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Ubuntu video driver problem

Beanbag

Illuminator
Beanbag
Joined
Jun 7, 2003
Messages
3,468
I've been playing around with Ubuntu Linux (yet again), and have installed it for the first time on a dual-monitor system. The OS recognizes there are two monitors, and I can expand my desktop across both monitors just fine using the plain-jane video driver that Ubuntu slaps down as a placeholder.

There is, however, a proprietary driver that Ubuntu informs me would do a better job, allowing more fancy desktop effects and animations. I can download it, and have even managed to configure it correctly. The problem is, it has to be configured through the driver software utilities that came with the new driver, NOT through the Ubuntu systems admin functions, and it won't let me save the new configuration to the etc directory. It says I'm not authorized. Every time I reboot, I lose the previous configuration (i.e. go back to just one monitor), and have to go back and reconfig the driver.

I went looking for the configuration file, and under Properties it says it belongs to root. Obviously, there's a permissions issue going on here. I set up a password for root, thinking I could log in as a superuser and save the new configuration. Unfortunately, Ubuntu won't let me log in as a system admin from the normal log-in screen, nor can I figure out how to possibly sudo my way into having the graphics utility get the necessary permission to alter the file.

Okay, any suggestions from the *nix people out there? I'm thinking there MUST be some way to get root privileges under my normal account, either through sudo, gsudo, or some way to log in as root, but damned if I can find it in any of the printed or online documentation I've got.

Beanbag
 
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Beanbag said:
I've been playing around with Ubuntu Linux (yet again), and have installed it for the first time on a dual-monitor system. The OS recognizes there are two monitors, and I can expand my desktop across both monitors just fine using the plain-jane video driver that Ubuntu slaps down as a placeholder.

There is, however, a proprietary driver that Ubuntu informs me would do a better job, allowing more fancy desktop effects and animations. I can download it, and have even managed to configure it correctly. The problem is, it has to be configured through the driver software utilities that came with the new driver, NOT through the Ubuntu systems admin functions, and it won't let me save the new configuration to the etc directory. It says I'm not authorized. Every time I reboot, I lose the previous configuration (i.e. go back to just one monitor), and have to go back and reconfig the driver.

I went looking for the configuration file, and under Properties it says it belongs to root. Obviously, there's a permissions issue going on here. I set up a password for root, thinking I could log in as a superuser and save the new configuration. Unfortunately, Ubuntu won't let me log in as a system admin from the normal log-in screen, nor can I figure out how to possibly sudo my way into having the graphics utility get the necessary permission to alter the file.

Okay, any suggestions from the *nix people out there? I'm thinking there MUST be some way to get root privileges under my normal account, either through sudo, gsudo, or some way to log in as root, but damned if I can find it in any of the printed or online documentation I've got.

Beanbag
Click to expand...

I need to know if this is an nVidia or ATI. I'm guessing it is an nVidia, but I'm not sure.

Can you give me the video card model and version of ubuntu (I assume 9.04?)

I had this very problem with an nVidia card that I ended up following a thread I found in the ubuntu forums to fix.
 
Ubuntu 9.04, the latest stable release, just downloaded 24 hours ago. The system update ran several hours ago, so it's current with everything within the last 12 hours.

The video card is an ASUS EN8500 GT, using the GeForce 8500 GT chipset, 512mb memory.

Ubuntu shows two NVIDIA accelerated drivers, Version 180 (recommended) and Version 173. I've tried them both, and have the same problem with each.

No hardware problems with the card. It runs perfectly with the Win XP disk in the drive slot (I use slide-in drive bays). Ubuntu runs on its own private 300 gig hard drive.

Beanbag
 
Beanbag said:
I've been playing around with Ubuntu Linux (yet again), and have installed it for the first time on a dual-monitor system. The OS recognizes there are two monitors, and I can expand my desktop across both monitors just fine using the plain-jane video driver that Ubuntu slaps down as a placeholder.

There is, however, a proprietary driver that Ubuntu informs me would do a better job, allowing more fancy desktop effects and animations. I can download it, and have even managed to configure it correctly. The problem is, it has to be configured through the driver software utilities that came with the new driver, NOT through the Ubuntu systems admin functions, and it won't let me save the new configuration to the etc directory. It says I'm not authorized. Every time I reboot, I lose the previous configuration (i.e. go back to just one monitor), and have to go back and reconfig the driver.

I went looking for the configuration file, and under Properties it says it belongs to root. Obviously, there's a permissions issue going on here. I set up a password for root, thinking I could log in as a superuser and save the new configuration. Unfortunately, Ubuntu won't let me log in as a system admin from the normal log-in screen, nor can I figure out how to possibly sudo my way into having the graphics utility get the necessary permission to alter the file.

