NvidiaRecovery

NVIDIA Driver Recovery

This page was last updated on June 11, 2009.

Table of Contents

• Step 01 – Log out
• Step 02 – Log in to a failsafe terminal session
• Step 03 – Uninstall the NVIDIA driver
• Step 04 – Copy the safe xorg.conf backup over the current one
• Step 05 – Log out of the failsafe terminal session
• Step 06 – Log in to the operating system
• Step 07 – Copy linux-restricted-modules-common back into place
• Step 08 – Copy linux-restricted-modules back into place
• Step 09 – Reinstall nvidia-glx and nvidia-glx-new
• Step 10 – Uninstall some packages
• Step 11 – Copy .nvidia_new_installed back into place
• Step 12 – Copy nvidia-kernel back into place
• Step 13 – Copy nvidia-glx back into place
• Step 14 – Copy original xorg.conf backup over the current one
• Step 15 – Restart X

If worse comes to worst, restore your machine to its previous state.

IMPORTANT
Follow only the steps that pertain to your system. If any of these steps refer to files or packages you didn’t have on your system before following the instructions on this page, skip those steps. If any of these steps refer to files or packages you didn’t install as a result of following the instructions on this page, skip those steps.

Step 01 – Log out

• Kubuntu users:
1. Open the K menu.
2. Select Log Out…. from the menu.
3. Left-click the Log out icon.
4. You will be at the login screen.
• Ubuntu users:
1. Open the Main Menu
2. Select Quit… from the menu.
3. Left-click the Log Out icon.
4. You will be at the login screen.

Step 02 – Log in to a failsafe terminal session

• Kubuntu users:

1. Left-click the white icon in the bottom right corner of the window.
2. Select Session Type from the menu.
3. Select Failsafe from the menu.
4. Enter your password into the password box and press the Enter key.
5. Place your mouse pointer anywhere inside the small terminal window that opens in the upper left corner of the window. There is no need to click the mouse in the window, but the mouse must be hovering within its borders while you work in the terminal.
6. Type this command to change to the Desktop directory:

cd ~/Desktop

Press the Enter key.

• Ubuntu users:

1. Left-click Options on the bottom left corner of the window.
2. Left-click Select Session…
3. Left-click the radio button next to Failsafe Terminal.
4. Left-click the Change Session button.
5. Type in your username and press the Enter key.
6. Type in your password and press the Enter key.
7. Left-click the OK button on the informational window that pops up.
8. Place your mouse pointer anywhere inside the small terminal window that opens in the bottom right corner of the window. There is no need to click the mouse in the window, but the mouse must be hovering within its borders while you work in the terminal.
9. Type this command to change to the Desktop directory:

cd ~/Desktop

Press the Enter key.

Step 03 – Uninstall the NVIDIA driver

1. Type this command:

nvidia-installer --uninstall

Press the Enter key.

Step 04 – Copy the safe xorg.conf backup over the current one

1. Type this command:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/xorg.conf.safegraphics /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Press the Enter key.

Step 05 – Log out of the failsafe terminal session

1. Type this command:

exit

Press the Enter key.

You’ll be back at the login screen.

Step 06 – Log in to the operating system

• Kubuntu users:
1. Left-click the white icon in the bottom right corner of the window.
2. Select Session Type from the menu.
3. Select Default from the menu.
4. Enter your password into the password box.

Press the Enter key.

• Ubuntu users:
  1. Left-click Options on the bottom left corner of the window.
  2. Left-click Select Session…
  3. Left-click the radio button next to Last session.
  4. Left-click the Change Session button.
  5. Type in your username.

  Press the Enter key.

  6. Type in your password.

  Press the Enter key.

You’ll be on your Desktop using the vesa video driver.

Step 07 – Copy linux-restricted-modules-common back into place

1. Type this command in a terminal window:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/linux-restricted-modules-common /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Press the Enter key.

Step 08 – Copy linux-restricted-modules back into place

1. Type this command in a terminal window:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/linux-restricted-modules /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules

Press the Enter key.

Step 09 – Reinstall nvidia-glx and nvidia-glx-new

Use the package manager to reinstall the nvidia-glx and/or the nvidia-glx-new package.

Step 10 – Uninstall some packages

Use the package manager to uninstall any of the packages you installed in Step 04 on the NvidiaDriver page.

Step 11 – Copy .nvidia_new_installed back into place

1. Type this command in a terminal window:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/.nvidia_new_installed /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_new_installed

Press the Enter key.

Step 12 – Copy nvidia-kernel back into place

1. Type this command in a terminal window:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/nvidia-kernel /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel

Press the Enter key.

Step 13 – Copy nvidia-glx back into place

1. Type this command in a terminal window:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/nvidia-glx /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx

Press the Enter key.

Step 14 – Copy original xorg.conf backup over the current one

1. Type this command:

sudo cp ~/mynvidiabackups/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Press the Enter key.

Step 15 – Restart X

Now that you’ve returned all your settings to how they were before you began, restart X to use the original video driver. Make sure you don’t have any applications running, since restarting X will close them and you may lose data. Then choose one of these:

• From within the GUI, press these three keys at the same time:

<Ctrl><Alt><Backspace>

Or:

• Open a terminal window and type this command:

sudo /etc/init.d/?dm restart

Press the Enter key.

Obligatory Happy Ending

And they all lived happily ever after. The end.

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