)

#11

So, what do you think of my latest report?

#12

Sorry, missed that thread.
According to the logs, on the boot when you created it the xserver was coming up right, looks good. In which state did you create it?

#13

Not sure. Right now, I cannot find the nvidia-bug-report.sh. Probably because of the sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*. So, during when my pc wasn’t functional, I managed to run it and then, after the purge, upload it.

#14

Please try this:
create two files optimus.desktop in /etc/xdg/autostart/ and /usr/share/gdm/greeter/autostart/ containing

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Optimus
Exec=sh -c "xrandr --setprovideroutputsource modesetting NVIDIA-0; xrandr --auto"
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=DisplayServer

Reinstall the nvidia driver from repo/ppa, make sure prime-select is set to nvidia and reboot.

#15

I did all the above and, for the first time, my laptop booted without freezing or showing black screen.

I also executed nvidia-smi and it worked. I received the following message:

±----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 440.26 Driver Version: 440.26 CUDA Version: 10.2 |
|-------------------------------±---------------------±---------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0 GeForce GTX 1050 Off | 00000000:01:00.0 Off | N/A |
| N/A 49C P0 N/A / N/A | 205MiB / 2000MiB | 2% Default |
±------------------------------±---------------------±---------------------+

±----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: GPU Memory |
| GPU PID Type Process name Usage |
|=============================================================================|
| 0 3138 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 124MiB |
| 0 3315 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 58MiB |
| 0 3953 G …uest-channel-token=15731842721092268049 18MiB |
±----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Is there any other configuration that I have to do? I would also like to install CUDA on this laptop.

#16

Looks good. To not break your driver on cuda install, follow this:

  • 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
#17

Thank you very much for your help. I will try it and if anything comes up, I will let you know.

#18

I am using Mint with Cinnamon, can you please help me to get this fixed? :D

#19

Hello

I have the same issue as original poster. Here’s my bug report log nvidia-bug-report.log.gz (146.4 KB)

SOLVED: The error was either secure boot / fast boot was still enabled in BIOS. I turned these off and rebooted and it works.

Best, Hud