NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] can not log in in Gnome

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Uros09
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Joined: 07/09/2011

Hello,

I just installed Trisquel 6 amd64 version on my pc. Problem is that I can not even log in at gnome. I used my skills to go to terminal and install LXDE in which I can log in. Gnome just log out me after unsuccessful try to log me in.

I use nvidia graphic card:

01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1).

I can see nouveau driver is in use in lsmod. When I try to do glxgears to check 3d acceleration support from lxde it just log out me too. I think it is nouveau driver problem.

Here is log file from /var/log/Xorg.0.log.
http://pastebin.ca/2463231

Any help will be appreciated because I dislike LXDE and wouuld really like to use Gnome Desktop Environment.

Thank you,
Uros

Darksoul71
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Joined: 01/04/2012

Hey,

I am afraid that Noveau currently does not play nicely with newer cards. I have had issues with my GeForce 450 as well as with a GeForce 610. You either get no 3D acceleration at all and Mesas LVM Pipe or Nouveau is instable as hell.

So far either the NVidia 8X00 family or the 9X00 familiy seem to be good candidates for a Trisquel box with reasonable 3D performance. If you can live wiht exchanging your GPU I would go for a used GeForce 9800GT. You often get those for super low prices at e-bay. Often even with silent cooling solutions already installed.

I mean something like this:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Grafikkarte-Geforce-9800-GT-1024-Mb-DDR3-KFA2-SLI-PCI-Express-2-0-SLI-Brucke-/221292927696?pt=DE_Elektronik_Computer_Computer_Graphikkarten&hash=item...

BTW: What you have be listing is the audio part of your GPU (for HDMI audio).
You need to do a lspci | grep VGA to post your GPU specs.

Regards,
Holger

mYself
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Joined: 01/18/2012

Hi Uros09!

Thank you for your donation. The lspci output you provided is for the audio controller, not GPU. You should provide a full output of the lspci command (don't forget to use formatting when pasting data into your post), to know whether you have an integrated graphic chip too.

The second information you should give to us, is whether your computer is a laptop, or desktop (usually giving the brand/model number is enough). This is for the hardware specification.

The third thing I would like to know is, if your computer contains an Intel, or AMD processor; and if using the NVidia graphic card/chip is neccesarily your preferred choice in case, you also have an Intel processor with an integrated GPU.

Thanks in advance.

Uros09
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Joined: 07/09/2011

Thanks for reply
Here is lspci -v for graphic card
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at f6000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at ec000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at ef00 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at e8000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities:
Kernel driver in use: nouveau
Kernel modules: nouveau, nvidiafb

Graphic card is not integrated on motherboard it is separate card for pci express slot.

My computer is workstation with Genuine Intel processor:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GH

Magic Banana

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 07/24/2010

The nVidia graphic card is separate but your Intel processor includes a graphical chipset that Linux-libre perfectly drives (3D acceleration, video decoding and so on).

You had better physically remove the nVidia and sell it! Not only you will get a more stable system, better graphical performances for some tasks, but you will get money and save energy too! :-)

Darksoul71
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Joined: 01/04/2012

What Magic Banana says is only partially true :P

1) Nouveau runs VERY stable with the GPUs I mentioned above which are available for 10 bucks at the bay

2) The above mentioned GPUs (even when powered by a slow AMD dual core with 2x2.7GHz) still easily compete with every Intel GPU (also the very high end I7).

Simply search the forum / mailing list for my postings.

3) Unless you need to run 1080p videos any decent PC is able to decode 720p stuff.

So from the overall perspective I would always choose an AMD / NVidia solution over the Intel based stuff.

YMMV....

