2

Recently, I've replaced a basic ATI card to NVIDIA GeForce 750 Ti. Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu work fine, but Debian cannot even boot. After selecting standard boot: After standard boot And after boot in recovery mode: After boot in recovery mode.

I suppose that the nouveau would be the culprit, so I've downloaded the original Nvidia closed-source drivers' *.run file. Unfortunately, I can't install them since there is no access to CLI. How to solve my problem?

0x6B6F77616C74
  • 183

4 Answers4

3

I just run into the same issue trying to boot an old Debian installation(after replacing the intel onboard to a GeForce 750 Ti).

Booting with the "nomodeset" kernel command line parameter allowed me to get to the desktop.

linux   /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-686-pae root=UUID=be1a5710-a49c-4745-884c-26c6bbdbaf37 ro  quiet nomodeset

https://wiki.debian.org/KernelModesetting

johnanthonyboyd
  • 31
  • 2
1

If you edit your kernel command line in GRUB, one of these options should keep the module from loading:

  • modprobe.blacklist=nouveau
  • nouveau.blacklist=yes

You could also try the nouveau.nofbaccel, nouveau.noaccel, or nouveau.modeset options to get the nouveau driver to work well enough.

Note that when you edit the kernel command-line in GRUB, the changes are not persistent; it'll only be for the one boot.

That should get your machine booted, at which point you can install one of the nvidia packages (such as nvidia-driver) to get the closed-source driver. Note that you'll need to have non-free enabled to see those packages.

derobert
  • 109,670
  • Nothing has changed after blacklist. Same with constraining nouveau. – 0x6B6F77616C74 Jul 29 '14 at 19:04
  • @0x6B6F77616C74 If you boot with init=/bin/bash, does that break early enough that nouveau hasn't been loaded? If so, can you check if its in your /etc/modules? – derobert Jul 29 '14 at 20:39
  • Not sure what "fbcon" is, but I found this on redhat.com: "nouveau.nofbaccel=1 option will disable fbcon acceleration, but leave X accelerated." – PJ Brunet Nov 26 '16 at 20:56
  • 1
    @PJBrunet fbcon = frame buffer console. That's used for when you switch to a virtual console (not inside X). Without acceleration, the text won't display as fast (so nothing to worry about really). – derobert Nov 28 '16 at 17:42
1

Solved! All I had to do:

  1. Download and burn the latest live edition of debian-gnome
  2. Run that livedvd in failsafe mode.
  3. Change root to partition with Debian, in my case it is /dev/sda6. Instruction how to do it is in the point 3 here: http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/112346/is-it-possible-to-install-a-linux-desktop-environment-from-a-live-cd/112358#112358
  4. Install the nvidia drivers via "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.24.run"
  5. Disable nouveau drivers by setting "GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"" in /etc/default/grub
  6. Apply changes with "update-grub"
0x6B6F77616C74
  • 183
0

I have the Nvidia GeForce 650M (built into a Lenovo Y400) and was having various problems and had difficulty finding clear instructions, most answers assume you have Ubuntu. I'm using BunsenLabs Debian 8 Jessie. This solved all my problems:

Edit /etc/grub.d/10_linux/ and add the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nouveau.noaccel=1"

Then run update-grub and reboot. This allows me to use subpixel smoothing without garbled text, YouTube without freezing up, etc.

Personal notes: I did not bother to install Nvidia drivers. I suppose if you install the right driver, and configure xserver properly, then maybe you don't need to disable acceleration? Initially, I tried nvidia-detect and installed Nvidia drivers via apt-get, but either they didn't work or they messed up my xserver config. Rather than wander around lost in a terminal with no graphics, I uninstalled all of my Nvidia drivers. I'm able to do all of my work without the Nvidia drivers now. Longer explanation here http://pjbrunet.com/customizing-bunsenlabs-linux/

PJ Brunet
  • 783
  • Could you tell me what the "quiet splash nouveau.noaccel =1" do? I have a very similar card to yours (i think) GeFore 940mx and installing via NVIDIA packages have only made my computer unbootable. – M.O. Dec 30 '16 at 13:57
  • My first impression, Nouveau is some kind of generic graphics driver, and/or software layer somewhere between the operating system and the video hardware, and by turning off acceleration, you're just talking to the video hardware in the most basic, standard way possible, which isn't "accelerated" but at least works. When you say "bootable" do you get a blank screen? I think Control-Alt-F1 gets you a terminal, then you can uninstall your Nvidia stuff. However, I suspect the real problem is the Nvidia drivers are just breaking our xserver configurations, booting us to a blank screen with no UI. – PJ Brunet Dec 30 '16 at 14:20
  • @Mariel Disabling acceleration is probably easier, but also it's possible you installed the correct drivers, and now need to fix whatever the drivers did to your xserver configuration. I'm not an xserver expert, but that's my theory, that Nvidia isn't carefully detecting the operation system and is incorrectly configuring xserver, which results in booting up a system with no graphics. It's possible an xserver solution is better/easier than disabling acceleration, but that's outside my area of expertise. – PJ Brunet Dec 30 '16 at 14:31