ATI OK - NVidia cannot boot to GUI

[dragon3x]

Hi, this is related to ATI and NVidia graphics cards. In short: ATI works fine but NVidia don't.
I installed MX-23 on a computer with an ATI HD7450 graphics card. All went smoothly and the computer is running fine.
Then I realized I had not enough problems in my life so I decided to replace the ATI with a NVidia GT730 graphics card. A resounding and immediate success !! Now the computer cannot boot anymore. I tried GT710, GT610, Geforce 7300, still that no-boot situation.
--------(update:I put the ATI back again and it works fine)
More precisely it stops at a command line login prompt. I enter my user and password then that prompt is there again. My knowledge of command line is very limited. I searched on the forums about an equivalent subject but the command line appears quickly in the messages and I am lost. I tried "startx" but I got error messages.

########################## Here is Quick System Info ##########################################

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System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-11-amd64 [6.1.38-3] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-11-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.18.1 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.36 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.18.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.26.0 Distro: MX-23_x64 Libretto July 31  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: FUJITSU SIEMENS product: A8NE-FM v: 1.XX serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: ASUSTek model: A8NE-FM v: 1.00 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Phoenix v: FUJITSU
    SIEMENS A8NE-FM 1010 date: 10/17/2005
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ bits: 64 type: MCP arch: K8 level: v1 built: 2004-06
    process: AMD 90nm family: 0xF (15) model-id: 0x23 (35) stepping: 2 microcode: 0x4D
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 2 smt: <unsupported> cache: L1: 256 KiB desc: d-2x64 KiB; i-2x64 KiB
    L2: 2 MiB desc: 2x1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2212 min/max: N/A cores: 1: 2212 2: 2212 bogomips: 8846
  Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass status: Not affected
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not
    affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM] vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire
    driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: TeraScale-2 code: Evergreen
    process: TSMC 32-40nm built: 2009-15 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports:
    active: DVI-D-1 empty: HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:6779 class-ID: 0300
    temp: 39.5 C
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.18.0 driver: X: loaded: radeon
    dri: r600 gpu: radeon display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 444x277mm (17.48x10.91") s-diag: 523mm (20.6")
  Monitor-1: DVI-D-1 mapped: DVI-0 model: Philips 220SW serial: <filter> built: 2009
    res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 gamma: 1.2 size: 474x296mm (18.66x11.65") diag: 552mm (21.7")
    ratio: 16:10 modes: max: 1680x1050 min: 720x400
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: AMD CAICOS (DRM 2.50.0 / 6.1.0-11-amd64 LLVM 15.0.6)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA CK804 AC97 Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_intel8x0 v: kernel bus-ID: 00:04.0
    chip-ID: 10de:0059 class-ID: 0401
  Device-2: AMD Caicos HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6450 / 7450/8450/8490 OEM R5 230/235/235X OEM]
    vendor: PC Partner / Sapphire driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aa98 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-11-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.65 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: NVIDIA CK804 Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK type: network bridge driver: forcedeth v: kernel
    port: b000 bus-ID: 00:0a.0 chip-ID: 10de:0057 class-ID: 0680
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: ppp0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 298.09 GiB used: 15.51 GiB (5.2%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital model: WD3200AAJB-00J3A0 size: 298.09 GiB
    block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: <unknown> type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: 3E01
    scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 298.09 GiB size: 292.35 GiB (98.07%) used: 15.51 GiB (5.3%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 2 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 39.0 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2061 libs: 1009 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:hawkeye116477:waterfox.list
    1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/hawkeye116477:/waterfox/xUbuntu_22.04/ /
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list
    1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 223 Uptime: 10h 23m wakeups: 1 Memory: 3.82 GiB used: 2.43 GiB (63.5%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12 Client: shell wrapper
  v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

###############################################################################################

This is a "chicken and egg" situation. To install the NVidia driver the graphics card must be inside the computer. But the computer cannot boot.
The Asus motherboard has a NVidia chipset and I would think there is a better intagration with the NVidia graphics card.
On NVidia website I found that driver package "NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run" . Is this better than "nouveau" driver ?

Thanks for help

[Charlie Brown]

Normally it should've run with Nouveau. You can try to boot a live usb (the one you installed MX) and see if it's still the same.

Or:

Press E on Grub, add nomodeset after ... ro quiet splash .. and press F10

If that succeeds, run "Nvidia Driver Installer" from menu.


P.S. Before all: If there's such a "file" (not to be confused with the xorg.conf.d folder) just delete it: /etc/X11/xorg.conf then try once more to boot with Nvidia card.

[Stevo]

If you enabled the "tearfree" option in MX Tweak for AMD graphics, you will have created a file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-amd.conf

That file tells the system to use the AMD driver.

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Section "Device"
	Identifier  "AMD"
	Driver "amdgpu"
    Option "TearFree" "on"
EndSection

You can boot the live MX system and poke around in those files on your installed system to see what's going on in them.

[dolphin_oracle]

You can run the nvidia installer from the console login

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sudo ddm-mx -i nvidia

[dolphin_oracle]

with the ati card in you can also force install nvidia drivers.

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sudo ddm-mx -i nvidia -f nvidia-driver

[dragon3x]

Hi, thanks for very fast replies indeed.
Also thanks for very fast solution as now it works OK with NVidia.
Still with ATI graphics I opened MX Tweaks ("Panel", "Theme", ...) and went to "Other", where I turned off "Tearfree Radeon Driver Option".
Back to MX Tweaks I opened "Appearance" ("Style", "Icons", "Fonts" ...) and went to "Fonts" where I turned off "anti-aliasing" (disabled).
Then I powered off the computer, removed the ATI card and installed the NVidia GT610 2GB DDR3. To my (relative) surprise the computer booted with user GUI etc.
The only difference is I had to select the wallpaper again. Not very complicated I have to say.
I would think there is something to learn from that event, it should not happen again. Some booting script somewhere could be modified to validate the required parameters.
Have a good day everyone.