I have tried and tried but can't figure it out. Someone I ask please help me. I am trying to install my Nvidia video card correctly. It keeps saying to configure the x configuration file. It's speaking Japanese to me right there. Could someone please give me some help for a total noob to this form of stuff on Ubuntu?

Can you share some of the Japanese messages?
The config file it speaks of is likely /etc/X11/xorg.conf
You might find some helpful info in /var/log/Xorg.x.log

What does 'lspci | grep controller' say?
How bout 'lsmod | grep nvidia' ?

It's hard to tell what's going on without more info.

Issue those commands at a shell prompt (gnome terminal?)

for the grep nvidia this is what I got Nothing happens with the grep controller.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200] (rev 01)
01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200] (Secondary) (rev 01)
02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 05)
02:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Ensoniq ES1371 [AudioPCI-97] (rev 09)




For the above quote, both those said "command not found".

Thank you fobroth. I was informed it was an Nvidia card. That would explain why things I did didn't fix it before. Now I can uninstall any Nvidia drivers and install the Radeon drivers I need.

When I switched from Radeon to Nvidia the first thing I noticed was Ubuntu telling me that Nvidia was proprietary. I guess the you didn't get the 'Additional Drivers' icon pop up on you under the System, Administration, Additional Drivers. Can I get amen, brother?

I found what you're saying off of google. But there is one problem with this lol. I have no "Additional Drivers". I have hardware drivers, but in that it says "no proprietary drivers are in use on this system".

It has "enable" shadowed in at the bottom, but has nothing for me to enable.

I have downloaded the software for the Radeon card. But it's not like windows with a simple "install" lol. Any further instructions on what I'm to do with this software I've downloaded?

Thanks be to Linux on a Linux operating system we have any video at all. I guess you can say that not all operating systems are created equal. Take it from a person who has crashed his system on a daily basis. I base this comment on two movies. First movie, "Big trouble in little China" and second movie "Young Frankenstein". There is nothing like when the computer starts working, again after loading Ubuntu for the umpteenth time. "Its Alive." With the Radeon it kept telling that I didn't have 3d capability but the proprietary Nvidia gave me the driver. Just thank God you don't have Chrome9 from Biostar. Ubuntu is still trying to crack that nut of a driver. Fedora is making some real headway and OpenSuse is gaining ground.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver

Hey Cowboy,

Yup, that would explain why the nvidia drivers did you no good ;) At least you're a little farther than b4.

/etc/X11/xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.x.log are files, not commands. xorg.conf is the Xserver configuration file and the Xorg.x.log is the log file that was created the last time you started (or tried to start) X. It can hold some valuable diagnostic info.

Ubunto has their own way of installing proprietary drivers, so I wouldn't recommend manual install.
Check out the link that RainbowTrout gave you. Probably be just what you need.

Post back and let us know how it's going.
Good luck!

I took a look at that link- It's how to get the open source driver working, which might not be a bad idea to start with. It should be the easiest way to get you some accelerated features. You can worry about the proprietary driver down the road when you're comfortable with what's going on, and if you think you really need it.

Tried that link, did as it said. Told me to put some things in terminal ect. I did, but when it comes to either choosing yes or not to do the operation and I choose yes it aborts for some reason :S

Does anyone know how to remove the Nvidia drivers from my comp? When I start it, it has an error saying it can't load a few different Nvidia things, Nvidia modules, ect. But I do not understand this, for I'm not using an Nvidia card, nor has this particular comp ever had one. Is there somewhere I can go to change whatever settings that seem to be messed up?

Starts out by telling it has to run in low graphics. Then explains about the Nvidia stuff.

If you get to a gui, can't you remove the nvidia driver through some administation section in the menu? (Or activate a different driver? I won't use ubunto, so I'm not sure exactly where it's at)
You could, also, manually remove the nvidia drivers using a package manager or apt-get.

Actually, if you don't have anything to lose on that install, start over. If you were jumping through hoops to try and force that nvidia driver to work, it might not be a bad idea. (you never really told us what you did)

Never had to deal with it since I installed Ubuntu. Figured it all installed correctly. But I see now there are no drivers loaded specifically for the Radeon card. It's using a generic Nvidia driver. So my new mission is to try to find an Radeon driver to properly install it. But now that I've started to look deeply at my computer specs trying to get this game to work, I've also figured out it's possibly not enough ram. I get a "windows creation" error when I try to run the game, so I just assumed it was cause of the video card. Think it's a mixture of both.

Just don't understand it, maybe I selected wrong settings when I originally installed the OS. Cause under system/administration where you change the settings, it automatically has "Nvidia X server settings". Which blows me away cause this computer hasn't had an Nvidia card in it. Thinking of using my Nvidia card in it though and see if that fixes it. Just kinda bums me out, cause the Radeon 9200 is a fairly good video card. Was hoping to get it to work :(.

If things aren't too borked over there, I really don't understand how you 'locked yourself in' to an nvidia driver. That's not the one your card is using. Even the generic nv driver won't work with that ati card. (there is a different driver loaded)

Issue 'lsmod' and look for video drivers. I bet it's 'vga' or 'ati'.

> under system/administration where you change the settings, it automatically has "Nvidia X server settings

Look harder for something else.
Again, I won't subject myself to ubunto, so I don't know the exact menu item.

If you really want to persue this from where you're at, post your lsmod. I'll try to remember to tune in tomorrow. I'd like to see what vid driver is loaded. And do 'X -configure' so you have a config file to work with.

I do know it's ATI. I did the 'x -configure' in terminal and got

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0
If this server is no longer running, remove /tmp/.X0-lock
and start again

I know quite a bit about computers, but not to fluent on the terminologies lol. Can you explain more of what the lsmod is please? lol sorry for my ignorance.

Let's start from the top;

What did you do, in the first place, to install that nvidia driver?

I personally didn't do anything. When I installed the OS, it installed that driver out of default I guess. Doesn't make real sense, but it did :/.

Not sure if there's any recovering from a haunted installation. You may need an excorcist (maybe not just for the computer, but for safety's sake in general?).

I'll leave you with some study material, in case you are mistaken about ubuntu forcing the nvidia driver by default or are willing to tackle the demons yourself.

1) This is some info about repositories. It's essential to know, if you are using a modern linux;

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

2) This goes into accelerated video drivers, which all the new people have to have in order to see the eye candy;

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/ATI

It's important to read and digest the above material and not dive in willynilly, lest you feed the demons, not drive them away.

God speed, my friend.

I didn't have any problems

it just asked me to choose the proprietary drivers or not and I did

I have the proprietary drivers installed & in use

you will have to update them your self from the nvidia site tho