0

I was trying to use the latest version of Blender and found out that the newest NVIDIA drivers need to be installed so I can use the GPU in my gaming laptop (originally loaded with Windows 10).

SO I went to this page and typed this into the terminal...

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

and then installed nvidia-modprobe.

The result after rebooting was an extremely low resolution and no matter how many times I typed in my password the screen would always stay stuck in the login screen. Even with the guest account it won't word. So what would be one way to safely log in back into my account in order to remove these possibly-harmful drivers and save my important files? Would a clean install solve this?

I'm using version 15.10 of Ubuntu.

4
  • Have you tried logging into a tty using ctrl+alt+F1?
    – Ian
    May 10, 2016 at 3:17
  • No, what does that do?
    – J. Doe
    May 10, 2016 at 3:23
  • It's essentially logging into a terminal environment (think the computers in the Fallout series or the Windows command line). If you're able to log in that way let me know.
    – Ian
    May 10, 2016 at 3:26
  • Okay, I'm logged into TTY. What happens now?
    – J. Doe
    May 10, 2016 at 3:45

1 Answer 1

0

The issue you are likely having is that your change to the nvidia drivers has made your computer unable to render the desktop environment once you log in. This having been said, you will need to login in order to revert the change. So you will need to log into a tty instead of the GUI.

To get into a tty use the keyboard shortcut: ctrl+alt+F1

This will bring you to an environment that is essentially the terminal you open within the Desktop Enivornment (usually gnome-terminal). You will be asked to log in, supplying both your username and password, and then be presented with whatever default shell you have configured, usually bash by default.

You are then going to want to undo your changes, likely by executing:

sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current

I would also suggest removing the ppa you added by running:

sudo apt-add-repository --remove ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

I would strongly suggest, should this fix your problem, that once you're logged into your normal desktop environment, that you use the "Additional Drivers" GUI program to try and install the correct drivers for your nvidia GPU.

4
  • I've tried removing the drivers, but GNOME still won't come up.
    – J. Doe
    May 10, 2016 at 6:46
  • Yeah, the desktop still doesn't render. Looks like my files are stuck. If there isn't a solution to this other than booting and re-installing Ubuntu back is there a link somewhere to connecting an external hard drive and transferring everything there?
    – J. Doe
    May 11, 2016 at 1:59
  • Yeah, it may have (more or less) irreversibly changed your video settings. It would probably be fastest to just copy your data over to an external and then reinstall. I would avoid installing anything nvidia related from the nonofficial repositories.
    – Ian
    May 12, 2016 at 3:57
  • Could you maybe put a link to another question on how to copy files to an external hard drive via TTY? I'm trying to copy my entire Home folder.
    – J. Doe
    May 12, 2016 at 23:36

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .