16

I made the mistake of installing the Nvidia Linux drivers direct from their website. It failed because it could not remove the nouveau driver.

Next I manually installed the nvidia drivers from the repository which successfully installed the nvidia driver, but the Ubuntu desktop does not function; no launcher, no menu bar, no windows. (Gnome seems to work though).

So I want to revert back to the vanilla installed nouveau driver. I tried

sudo stop lightdm
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo reboot

but lshw -c video reveals I still have one nvidia driver and one i915 driver. nouveau has not returned and the desktop will not function.

I am considering a complete reinstall, is there anything else to try?

I have followed the other threads with the same issues, but the solutions did not work

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Creates an error.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg.core libgl1-mesa-glx

Did not make a difference.

cccm

Same.

Andreas Løve Selvik
  • 103
  • 3
leepubuntu
  • 173
  • 1
  • 2
  • 7
  • For me, substituting in a xorg.conf file worked, even using the failsafe one already in the folder. If there's absolutely no xorg.conf, it'll likely not work. – xji Dec 06 '15 at 10:27

5 Answers5

14

Had the same problem.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-core libgl1-mesa-glx

This actually fixed it. Ubuntu 13.10 x64 + nVidia 740M. Thank you very much!

You did not mention your GPU. If you've had that problem on a laptop, I'd suggest its because of the so-called "Fusion" system (which uses your integrated GPU in lieu of discrete one when you don't need it).

chaos
  • 27,106
  • 12
  • 74
  • 77
Inertia
  • 141
  • 1
  • 3
11

Ultimate fix:

sudo stop lightdm
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
sudo apt-get purge bumblebee
sudo reboot now

Do not remove xorg.conf file, I repeat do not remove xorg.conf.

shaneonabike
  • 358
  • 2
  • 10
Arsalan
  • 111
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
    Why not to remove xorg.conf ? If there is some nvidia-specific stuff inside, I quess it could bring X to dont work any more. I just moved it to xorg.conf.backup and did the reboot --> worked like a charm, so I deleted it. – Alex May 27 '16 at 09:54
8

Be sure you remove all blacklist entries involving nouveau from /etc/modprobe.d as well.

Otherwise even if the system is configured to use it, it will not. I believe blacklist-local, and the nvidia backlists will be of primary concern.

nux
  • 37,371
  • 34
  • 117
  • 131
Tyler
  • 81
  • 1
  • 1
1

I had the same issue. Mine turned out to be a badly configured bumblebee.conf referencing nvidia-304 in one place and nvidia-current in another.

Eliah Kagan
  • 116,445
  • 54
  • 318
  • 493
tom
  • 11
  • 1
1

Try this:

cd /etc/modules-load.d/ 
mv nvidia.conf nvidia.conf.backup

cd /etc/modprobe.d/
mv nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf.backup
mv nvidia.conf nvidia.conf.backup
mv nvidia-kernel-common.conf nvidia-kernel-common.conf.backup

Good luck!

Weyler
  • 11
  • 1