[SOLVED]xorg configuration: Desktop gone, only CLI left

Moby · posted: 2015-08-15 19:37

Hello,
I've experienced trouble waking up the machine from"Suspend (to RAM)" so I decided to install and configure the Nvidia drivers on AntiX 15 for my 32-bit processor HP laptop, dating back to 2007, with Win7 in dual-boot.

I've followed a guide based on 64-bit Debian Jessie (Antix is based off of Debian, after all) but the installation didn't go as expected and on reboot I lost the GUI desktop, now I'm left with a CLI AntiX and…I'm not comfortable with it! Can you please show me a more specific guide, tailored to AntiX 15, that can help me recover the GUI desktop and configure the Nvidia drivers, please?

This is what happened in the Terminal while installing the Nvidia drivers, when I still had the desktop i.e. ROX-fluxbox:

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$ lspci -nn | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation G72M [GeForce Go 7400] [10de:01d8] (rev a1)
$ sudo nano / etc / apt / sources.list

The content of the sources.list file is this:

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#Debian 8 Jessie
deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

Then I updated the list of packages available for install and installed the Nvidia drivers:

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$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-xconfig

When I installed the nvidia-xconfig pkg I got back some warnings so I took some screenshots of the Terminal. I've numbered and included them in the zip file (see attachment). They're in Italian but basically they say:

This system has an out-dated Nvidia graph card but you can use Nouveau instead. To use Nouveau you first need to remove Nvidia's configuration from xorg.config. Install Nvidia drivers even if they're not supported? Yes
There's a conflict between the free kernel of Nouveau and the proprietary kernel for Nvidia. To correct this conflict reboot the system once the install is completed
You need to MANUALLY configure the Nvidia drivers in xorg.config, see the package's manual (← how do I manually configure it?)

I attempted to start the nvidia-xconfig but I got this response from Terminal:

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$ sudo nvidia-xconfig
WARNING: Unable to locate/open X configuration file.

Package xorg-server was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `xorg-server.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
 No package 'xorg-server' found
 New X configuration file written to '/ etc / X11 / xorg.conf'

What do I do now? How do I MANUALLY configure xorg now that Antix only boots to CLI? Can someone please point me towards a guide or explain it to me step by step, please?

kmathern · posted: 2015-08-15 20:46

For your GeForce Go 7400 nvidia card you need to install the 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package instead of the 'nvidia-driver' package.
nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver supports GeForce 6xxx & 7xxx cards, nvidia-driver doesn't.

There's also another possible problem, the Debian Jessie 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package might not support the 4.0.5 kernel that antiX-15 is using.
I think if you enable the Siduction fixes repo that it's 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package does support the 4.0.5 kernel, anti suggested the same here: post41658.html#p41658

Dave · posted: 2015-08-16 02:16

Maybe apt-get purge the Nvidia packages that you have installed and run sgfxi as root. That is what I have been running for my graphics card driver installation. You may need to run it, reboot and run again depending on if you are running a conflicting driver or not.

Moby · posted: 2015-08-16 16:26

Dave wrote:Maybe apt-get purge the Nvidia packages that you have installed and run sgfxi as root. […]
You may need to run it, reboot and run again depending on if you are running a conflicting driver or not.

I've tried running sgfxi as root ("su -" followed by root password) but it didn't work out. The script tries to install the Nvidia driver 304.125 by extracting and installing the contents of package"NVIDIA-Linux-x86-304.125"; it ended with error '1' and a very lengthy log file was created in var/log/sgfxi/sgfxi.log (it looks like Greek to me, no pun intended).

I think now I should install the"nvidia-detect" package and get the exact name of the package I need. I suppose it's what kmathern suggested I should do.

kmathern wrote:For your GeForce Go 7400 nvidia card you need to install the 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package instead of the 'nvidia-driver' package.
nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver supports GeForce 6xxx & 7xxx cards, nvidia-driver doesn't.

There's also another possible problem, the Debian Jessie 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package might not support the 4.0.5 kernel that antiX-15 is using.
I think if you enable the Siduction fixes repo that it's 'nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver' package does support the 4.0.5 kernel, […]

@kmathern I've read the link you gave me, but I didn't quite understand how I should enable the Siduction fixes repo. What is the file I'm going to modify in AntiX? source.list?

kmathern · posted: 2015-08-16 22:35

Moby wrote:...@kmathern I've read the link you gave me, but I didn't quite understand how I should enable the Siduction fixes repo. What is the file I'm going to modify in AntiX? source.list?

The /etc/apt/sources.list.d/siduction.list file.

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#siduction 
#deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free

Remove the # at start of the 2nd repo line.

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#siduction 
#deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free

Reload repo lists with a 'apt-get update'.
When you reload there will probably be GPG error, installing the Siduction repo's keyring package, 'apt-get install siduction-archive-keyring', will fix the GPG error.
I would only enable the Siduction repo just long enough to install the nvidia related packages from it, I'd disable it afterward.

Moby · posted: 2015-08-17 11:49

kmathern wrote: The /etc/apt/sources.list.d/siduction.list file.
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#siduction 
#deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
#deb ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/base unstable main contrib non-free
#deb-src ftp://ftp.spline.de/pub/siduction/fixes unstable main contrib non-free
Remove the # at start of the 2nd repo line.
[…]
Reload repo lists with a 'apt-get update'.
When you reload there will probably be GPG error […]
I would only enable the Siduction repo just long enough to install the nvidia related packages from it, I'd disable it afterward.

I got my desktop back! I've tried putting the machine to sleep and waking it up from RAM– it works fine now! It's the correct Nvidia drivers that I was missing.

