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just brew it!
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New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:59 pm

So the latest kernel for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (4.4.0-116) completely borks the Nvidia binary driver. Following installation of the latest round of system updates today, my displays were completely hosed. Main display at wrong resolution, and secondary/tertiary displays completely inoperable.

Tried reinstalling the binary driver from the Ubuntu repo, and also tried using Nvidia's own installer. No dice. Looks like the system was failing to load the binary driver, and falling back to the Open Source Noveau driver (which apparently does not get along with my GT 720).

Backed off to the 4.4.0-112 kernel and everything works again. I'll try the next kernel they push out (whenever that happens) to see if they've got the issue addressed.

I suppose I really ought to get onto a more modern version of Ubuntu. I had meant to upgrade to 16.04 LTS at some point, but now that 18.04 LTS is just around the corner I'm inclined to wait.
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Redocbew
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:16 pm

I'm on 16.04 here, and I had to disable secureboot in order for Nvidia's driver to be happy with my GTX 960. That was when I first built the system, so it may be fixed now, but if you're still on 14.04, then yeah you might as well just wait for the next LTS.
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bthylafh
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:23 pm

You'll have to upgrade to 16.04 before you can upgrade to 18.04 unless you'll do a wipe and reinstall. Might as well pull the bandaid off now.
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Thu Feb 22, 2018 9:50 pm

I typically do a wipe and re-install. /home is on a separate file system anyway.
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Fri Feb 23, 2018 3:30 pm

Also, because of the shortening of the support lifecycle of the Kubuntu flavor (from 5 years to 3), Kubuntu 16.04 LTS goes EOL the same time as 14.04 LTS. This renders 16.04 LTS even more pointless for me (since I run Kubuntu). The only thing 16.04 LTS has going for it is that they've had a couple of years to fix any show-stopper bugs.
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SecretSquirrel
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:34 pm

just brew it! wrote:
Also, because of the shortening of the support lifecycle of the Kubuntu flavor (from 5 years to 3), Kubuntu 16.04 LTS goes EOL the same time as 14.04 LTS. This renders 16.04 LTS even more pointless for me (since I run Kubuntu). The only thing 16.04 LTS has going for it is that they've had a couple of years to fix any show-stopper bugs.


I've been running 16.04.4 on my main home workstation for some time. One thing to be aware of when you make the jump, either 16.04 or 18.04, is that you are going to get introduced to systemd. I won't get into the "love it or hate it" side of things. Just be aware that the way you deal with booting and logging will change.

I'll probably move to 18.04 mid summer, assuming there aren't any major issues found after release.

--SS
 
bthylafh
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Sat Feb 24, 2018 12:44 pm

There's Devuan if you want a Debian derivative with sysvinit, but it seems to lag pretty far behind mainline Debian. I'm sure it takes a lot of work to remove all of systemd's tentacles from GNOME and other packages.
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Mon Feb 26, 2018 2:46 pm

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
 
SecretSquirrel
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Mon Feb 26, 2018 2:57 pm

just brew it! wrote:


Fun, more Spectre/Meltdown fall-out. This is going to be the gift that keeps on giving....

--SS
 
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Mon Feb 26, 2018 3:00 pm

I'm not running the gcc toolchain from the official repos (needed newer toolchain for something I was working on a few months ago), so this will be fun to sort out.
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FlamingSpaceJunk
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Re: New Ubuntu kernel + Nvidia drivers = broken desktop

Mon Feb 26, 2018 7:26 pm

just brew it! wrote:
I'm not running the gcc toolchain from the official repos (needed newer toolchain for something I was working on a few months ago), so this will be fun to sort out.


I was introduced to Lmod at my last postion, and I would highly recommend it when doing custom stuff with the toolchain. It's something to look into anyway.

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