I'm trying to get X to start on a system with an nvidia ion chipset, but no matter what I do, it fails. This device worked with nvidia as the driver with ubuntu Karmic, so I'm not sure why it's failing.

(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"

(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so

(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"

    compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0

    Module class: X.Org Video Driver

(EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your

(EE) NVIDIA:     system's kernel log for additional error messages.

(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"

(II) Unloading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so

(EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)

(EE) No drivers available.



Fatal server error:

no screens found

dmesg has no useful info regarding it.

I have these packages installed:

# dpkg -l *nvidia* | grep ^ii

ii  nvidia-173                            173.14.22-0ubuntu11                             NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library

ii  nvidia-173-modaliases                 173.14.22-0ubuntu11                             Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver

ii  nvidia-180-modaliases                 185.18.36-0ubuntu9                              Transitional package for nvidia-185-modaliases

ii  nvidia-185-kernel-source              195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        Transitional package for nvidia-glx-185-kernel-source

ii  nvidia-185-libvdpau                   195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        Transitional package for nvidia-185-libvdpau

ii  nvidia-185-modaliases                 195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        Transitional package for nvidia-185-modaliases

ii  nvidia-96                             96.43.17-0ubuntu1                               NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library

ii  nvidia-96-modaliases                  96.43.17-0ubuntu1                               Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver

ii  nvidia-common                         0.2.23                                          Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers

ii  nvidia-current                        195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library

ii  nvidia-current-modaliases             195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver

ii  nvidia-glx-173                        173.14.22-0ubuntu11                             Transitional package for nvidia-glx-173

ii  nvidia-glx-180                        185.18.36-0ubuntu9                              Transitional package for nvidia-glx-185

ii  nvidia-glx-185                        195.36.24-0ubuntu1~10.04                        Transitional package for nvidia-glx-185

ii  nvidia-glx-96                         96.43.17-0ubuntu1                               Transitional package for nvidia-glx-96

ii  nvidia-settings                       195.36.08-0ubuntu2                              Tool of configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver

I'm starting X with xinit /usr/bin/lxsession -session NO_WM -- /usr/bin/Xorg :0.0 -dpms -s 0 -v -allowMouseOpenFail -br (The session is a custom one, but others fail too.)

Here's my xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"

    Identifier     "X.org Configured"

    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0

EndSection



Section "Monitor"

    Identifier   "Monitor0"

    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"

    ModelName    "Monitor Model"

EndSection



Section "Device"

    Identifier  "Card0"

    Driver      "nvidia"

    VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"

    BoardName   "Unknown Board"

    BusID       "PCI:2:0:0"

EndSection



Section "Screen"

    Identifier "Screen0"

    Device     "Card0"

    Monitor    "Monitor0"

    SubSection "Display"

        Viewport   0 0

        Depth     24

    EndSubSection

EndSection

If I use nvidia-xconfig it produces a config file with the vesa driver, which isn't acceptable for what this box will be used for. I'm at a loss for how to continue.

From some googling, I found advice that suggested to add some modprobe blacklists, which I added; they did not help.

blacklist vga16fb

blacklist nouveau

blacklist rivafb

blacklist nvidiafb

blacklist rivatv

The device, according to lspci is 02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0874 (rev b1)

Loading the modules directly fails:

# modprobe nvidia

FATAL: Module nvidia not found.

# modprobe nvidia-current

FATAL: Module nvidia_current not found.

dkms status says I have it;

# dkms status

nvidia-96, 96.43.17: added 

nvidia-current, 195.36.24, 2.6.32-32-generic, i686: installed 

nvidia-173, 173.14.22: added 

Here's the loaded modules.

# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi     3840  1 

snd_hda_codec_realtek   203376  1 

binfmt_misc             6587  1 

ppdev                   5259  0 

snd_hda_intel          22069  0 

snd_hda_codec          74201  3 snd_hda_codec_nvhdmi,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel

snd_hwdep               5412  1 snd_hda_codec

snd_pcm_oss            35308  0 

snd_mixer_oss          13746  1 snd_pcm_oss

snd_pcm                70694  3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_pcm_oss

snd_seq_dummy           1338  0 

snd_seq_oss            26722  0 

snd_seq_midi            4557  0 

snd_rawmidi            19056  1 snd_seq_midi

snd_seq_midi_event      6003  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi

snd_seq                47263  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event

snd_timer              19098  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq

snd_seq_device          5700  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq

video                  17375  0 

output                  1871  1 video

snd                    54244  12 snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hwdep,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device

lp                      7028  0 

psmouse                63677  0 

serio_raw               3978  0 

shpchp                 28835  0 

i2c_nforce2             5199  0 

soundcore               6620  1 snd

snd_page_alloc          7076  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm

parport                32635  2 ppdev,lp

usbhid                 36110  0 

hid                    67288  1 usbhid

r8169                  34140  0 

mii                     4381  1 r8169

ahci                   32360  2