Do I have to still manually edit the xorg file in /etc/X11/...?
I'm still getting the YouTube video buttons mixed up, one over the other (see screenshot in attachment, please). Does that depend on some other fixes that I must download from Siduction before I disable it again?

kmathern · posted: 2015-08-17 13:55

Moby wrote:...I got my desktop back! I've tried putting the machine to sleep and waking it up from RAM– it works fine now! It's the correct Nvidia drivers that I was missing.

Do I have to still manually edit the xorg file in /etc/X11/...?
I'm still getting the YouTube video buttons mixed up, one over the other (see screenshot in attachment, please). Does that depend on some other fixes that I must download from Siduction before I disable it again?

First post a 'inxi -Fxxx' report and maybe also your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

In the past I've used a very simple xorg.conf, like the one from the Debian wiki:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Configuration"
linktext was:"https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsD ... figuration"
====================================

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Section"Device"
        Identifier"My GPU"
        Driver"nvidia"
EndSection

You can then use nvidia-settings to 'tweak' it a bit.
If you're going to do that, install the nvidia-settings-legacy-304xx package instead of the nvidia-settings package.
I'm not exactly sure what the differences are, but I think the legacy-304xx package should be used instead of the non legacy one.
The nvidia-settings-legacy-304xx package is in the Debian Jessie repo, so you don't need to re-enable the Siduction repo to install it.

Moby · posted: 2015-08-18 08:25

kmathern wrote: First post a 'inxi -Fxxx' report and maybe also your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
You can then use nvidia-settings to 'tweak' it a bit.
If you're going to do that, install the nvidia-settings-legacy-304xx package instead of the nvidia-settings package.
[…]
The nvidia-settings-legacy-304xx package is in the Debian Jessie repo, so you don't need to re-enable the Siduction repo to install it.

@kmathern, here are the 2 reports/files you requested. I haven't installed any package nor edited any file, not yet.

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$ inxi -Fxxx
System:    Host: aliquis Kernel: 4.0.5-antix.1-486-smp i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.2) Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5 dm: slim
           Distro: antiX-15-V_386-full Killah P 30 June 2015
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv6000 (GH881EA#ABZ) v: Rev 1 Chassis: Quanta type: 10
           Mobo: Quanta model: 30BC v: 66.37 Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: F.16 date: 02/02/2007
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 T5600 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7317
           clock speeds: min/max: 1000/1833 MHz 1: 1833 MHz 2: 1833 MHz
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA G72M [GeForce Go 7400] bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:01d8
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 driver: nvidia Resolution: 1280x800@59.98hz
           GLX Renderer: GeForce Go 7400/PCIe/SSE2 GLX Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.125 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:27d8
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.0.5-antix.1-486-smp
Network:   Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
           driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:4222
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:19:d2:99:db:cf
           Card-2: Intel 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: e1000e v: 2.3.2-k port: 4000 bus-ID: 05:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:109a
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:1b:24:13:3b:10
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (4.6% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: ST9160821AS size: 160.0GB serial: 5MA1KAX9
Partition: ID-1: / size: 18G used: 3.1G (19%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 4.19GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 112 Uptime: 13 min Memory: 250.8/2018.8MB
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.88 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301 running in roxterm) inxi: 2.2.25

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# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 340.46  (buildd@binet)  Tue Oct  7 08:03:22 UTC 2014

Section"ServerLayout"
    Identifier    "Layout0"
    Screen      0 "Screen0"
    InputDevice   "Keyboard0""CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice   "Mouse0""CorePointer"
EndSection

Section"Files"
EndSection

Section"InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier    "Mouse0"
    Driver        "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol""auto"
    Option        "Device""/dev/psaux"
    Option        "Emulate3Buttons""no"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping""4 5"
EndSection

Section"InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier    "Keyboard0"
    Driver        "kbd"
EndSection

Section"Monitor"
    Identifier    "Monitor0"
    VendorName    "Unknown"
    ModelName     "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option        "DPMS"

Section"Device"
    Identifier    "Device0"
    Driver        "nvidia"
    VendorName    "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

Section"Screen"
    Identifier    "Screen0"
    Device        "Device0"
    Monitor       "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection    "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Do you think I should type a more intuitive label for"Driver" and"Identifier" in the"Device" section, in this last file?
Do you think it is the Adobe flash player that causes the control buttons of YT to pile up on each other?
Also, the combination of 'Fn' key + [F1–F12] doesn't work. I'd like to decrease the screen brightness with these keys so I can save some battery power and keep the CPU low. Can that be done by tweaking Nvidia with nvidia-settings?

kmathern · posted: 2015-08-18 16:26

Your inxi report and xorg.conf look okay to me.

Also, the combination of 'Fn' key + [F1–F12] doesn't work. I'd like to decrease the screen brightness with these keys so I can save some battery power and keep the CPU low. Can that be done by tweaking Nvidia with nvidia-settings?

You might be able turn the brightness down some in nvidia-setting's gamma related settings, but I think there's some other (better) tools for that.
Maybe someone else can help with that.

Do you think it is the Adobe flash player that causes the control buttons of YT to pile up on each other?

I don't know what's causing the buttons to overlap. Are you sure that Adobe flash player is even being used to play videos on Youtube?
Youtube now uses html5 on my installs, but I haven't had any problem with the buttons overlapping with it.

Moby · posted: 2015-08-19 20:01

kmathern wrote:
Are you sure that Adobe flash player is even being used to play videos on Youtube?
Youtube now uses html5 on my installs, […]

How do I see if Adobe flash is being used or whether YT is using html5? Maybe that's exactly the problem…

thriftee · posted: 2015-09-13 18:48

I have that same overlapping buttons on the left side on youtube with mine running the nvidia 304 legacy stuff. I wonder if its nvidia 304 driver related?