Okay, any suggestions from the *nix people out there? I'm thinking there MUST be some way to get root privileges under my normal account, either through sudo, gsudo, or some way to log in as root, but damned if I can find it in any of the printed or online documentation I've got.

Beanbag
Click to expand...

You could try rebooting, then selecting "recovery mode". It should come up to a screen that has dropping to a root shell as an option.

ETA: the more common way to do this is simply sudo bash. That won't work if your normal login doesn't have sudo privleges, though.
 
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Not to sound ungrateful, but that's like you telling me your watch isn't running well, and I tell you all you have to do is check the droplock and slide -- technically correct, but useless because only a watchmaker would know what the heck I'm talking about.

Sudo works in Ubuntu. Every time you make a change through the drop-down systems admin tools, it pops an authorization dialog box.

Sudo bash? Sounds like a British mixed drink, or something you do to the monitor with a baseball bat. You're talking to a Windows guy here. Pretend I'm real stupid, and you won't go too far wrong.

Beanbag
 
Beanbag said:
Not to sound ungrateful, but that's like you telling me your watch isn't running well, and I tell you all you have to do is check the droplock and slide -- technically correct, but useless because only a watchmaker would know what the heck I'm talking about.

Sudo works in Ubuntu. Every time you make a change through the drop-down systems admin tools, it pops an authorization dialog box.

Sudo bash? Sounds like a British mixed drink, or something you do to the monitor with a baseball bat. You're talking to a Windows guy here. Pretend I'm real stupid, and you won't go too far wrong.

Beanbag
Click to expand...

Since you are working with Ubuntu (and not for the first time), I assumed you were somewhat knowledgeable.

Since you tried to login with root, I also assumed you knew the root password.

sudo is just a way of running programs with root privileges. So if you want to run bash with root privileges, enter 'sudo bash' in a command prompt.

Everything you run from the resulting command prompt will be run with root privileges.
 
laca said:
IIRC Ubuntu doesn't do root logins, try sudo.
Click to expand...
If you dig deep enough in the labrynthine online documentation, they tell you how to enable the root password. They just don't tell you where or how to log in as root.

(I actually made a real, multi-hour effort to find the answer on my own before posting here)

I'm a Linux tyro -- inexperienced, but just bright enough to be dangerous. No big deal, 'cause I'm just re-evaluating Ubuntu for possible use. I don't care if I "break" the operating system playing with it at this point. If I do, it's just twenty minutes or so to scrub the hard drive and reinstall.

Beanbag
 
laca said:
Since you are working with Ubuntu (and not for the first time), I assumed you were somewhat knowledgeable.
Click to expand...
Aha! I think we've narrowed the locus of the difficulty.

Windows guy. I know how to load a CD with the OS and sorta fumble my way through. I've fiddled with various flavors of Linux over the past few years, usually for a short time before I decided they required a technician on call 24 hours a day to deal with the oddball quirks that pop up, like this one.

I confess if I had this on a single monitor system, I'd probably be quite happy at this point. Matter of fact, even with the open-source driver, I'm impressed by how much this version has improved over the previous one.

I just think it would be useful to know how to deal with this issue, because I know others will crop up as well.

Beanbag
 
BeanBag please PM me your email/IM etc. so we can have more of a real time discussion about it.
 
Okay. I'm not Joe UnixGuru myself.

on the command line, type:
sudo bash

Assuming your logged-in account has the permissions, sudo will prompt for your password. Give it your login password. If you have the permissions, it should give you a prompt that ends in #, and you will now have root powers. Do what you need to do.
When you're done, type:
exit
This will remove your root powers, so you can't shoot yourself in the foot.

If that doesn't work
Reboot the machine. I don't recommend just whacking off the power, but that'll work, too.
Usually, when the machine comes up, there will be a boot menu that allows you to select which kernel you want to run, and a "recovery" boot for each kernel.
If you run the "recovery" boot, it will do some checking on the filesystem, and after much whirring and clicking and magical phrases, a second menu will come up which will have options like: Continue Boot, and Try to fix X system, and Root Shell.
I don't remember the exact phrasing. But Root Shell is what you want. Go in and edit your config file, and, as in the previous example, when you're done, type exit on the command line.
That should bring you back to the menu, where you select Continue Boot.
 
TjW said:
Okay. I'm not Joe UnixGuru myself.

on the command line, type:
sudo bash

Assuming your logged-in account has the permissions, sudo will prompt for your password. Give it your login password. If you have the permissions, it should give you a prompt that ends in #, and you will now have root powers. Do what you need to do.
When you're done, type:
exit
This will remove your root powers, so you can't shoot yourself in the foot.