Chris

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Joined: 04/23/2011

I don't know I'd agree with that. Even a dual-core G630T /w Intel graphics is more than capable of playing 1080p video. The i3 with integrated graphics should be fine for most people. An NVIDIA graphics card really isn't necessary unless your looking to play games. Intel's newest graphics chipsets are competitive with NVIDIA/AMD's offerings. The third generation was pretty impressive too actually. It wasn't quite hitting the low end from NVIDIA/AMD although came very very close. Phoronix had some very positive things to say in that regard with the 3rd generaton Intel graphics. The 4th generation is even better with Iris Pro and geared torward gaming.

leny2010

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Joined: 09/15/2011

Looking at your Xorg.0.log I notice you're on the default kernel. The solution might be as simple as installing a newer one as
nouveau is in development. You have a choice of package:

linux-generic-lts-belenos

Which is a Trisquel supported 3.5.x kernel. Or if that doesn't work or you want to go the whole hog then jxself's kernel is pre-built for Trisquel see:

http://jxself.org/linux-libre/

mYself
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Joined: 01/18/2012

+1 goes to Magic Banana and leny2010

The ultimate way is to get rid of the NVidia card, because it's way too new, and it will take years to get proper support with nouveau (the reverse-engeneered NVidia graphic driver), and stay with Intel processors, since they all have an integrated GPU called "HD Graphics", and since Intel do support GNU/Linux, they provide a fully-free Mesa stack with their graphic driver.

I would also try what Darksoul71 said already; it seems to be a great way to go if you in a need for a graphic card. The NVidia 8/9 series are the second best choice right after using Intel HD Graphics, since they're best supported on nouveau. There are many of them out there, just search for the 8XXX/9XXX cards on eBay, they are extremely cheap. An example of one of the best supported card is the nVidia GeForce 9500 GT, but there are a lot more (look at the older Phoronix articles at the bottom of my post). A recent comparison, incl. NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT, and Intel HD Graphics 4600 performance can be found here.

The next time you upgrade your processor, do avoid buying models with Intel vPro/TXT technologies (your processor has both of them built-in). The vPro is a hidden 3G part integrated on the processor die, that allows remote access to your computer by somebody else you does not even seen before, to remotely turn on, and take control of your computer. There is no workaround for this except avoiding the purchase of such a computer/processor. Information about Intel TXT can be found in this Wikipedia article.

One more thing that I can add from my personal experience on my laptop computer, that has a dedicated NVidia GPU, is that you can use the acpi_osi= Linux-kernel parameter to use only one GPU at a time (Intel by default). Just edit /etc/default/grub file using

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and add this parameter to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable, so it will look like

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi="

then run

sudo update-grub

Now you need to restart your computer twice(!), to get things working (once before the BIOS get it initialized). More precisely, restart the computer, and when the login screen appears, restart again. Then you can try to log into the default GNOME environment to see what happens. You can also use

lspci|grep VGA

to see if your graphic card is still active, or not (there should be no output).

If this will not work for you, you can revert this by repeating the process, except that you need to remove the acpi_osi= parameter. This is a workaround that can be used if your BIOS does not allow you to disable the onboard graphics (NVidia), and you does not want to manually remove the card, or you just want to be able to switch between GPUs (like me), but that needs some more scripting to do (basically linking to the right driver with update-alternatives).

References:

 ० 15-Way Open vs. Closed Source NVIDIA/AMD Linux GPU Comparison
 ० 8-Way NVIDIA Nouveau GPU Comparison
 ० Nouveau For A $10 NVIDIA Graphics Card?

Darksoul71
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Joined: 01/04/2012

As for my benchmarks I digged out my old thread:
https://trisquel.info/es/forum/trisquel-55-gaming-benchmarks-and-some-conclusions

In regard to the comment fo Chris: An I3 might run 1080p video but still costs 130€ (where I live). For this one gets a dual-core with 2.9 to 3.6 GHz. But one also gets an AMD 6 Core with 6x3.9GHz or an AMD 8 Core with 8x3.1GHz for the same price. Now do your math :)

But of course Chris is right and a 6- or 8-CPU (similar to an NVidia GPU) is way overpowered for daily use. If with watch out in the reasonable dual-core region, prices go down to 40€ here :)

May be I am simply the Non-Intel guy with a small wallet.....

