nVidia G86 GeForce 8400 GS proprietary driver not working [SOLVED]

[d.j.yotta]

Hi all,

The proprietary driver installed via the nvidia driver installer is not compatible with the 8400 GS according to the Xorg log:

Xorg.0.log

With some searching I found this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/739577/ ... ce-8400-gs

The claim is that the 340.108 version won't work with the 8400 GS and I need an older version (ie, 340.96).

That would seem to agree with the message in the Xorg log:

Code: Select all

[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS GPU installed in this system is
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     supported through the NVIDIA 340.xx Legacy drivers. Please
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     information.  The 418.74 NVIDIA driver will ignore this
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     GPU.  Continuing probe... 
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS GPU installed in this system is
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     supported through the NVIDIA 340.xx Legacy drivers. Please
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     information.  The 418.74 NVIDIA driver will ignore this
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     GPU.  Continuing probe... 
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS GPU installed in this system is
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     supported through the NVIDIA 340.xx Legacy drivers. Please
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
[   365.052] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     information.  The 418.74 NVIDIA driver will ignore this
[   365.053] (WW) NVIDIA(0):     GPU.  Continuing probe... 

Any way to get the old driver?

I went direct to nVidia website, but that only offers the 340.108 driver - and it claims it supports my card.

Cheers for your help!

[JayM]

*sigh*

Please read How To Ask For Help then run MX Tools/Quick System Info and do a right-click paste into a forum reply. (Quick System Info automatically copies the information to your clipboard, already formatted properly for pasting into the forum so all you have to do is a right-click/paste, not a copy/paste.) Thanks.

[Stevo]

The error message is saying that the 418.74 "nvidia-driver" was installed instead of the correct legacy-340xx driver. Can you copy and rename the /var/log/ddm.log file to ddm.txt and attach it to a message here, so we can see what happened with the installer? It's supposed to install the correct legacy driver automatically.

[d.j.yotta]

Here is my relevant system info.

I didn't post it initially because it didn't seem relevant and could just be TMI. But here it is in any case.

A working gfx config (using a very basic xorg.conf with just the Driver specified):

Code: Select all

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen1"
    Device "Device0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Device0"
EndSection
Section "Device"
    Identifier "Device0"
    Driver "nouveau"
    #Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

The nouveau drivers are not working for me. I get a daily crash. Not particularly interested in solving that one - I'd rather try the nvidia drivers first.

Code: Select all

$ inxi -G
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G86 [GeForce 8400 GS] driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
           resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz, 1680x1050~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A 

Code: Select all

$ inxi -F
System:    Host: yottaLbox Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 
           Distro: MX-19.1_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P5G41T-M LX v: Rev X.0x serial: <root required> 
           BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1001 date: 08/10/2011 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Pentium E6600 bits: 64 type: MCP L2 cache: 2048 KiB 
           Speed: 1601 MHz min/max: 1603/3066 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1601 2: 1601 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA G86 [GeForce 8400 GS] driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           Display: server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: nvidia 
           resolution: 1680x1050~60Hz, 1680x1050~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
           Device-2: Logitech type: USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8131 Gigabit Ethernet driver: atl1c 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: f4:6d:04:91:22:69 
           IF-ID-1: br-3776d6d7dee3 state: down mac: 02:42:9a:4d:ec:15 
           IF-ID-2: br-58a5df41ebef state: down mac: 02:42:83:70:8e:04 
           IF-ID-3: docker0 state: down mac: 02:42:fe:bb:84:31 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.52 GiB used: 149.32 GiB (16.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST3500413AS size: 465.76 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD5003ABYX-01WERA1 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 45.61 GiB used: 14.17 GiB (31.1%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/sda2 
           ID-2: /boot size: 922.0 MiB used: 204.3 MiB (22.2%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-3: /home size: 139.63 GiB used: 134.94 GiB (96.6%) fs: xfs dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 3.72 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 40.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 24 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0 
Info:      Processes: 207 Uptime: 4h 22m Memory: 3.85 GiB used: 2.05 GiB (53.2%) Shell: bash 
           inxi: 3.0.36

[d.j.yotta]

The error message is saying that the 418.74 "nvidia-driver" was installed instead of the correct legacy-340xx driver. Can you copy and rename the /var/log/ddm.log file to ddm.txt and attach it to a message here, so we can see what happened with the installer? It's supposed to install the correct legacy driver automatically.

