Tuesday, September 18, 2012

nVidia with Ubuntu - no X or low graphics mode

After updates and a reboot, Ubuntu 12.04(.1) reports low graphics mode and/or X does not start when using the nVidia driver.

I've seen this problem on two systems recently and it appears to be a timing issue in that the nVidia driver does get loaded but apparently not in time for X to find a valid screen.

Workaround is simple: add nvidia to the file /etc/modules it will then get loaded on boot and X will start normally.