Uros09
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Joined: 07/09/2011

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. Finally I discovered that my motherboard has integrated HDMI port. I changed my monitor to one which has hdmi support and now everything works fine. (It was time for change of monitor anyway).

Now I can log in to gnome, glxgears shows result of 60,000 FPS which is
like Ubuntu showed with nVidia graphic card with proprietary nVidia driver.

I removed that Nvidia graphic card (NVIDIA Corporation GF106 [GeForce GTS 450]) and plan to sell it.

About processor I didn't have idea that it can allow someone from outside to turn on/off computer. I knew about Microsoft 'Secure Boot' which could prevent users from installing any other OS, but this TXT I didn't know. Next time I will pay attention on this problem too.

Uros09
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Joined: 07/09/2011

About CPU can you point me to some intel i5 processor similar to mine Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2400 CPU @ 3.10GH but without that vPro/TXT ?

I've been on intel web site and find out two which I think don't have that.

http://ark.intel.com/products/75036/Intel-Core-i5-4430-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz
Socket: FCLGA1150, FCLGA1150, FCLGA1150
Graphic: Intel® HD Graphics 4600
no vPro I am not sure about TXT.

http://ark.intel.com/products/65509/Intel-Core-i5-3330-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz
Socket: FCLGA1155, FCLGA1155
Graphic: Intel® HD Graphics 2500
no TXT/vPro

Please check those few links and tell me if one of these CPUs have some hidden
spy-on-me feature like my present CPU ?

My present CPU has HD Graphics 2000 I wonder what's the difference between that and 2500 or 4600 under Trisquel and is 4600 supported ?

lembas
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Joined: 05/13/2010

>My present CPU has HD Graphics 2000 I wonder what's the difference between that and 2500 or 4600 under Trisquel and is 4600 supported ?

My understanding is that all intel GPUs are supported except those based on powervr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Intel_graphics_processing_units

mYself
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Joined: 01/18/2012

Sorry about not answering in time, but I'm currently working on some documentation, which is a priority for me.

I checked the links you provided, and wasn't found more information, as listed in your post (info about TXT isn't on the page in the first link).

I'm not really sure if Intel vPro, and the so-called "Trusted Execution Technology" (TXT) are the only privacy-hampering technologies that should be circumvented (there is also the "Anti-Theft Technology" I doesn't know too much about). You should better open a separate thread on this forum, dealing with these (Intel) processor features.

A temporary solution for the vPro problem, is to switch off the PSU (there is a black switch on the top-back side of the case) after you turn off your computer, since the computer will obviously doesn't start without any power supply. There is also this video (originally posted in another thread, about VPro), demonstrating vPro in practice. Also, if you're interested in the future to buy a cheap laptop PC, that's free software friendly, doesn't contain any of these privacy-violating techs, and comes with Coreboot (the free software BIOS), look up for the TBA Chromebooks, mainly the HP Chromebook 14, and the Acer C720.

Also look for older threads about vPro here.

HD Graphics

Generally, the bigger the number, the better the graphic performance. You should note that very recent hardware will not work as good as it can, because it will take some time to implement, and properly optimize the drivers. Nevertheless, whenever you can, go with the latest Intel microarchitecture generation (which is Haswell at the time of writing this post), but I'm not sure if the processor socket will be compatible (you need to check it yourself before you make a purchase).

If you do some gaming, in case the Intel graphics will not wanna work, you should check those ~10 bucks NVidia cards, that's well supported by nouveau. As far as I can say, there are some games, that refuse to work with Intel based graphics (e.g. Penumbra: Overture), and other proprietary games running either in Wine, or using emulators (e.g. Dolphin-emu, PCSX2, etc.). It's cheap, and if you like tinkering with your computer, then why not?