Hmmm, I failed to spot that! *sigh*

Here is my installed packages:

Code: Select all

$ apt search nvidia | grep installed

WARNING: apt does not have a stable CLI interface. Use with caution in scripts.

conky-all/stable,now 1.10.8-1+b1 amd64 [installed]
ddm-mx/mx,mx,now 20.03.01 all [installed]
firmware-misc-nonfree/mx,mx,now 20190717-2~mx19+1 all [installed]
glx-alternative-nvidia/mx,now 1.1.0~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libegl1-nvidia-legacy-340xx/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libgl1-nvidia-legacy-340xx-glx/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libgles1-nvidia-legacy-340xx/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libgles2-nvidia-legacy-340xx/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libglx-nvidia0/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed]
libnvidia-glcore/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libnvidia-legacy-340xx-cfg1/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libnvidia-legacy-340xx-eglcore/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libnvidia-legacy-340xx-glcore/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
libvdpau1/stable,now 1.1.1-10 amd64 [installed,automatic]
libxnvctrl0/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-alternative/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-detect/now 440.82-1~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
nvidia-installer-cleanup/stable,now 20151021+9 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-kernel-common/stable,now 20151021+9 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver-libs/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 amd64 [installed,local]
nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver-libs-i386/now 340.108-4~mx19+1 i386 [installed,local]
nvidia-legacy-check/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-modprobe/stable,now 418.56-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-support/stable,now 20151021+9 amd64 [installed,automatic]
nvidia-xconfig/stable,now 418.56-1 amd64 [installed]
vdpau-driver-all/stable,now 1.1.1-10 amd64 [installed]
xserver-xorg-video-nouveau/stable,now 1:1.0.16-1 amd64 [installed]
xserver-xorg-video-nvidia/stable,now 418.74-1 amd64 [installed]

I think I installed xserver-xorg-video-nvidia manually myself way back (for no apparent reason - just that I'm a n00b).

So... any advice about how to fix up my packages?

Since I clearly got to this point by installing random packages, I don't want to compound the issue by uninstalling random packages...

[d.j.yotta]

Ok I seem to have bumbled my way to fixing it.

Turns out that the dkms module was failing to build - hence why the packages were not installed.

So it looks like the nvidia driver script is fine, it's just I got my packages into a weird state so the installer was failing to install the correct packages.

Here is a dump of command I did... some were successful, some were not.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get remove libxnvctrl0
sudo apt-get remove libglx-nvidia0
# ended up with held broken packages
# tried to remove them
sudo apt-get remove nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver nvidia-legacy-340xx-kernel-dkms
sudo apt-get autoremove
# remove my past sins
sudo apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
sudo apt-get install --reinstall glx-alternative-nvidia
# aptitude sometimes fixes this sort of thing
sudo aptitude install    nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver nvidia-settings-legacy-340xx nvidia-legacy-340xx-kernel-dkms nvidia-xconfig
# aptitude offered to install the dkms package, remove conflicting package versions but leave the others uninstalled
# this successfully build the dkms module
# after that, I reran the nvidia driver installer

I rebooted and the system came up fine (an xorg.conf was automatically generated - and it seems to work ok).

I checked the xorg log and it's definitely using the nvidia drivers.

I'll monitor the situation and see if I still get the daily gfx crash... but I'm actually able to live with that.

Since I have the nvidia drivers installed and are being used by X, this one is resolved.