I have just installed Zorin os 15.2 core version on a hp pavilion dv6500 laptop. It has an nvidia geforce 8400gs video card and an amd turion64 X2 cpu. The only version of install that would work was the one with nvidia graphics included. However, after install I’m stuck at 1024x768 resolution and washed out colors, and trying to update drivers through the software update does nothing as no nvidia drivers are listed. The only drivers listed are for the wireless card. I know appropriate drivers exist as I can see them on nvidia’s website but am unsure how to install as I am entirely new to linux. Any instructions on how to do this when software update isn’t an option?
Sed, welcome to the forum.
Could you please open a terminal and run
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
And see if that installs the proper Nvidia drivers?
This is what I got in the terminal:
> Reading package lists… Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information… Done
> The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
> libegl1-mesa libllvm9 uno-libs3
> Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.
> 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
I went to display settings and to software update to see if anything changed and there are no additional options to select and the screen looks the same.
Bah I meant to put that as code, not as quote, sorry for the ugly post.
If you go to your app menu, then type in the search “software”, you should see “Software & Updates” app listed. Click that open, then navigate to “Additional Drivers”
When you open that tab, the content view should show “Searching for available drivers…”
Wait for it.
It will either offer more drivers or say, "No additional drivers available.’ Can you say which you see?
All that is listed under additional drivers is Broadcom limited driver for wireless card. No other drivers are listed at all. I’ve had it open a while, unless it’s supposed to take longer than 10 min?
No, it shouldn't take long and if it showed drivers that are available, the search is finished.
One option is to use the Intel Graphics, actually. Currently, the Intel drivers outperform the Nvidia on the GeForce 4800's.
Let's check some things, first. In terminal, please run
ubuntu-drivers devices
Paste the output. This way we can see that your Nvidia Graphics Card is being detected.
Omg this would be why. It’s not being detected at all:
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0d.0/0000:03:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000014E4d00004311sv0000103Csd00001374bc02sc80i00
vendor : Broadcom Limited
model : BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (BCM4311 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller)
driver : bcmwl-kernel-source - distro non-free
If you are able to do so without trouble, you can check the hardware (Physical graphics card) connection etc.
But incompatible drivers can cause that issue, too.
Could you paste the output of
grep 10de /lib/udev/rules.d/*
The hardware should be ok as I wiped Vista to install ZorinOS and the graphics worked fine in Vista which is how I knew what hardware was in it. I suppose I could take it apart but that would take me a while as this model literally requires completely taking apart to get to motherboard connections.
Here’s the output:
/lib/udev/rules.d/71-nvidia.rules:SUBSYSTEM==“pci”, ATTRS{vendor}==“0x10de”, DRIVERS==“nvidia”, TAG+=“seat”, TAG+=“master-of-seat”
Yes, if it was working fine before and nothing happened to knock the PC around, I would agree that it is best to save disassembly until you have good cause to think that is needed.
Looks normal.
Can you terminal:
sudo -i
enter your pw then
nvidia-bug-report.sh
Paste output?
Ok so in terminal it says nothing other than instructions that the output is saved in a file which is too long to paste in here. So here’s a link
The link provides the bash script that runs the report. Did you get an output you could see from running it?
Ah. Here’s everything it said in the terminal:
nvidia-bug-report.sh will now collect information about your
system and create the file ‘nvidia-bug-report.log.gz’ in the current
directory. It may take several seconds to run. In some
cases, it may hang trying to capture data generated dynamically
by the Linux kernel and/or the NVIDIA kernel module. While
the bug report log file will be incomplete if this happens, it
may still contain enough data to diagnose your problem.
If nvidia-bug-report.sh hangs, consider running with the --safe-mode
and --extra-system-data command line arguments.
Please include the ‘nvidia-bug-report.log.gz’ log file when reporting
your bug via the NVIDIA Linux forum (see devtalk.nvidia.com)
or by sending email to ‘linux-bugs@nvidia.com’.
By delivering ‘nvidia-bug-report.log.gz’ to NVIDIA, you acknowledge
and agree that personal information may inadvertently be included in
the output. Notwithstanding the foregoing, NVIDIA will use the
output only for the purpose of investigating your reported issue.
Running nvidia-bug-report.sh… complete.
I searched for nvidia-bug-report file in the whole computer but this is the only file that came up. I suppose I took it for the log but if there is an actual log file, I can’t find it.
In terminal, try
locate nvidia-bug-report.log.gz
Just kicks me back to prompt like I didn’t type anything.
root@vesna-HP-Pavilion-dv6500-Notebook-PC:~# locate nvidia-bug-report.log.gz
root@vesna-HP-Pavilion-dv6500-Notebook-PC:~#
Maybe it hung... LOL
Ok, well, let's try moving forward without that and try the age old trick of guessing until we get something right.
In terminal...
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
Once the terminal text editor opens, navigate down to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT
And add this line to it:
nvidia-drm.modeset=1
It should look like:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nvidia-drm.modeset=1"
Hit ctrl+x to exit, then hit the y key for "yes" then hit enter key to save as current name.
Then in terminal
sudo update-grub
Then
sudo reboot
Then once booted, in terminal, you may try:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
again.
If the above fails, you may try installing a gui helper:
sudo apt install nvidia-settings
Open that app and explore- At this point, I fail you. I only moved from Windows to Linux about a year ago and I have NEVER used Nvidia Graphics on Linux (And never will...) So, I am probably the least qualified person to help you.
Ok so following the instructions, everything seemed ok until that last autoinstall command for drivers, when I got this for output:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
nvidia-304 : Depends: xorg-video-abi-11 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-12 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-13 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-14 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-15 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-18 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-19 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-20 but it is not installable or
xorg-video-abi-23
Depends: xserver-xorg-core
Recommends: libcuda1-304 but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: nvidia-opencl-icd-304 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
And thank you for helping at all. Clearly I would be lost regardless, so any help is greatly appreciated.
Ok, so you are getting somewhere, you just need some dependencies.
In terminal, try running
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-all xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all
Once that is complete, see if this works:
sudo apt --fix-broken install
After that first one I get
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-all xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Unable to locate package xserver-xorg-all
After second one:
sudo apt --fix-broken install
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libegl1-mesa libllvm9 uno-libs3
Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Sorry, I typed that off of memory. Clearly, I must need some Gingko biloba or something.
Let me look it up...
Yep. 
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all