If that doesn't work
Reboot the machine. I don't recommend just whacking off the power, but that'll work, too.
Usually, when the machine comes up, there will be a boot menu that allows you to select which kernel you want to run, and a "recovery" boot for each kernel.
If you run the "recovery" boot, it will do some checking on the filesystem, and after much whirring and clicking and magical phrases, a second menu will come up which will have options like: Continue Boot, and Try to fix X system, and Root Shell.
I don't remember the exact phrasing. But Root Shell is what you want. Go in and edit your config file, and, as in the previous example, when you're done, type exit on the command line.
That should bring you back to the menu, where you select Continue Boot.
Click to expand...

Before we get ahead of ourselves (i am emailing beanbag some questions and will put together a how-top for him) I would like to be slightly pedantic...

if you want to become root, you should probably use the following:

sudo su -

(include the dash)

this will ask for a password, you should use your account password. This is Ubuntu specific (red hat based/debian proper force the root account to have a password.)

Once you are root, you can type:

passwd

enter the new password once, then twice to confirm.

Once this is done successfully you can log into the machine as root. Since ubuntu locks the root account without a password, you cannot log into it unless you set one.
 
sudo -i is equivalent to sudo su -, and is a more appropriate way to get a root command prompt.

However, it would be more appropriate to do sudo name-of-config-command. In particular, after sudo su -, graphical programs run at that root command prompt probably won't work.

Note, however, that this presumes that beanbag knows how to get a command prompt in the first place.
 
*IF* (and that's a big "if") I understand the problem correctly, probably all you need to do is:

1. Install the proprietary driver as prompted (it sounds like you've already done that)
2. Then, from the GNOME desktop, press ALT-F2 and type "gksudo nvidia-settings" into the dialog box.
3. Go to "X Server Display Configuration." 99.37% of the time, you will not need to pay attention to the stuff under "Advanced". The rest of the options will be self-explanatory to you (trust me on this).
4. Clicking "Apply" probably won't get you the all of the results you want right away,so don't worry about it. When you have the settings the way you want, click "Save to X Configuration File".
5. Click "Quit", then restart X (or just reboot).
 
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grmcdorman said:
sudo -i is equivalent to sudo su -, and is a more appropriate way to get a root command prompt.

However, it would be more appropriate to do sudo name-of-config-command. In particular, after sudo su -, graphical programs run at that root command prompt probably won't work.

Note, however, that this presumes that beanbag knows how to get a command prompt in the first place.
Click to expand...
I usually hit the command prompt through Terminal. That's how I've done it before. Let me know if this is wrong.

I'm kinda of mixed feelings about operating systems that hide or lock out portions so idiots can't mess them up. I'm sure for a system admin, this is a blessing. However, I like my tools sharp, and realize that every now and then I'll bleed when using them.

Beanbag
 
negativ said:
*IF* (and that's a big "if") I understand the problem correctly, probably all you need to do is:

1. Install the proprietary driver as prompted (it sounds like you've already done that)
2. Then, from the GNOME desktop, press ALT-F2 and type "gksudo nvidia-settings" into the dialog box.
3. Go to "X Server Display Configuration." 99.37% of the time, you will not need to pay attention to the stuff under "Advanced". The rest of the options will be self-explanatory to you (trust me on this).
4. Clicking "Apply" probably won't get you the all of the results you want right away,so don't worry about it. When you have the settings the way you want, click "Save to X Configuration File".
5. Click "Quit", then restart X (or just reboot).
Click to expand...
Thanks. I'll give it a stab, probably this weekend (weekends are for futzing around with the computer; my weekdays are spent swearing at recalcitrant mechanical devices that refuse to function in one fashion or another).

I can "break" this installation just as many times as I need. There's nothing else on the machine, and it only takes a few minutes to wipe the hard drive and put on a fresh install. Rule #1: NEVER experiment on a machine that you depend on even remotely.

I have a set of suggestions from Ducky to try as well. Between them all, I think something should work. If not, well, at least I will know a little bit more than I did before. Gotta have a sense of humor about these things.

Beanbag
 
Beanbag said:
Ubuntu 9.04, the latest stable release, just downloaded 24 hours ago. The system update ran several hours ago, so it's current with everything within the last 12 hours.

The video card is an ASUS EN8500 GT, using the GeForce 8500 GT chipset, 512mb memory.

Ubuntu shows two NVIDIA accelerated drivers, Version 180 (recommended) and Version 173. I've tried them both, and have the same problem with each.

No hardware problems with the card. It runs perfectly with the Win XP disk in the drive slot (I use slide-in drive bays). Ubuntu runs on its own private 300 gig hard drive.

Beanbag
Click to expand...

admittedly I have never done ubuntu on a dual monitor but I have 2 desktops, one has ati, one has nvidia, nvidia works fine, ati has never right under ubuntu, I dare say it sucks under it.
 
laca said:
IIRC Ubuntu doesn't do root logins, try sudo.
Click to expand...

wrong:

log in as user, users and groups, change the root password so you know it

go to log in window and under the security tab enable local system administrator login, then you log in as root.
 
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