2

I did a dist-upgrade today and after rebooting it would not load any GUI (tried lightdm and gdm), just stuck at the blinking underscore cursor. I noticed the driver had changed to Nvidia 343 so I changed it back to 340 and rebooted, which let the system boot normally (both lightdm and gdm).

The problem is that now I cannot use multiple monitors. It will not detect any ports (only the laptop display).

Output from xrandr:

Screen 0: minimum 1600 x 900, current 1600 x 900, maximum 1600 x 900
default connected primary 1600x900+0+0 0mm x 0mm
    1600x900       77.0* 

Output from sudo lshw -C display

*-display UNCLAIMED     
   description: VGA compatible controller
   product: GF108GLM [NVS 5200M]
   vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
   physical id: 0
   bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
   version: a1
   width: 64 bits
   clock: 33MHz
   capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
   configuration: latency=0
   resources: memory:f5000000-f5ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:f6000000-f607ffff

I've tried with and without the docking station. Without the docking station I have VGA and HDMI ports. With the docking station I have DVI, VGA, and HDMI.

Here is my ~/.config/monitors.xml

<monitors version="1">
  <configuration>
    <clone>no</clone>
    <output name="LVDS1">
      <vendor>LGD</vendor>
      <product>0x02df</product>
      <serial>0x00000000</serial>
      <width>1600</width>
      <height>900</height>
      <rate>60</rate>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>yes</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
    </output>
  </configuration>
  <configuration>
    <clone>no</clone>
    <output name="DP-1">
      <vendor>DEL</vendor>
      <product>DELL U2312HM</product>
      <serial>2GFKN39ADVCB</serial>
    </output>
    <output name="LVDS-0">
      <vendor>LGD</vendor>
      <product>0x02df</product>
      <serial>0x00000000</serial>
      <width>1600</width>
      <height>900</height>
      <rate>60.028877258300781</rate>
      <x>0</x>
      <y>106</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>yes</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
    </output>
    <output name="VGA-0">
      <vendor>DEL</vendor>
      <product>DELL U2312HM</product>
      <serial>2GFKN39ADVCB</serial>
      <width>1920</width>
      <height>1080</height>
      <rate>60</rate>
      <x>1600</x>
      <y>0</y>
      <rotation>normal</rotation>
      <reflect_x>no</reflect_x>
      <reflect_y>no</reflect_y>
      <primary>no</primary>
      <presentation>no</presentation>
    </output>
  </configuration>
</monitors>

I have tried xrandr, arandr, and the display settings from the settings application... Nothing seems to detect the other displays.

Any help would be appreciated.

update Dell Latitude E6430

2
  • Try the Bumblebee driver: bumblebee-project.org
    – s3lph
    Sep 25, 2014 at 20:37
  • @the_Seppi I tried Bumblebee, no difference. It switched to the legacy 304.123 driver and it booted into the gui just fine, but it's still not detecting any other displays or display ports.
    – mason81
    Sep 26, 2014 at 14:02

4 Answers 4

1

OK after trying a lot of different things (and subsequently undoing or redoing each one, to try to prevent a bigger mess), I found the solution.

#uninstall bumblebee and nvidia drivers
sudo apt-get purge bumblebee* nvidia*

#reinstall nvidia 331 
#(the only driver that apparently works correctly with my video card)
sudo apt-get install nvidia-331 nvidia-settings nvidia-prime

#restart
sudo reboot

After the reboot everything was back to how it should be, like magic.

source: How to install and configure Nvidia Optimus driver on Ubuntu FAQ

0

In my case this did not work.

The problem is a bug in ubuntu-drivers-common.

I had the same problem with my W530 and could solve it by downgrading to ubuntu-drivers-common=1:0.2.91.4

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-drivers-common=1:0.2.91.4

sudo aptitude hold ubuntu-drivers-common
0

In my case this did not work.

The problem is a bug in ubuntu-drivers-common I had the same problem with my W530 and could solve it by downgrading > to ubuntu-drivers-common=1:0.2.91.4

sudo aptitude install ubuntu-drivers-common=1:0.2.91.4

sudo aptitude hold ubuntu-drivers-common

This defect is still valid even with the latest update of this package of 1:0.2.91.10 It is still not working with Nvidia and I had to downgrade it to 1:0.2.91.4 and then locking it. You will need then to restratr the system to make this change effective and hence detect the external screen.

To downgrade and lock this version you can also use synaptic package manager to do so by selecting menue "Package -> Force Version..." and then select 1:0.2.91.4. Then you can select "Package -> Lock Version" to forbide upgrading this package automatically.

0

Cable Problems!

I just when through a problem where my laptop did not detect my Dell UltraSharp U3416W, a 34" monitor, it turned out to be a cable issue through a docking station that didn't work.

When I plugged the monitor directly in, it was detected correctly right away.

You must log in to answer this question.

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