[SOLVED] After installing the VGA driver for GeForce Fx 5500, Fedora 14 is not booting

Joe911 · #1 22nd January 2011, 02:34 PM

Dears,

I'm new in the world of Linux and especially to Fedora 14. I liked this operating system too much.
After I installed the driver for my AGP GeForce Fx 5500, the system is not booting.
I followed some instructions on a website and I disabled "nouveau" in the grub.conf file and then I installed the driver for the VGA.

I need to mention that I updated my system to the latest software updates.
Anyway, after I installed the driver (which it seems it was wrong for my VGA), the system currently arrive to a step in booting which it's : Starting apt [ok]. After that the system is hanging and not able to enter the desktop

Could anyone help me please so I can enter in a safe mode and remove the wrong driver ?

Thanks a lot

Joe

***DBelton*** · #2 22nd January 2011, 03:01 PM

what guide did you follow? There are numerous guides out there, and a lot of them are completely wrong about how to install the Nvidia drivers in Fedora, and others make it much harder than it should be.

Did you install the correct version of the Nvidia drivers? You need the 173xx version for the FX5500.
Did you install them from RPMfusion? or from the source available from Nvidia? OR some other repo?
If you install from RPMfusion (the easiest and best way on Fedora) did you use the kmod or akmod? (I prefer the akmod so I don't have to wait for the updated kmod pckage when the kernel is updated)

Here is a guide that works the best on Fedora. Follow the steps depending on what kernel and what drivers you wish to install..

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752

Edit:

If you mention how you installed the drivers, then we may be able to give you better instructions on how to recover from what you did.

Joe911 · #3 22nd January 2011, 03:15 PM

Hi DBelton,

Thanks for the great guide you provided for me.

Unfortunately the website (http://linuxsoftwareblog.com/?p=516) , which I followed the instructions inside, is not separating the types of the cards and I installed the wrong driver as it seems by the new guide your provided for me the GeFoce 6..
meanwhile I wanted to install the FX driver.
You are right. I should try the 173.xx

Now, plz tell me how can I boot in safe mode and remove the driver and back to the default driver of Fedora before I follow again the new guide you provided for me.

Awaiting your reply.

Thanks !!

Joe

Joe911 · #4 22nd January 2011, 05:44 PM

Hi DBelton,

Thanks for the guide you provided for me.

I tried to send you the website, but I'm getting a message: "the post will not be visible until a moderator approve on it"

Kindly find below the steps I did:
1. Add this to the end of the kernel line (without quotes) in /etc/grub.conf -> “rdblacklist=nouveau vga=0×318″

2. Command: su -c “rpm -Uvh download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm”

3. Command: yum update

4. A) For 32bit Users, Command: yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i686

5. Reboot

Kindly send me the recovery steps to uninstall the driver and follow the guide you sent
Thank you

Joe

Night Gyr · #5 22nd January 2011, 05:44 PM

Did you run nvidia-xconfig as root after installing the driver?
You need to:
1)Download the NVIDIA-something.run
2)Ctrl-Alt-F2
3)login as root
4)init 3 (very important, as this disables the graphical mode on the other screen, othrwise you won't be able to install the driver, it will complain)
5)sh NVIDIA-something.run -q
6)nvidia-xconfig [all this as root]
7)vi /etc/grub/grub.conf to disable nouveau [you already know that, don't you]
8)reboot and there you are

In case it doesn't run (and it should), you can always Ctrl-Alt-F2, login as root, rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and then vi /etc/grub/grub.conf to enable nouveau back again.

That should work

Regards,
Night Gyr

leigh123linux · #6 22nd January 2011, 06:11 PM

@ Joe911

Please refrain from posting links in your next 4 posts (until you reach a post count greater than 6), as your posts are getting caught in the spam filter.

Joe911 · #7 22nd January 2011, 06:14 PM

Ok dear. Sorry for that. I was obliged to give DBelton the website that contains the steps to help me recover the situation.

leigh123linux · #8 22nd January 2011, 06:22 PM

Ok, to reverse it try

Code:

su
yum erase *nvidia*

Than install the correct 173xx kmod for your kernel.

Code:

uname -r

If it has a PAE in the output follow the PAE guide

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752

Joe911 · #9 22nd January 2011, 07:28 PM

ok everything went perfectly and the system started with the new nvidia driver.

But when I click System -> Administration -> NVIDIA X server settings I'm getting this message:

"You do not appear to be using the NVIDIA X driver. Please edit your X configuration file (just run `nvidia-xconfig` as root), and restart the X server."

I tried the Desktop Effects but unfortunately it didn't work.

Can you help me please to enable the Desktop Effects ?

leigh123linux · #10 22nd January 2011, 07:48 PM

Post

Code:

rpm -qa |grep -e nvidia -e kernel |sort

Code:

uname -r

Code:

su
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf /boot/grub/grub.conf

Joe911 · #11 22nd January 2011, 07:56 PM

[root@Home-Desktop /]# rpm -qa |grep -e nvidia -e kernel |sort
abrt-addon-kerneloops-1.1.14-1.fc14.i686
kernel-2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686
kernel-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686
kmod-nvidia-173xx-173.14.28-1.fc14.7.i686
kmod-nvidia-173xx-2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686-173.14.28-1.fc14.7.i686
nvidia-settings-1.0-9.fc14.i686
nvidia-xconfig-1.0-6.fc14.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-173.14.28-3.fc14.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs-173.14.28-3.fc14.i686
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]# uname -r
2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]# cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
cat: /etc/X11/xorg.conf: No such file or directory
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]#
[root@Home-Desktop /]# cat /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_homedesktop-lv_root
# initrd /initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_homedesktop-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_homedesktop/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_homedesktop/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rdblacklist=nouveau
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.10-74.fc14.i686.img
title Fedora (2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686 ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_homedesktop-lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_homedesktop/lv_root rd_LVM_LV=vg_homedesktop/lv_swap rd_NO_LUKS rd_NO_MD rd_NO_DM LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rhgb quiet
initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.6-45.fc14.i686.img
title Other
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
[root@Home-Desktop /]#

leigh123linux · #12 22nd January 2011, 08:11 PM

Try

Code:

su
cp /etc/X11/nvidia-173xx-xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Restart X i.e: log out and in again.

Joe911 · #13 22nd January 2011, 08:59 PM

Perfect solution dude !!

It worked successfully !!

Thanks a lot

***DBelton*** · #14 23rd January 2011, 03:21 AM

glad you got it to working

I was busy all day here and just now got back on to check things out.

Joe911 · #15 23rd January 2011, 02:49 PM

No problem dear