0

New install (no Windows, etc.) with Ubuntu 15.04. Apparently there are lots of display issues with 14.xx and 15.xx Ubuntu versions and Nvidia cards. I am using a 32bit DELL XP with Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE card and a DVI connection. Initially I had no desktop (black screen). I have gone through help and installed the correct Nvidia package per search. It shows to be 304.128. Currently I get a desktop that has mostly correct format but blank squares where the icons should be and some moderate pixelation and the computer is VERY slow. Can anyone point me in the right direction for resolving this? I have spend hours trying different suggestions and have reinstalled Ubuntu.

Thanks in Advance....

EDIT: want to add that I am also getting the ACPI PCC Probe Failed message but I understand it has nothing to do with the video issues I have.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    please run the following command and then post the output in your question, thanks! lspci -v | grep -A 8 VGA | grep "use:"
    – mchid
    Sep 3, 2015 at 0:31
  • Result of above grep request: Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    – Arries289
    Sep 3, 2015 at 2:20

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
0

Can you try the following

  • Try the built in nouveau driver -> Works without hassle most of the times for me . I use this since I dont do a lot of gaming on my ubuntu and in general 2d it seems faster than Nvidia driver .
  • Try one or more of the drivers provided by nvidia under additonal drivers . There must 2 or 3 options here .
  • Try the nvidia driver from the nvidia site .

Additonally there are some settings in the XOrg config /etc/X11/xorg.conf which help you tweak parameters like refresh rate . You could try tweaking these before trying the driver changes

Improve this answer
4
  • nouveau usually works well on the newer cards but not so well on older ones
    – mchid
    Sep 3, 2015 at 5:33
  • NVE0 GeForce 7300 is on the list of supported chips nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/CodeNames . Might as well give it a try .
    – windy_rider
    Sep 3, 2015 at 9:48
  • supported but doesn't usually work well and from my own experience and others have reported the same system freezes/crashes when running firefox here is a brief mention of it phoronix.com/…
    – mchid
    Sep 3, 2015 at 11:29
  • Thanks for the input guys. I will try these suggestions later this afternoon.
    – Arries289
    Sep 3, 2015 at 11:51
0

There are versions of ubuntu specifically designed to run on older hardware.

The standard Ubuntu Unity desktop is too much for an older machine and runs very slow, however, using Xubuntu, Lubuntu, or Ubuntustudio you should no longer experience these issues.

Ubuntustudio

Xubuntu

Lubuntu

Also, it's probably best to use the Nvidia driver from the official repository on version 15.04. This is the proprietary driver pre-compiled and tested. Open a terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-304

While you are at it, you might as well run the following to properly detect your sensors and hardware:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
sudo sensors-detect

Follow the instructions and make sure to answer yes to the question Do you want to add these lines automatically to /etc/modules?

Improve this answer
3
  • Of the older ubuntu versions above, which one is suggested for my machine?
    – Arries289
    Sep 3, 2015 at 11:54
  • @Arries289 Older? You should not use an older version because your machine is old. Any one of those should work well on your machine. It's all a matter of personal preference, need, and style. If you are any kind of artist you may prefer Ubuntustudio. A lot of people like Lubuntu which runs on openbox. Xubuntu and Ubuntustudio both use the XFCE desktop environment. All of these are designed to use a minimal ammount of system resources to maximize performance which is why they run well on older machines.
    – mchid
    Sep 3, 2015 at 18:49
  • Wanted to thank everyone for their input. I loaded Lubuntu 15.04 and it worked like a charm. I did have some screen tearing (dotted horizontal lines) with Firefox but that was cleared up when I loaded Chromium. Thanks again!!
    – Arries289
    Sep 8, 2015 at 18:31

You must log in to answer this question.

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