nvidia driver vs. wireless driver (Ubuntu Edgy)

[psych-major]

This has been talked about extensively on the Ubuntu forum, but with little in the way of a solution, so hopefully someone here has nailed it. Here's the issue:
I'm running Ubuntu Edgy on a Dell Latitude D820.
Kernel 2.6.17-10-generic
ipw3945 wireless card
nVidia 7200 GO display adapter.

So, in order to get both cores of my processor to work, I need the generic kernel, check

To get the wireless card to work, I need the linux-restricted-modules package, check

So far, so good, but here's where it gets ugly:
The included 'nv' driver works fine on my laptop display, but it won't drive my CRT through the docking station, so I download and install the latest and greatest from nVidia's website. It has a conflict with the Linux-restricted-modules, so I remove that. Now I have a beautiful display which works through my docking station and has lots of cool features like TwinView and xinerama, etc.

However, when I'm at home, I discover that my wireless is gone. That's when I realize that I need the restricted-modules for my wireless, you know, the ones that conflict with the latest nVidia driver. Crap, now what...

To make a long, painful story much shorter, I have reverted back to the 'nv' driver so I can have wireless, and I'm currently going without the CRT and docking station.

My question is, how do I get rid of all the nVidia dingleberries so that I can start over and try the Ubuntu compiled nvidia-glx driver? (When I try to install it now, I get all sorts of weird errors ranging from mismatched modules versions to can't find the driver or card at all!)

[XiaoKJ]

Is there any reason for the conflict to be reported on ubuntu? Is they also marked conflicting on other distros?

From my little research, I think linux-restricted-modules package has nvidia's driver included as part of it. Can you install linux-restricted-modules and try to use the nvidia's driver from the package, not from the website?

EDIT: if you don't understand me, see it this way: nvidia's website produces a package for all distros, while ubuntu itself has a way to make the nvidia driver with apt and module-assistant. Read up on how to use ubuntu's provided solution instead of the nvidia's generic one. (and you should still use the vanilla kernel you already have)

[psych-major]

Is there any reason for the conflict to be reported on ubuntu? Is they also marked conflicting on other distros?

It's described as a known issue when attempting to use the latest nvidia drive, but wanting to retain wireless. On a desktop with no wireless, it's no problem. I suspect a fix will be forthcoming from the ubuntu developers.

From my little research, I think linux-restricted-modules package has nvidia's driver included as part of it. Can you install linux-restricted-modules and try to use the nvidia's driver from the package, not from the website?
What it has is the modules, but the driver is still needed. That can be obtained through apt-get as nvidia-glx. This theoretically matches the module contained in the restricted-modules, and all is good. My problem is that I installed the newest nvidia driver before I realized this, and am now in sort of a grey area where I can't install the built-in because of leftovers from the manual install of the nvidia driver.

EDIT: if you don't understand me, see it this way: nvidia's website produces a package for all distros, while ubuntu itself has a way to make the nvidia driver with apt and module-assistant. Read up on how to use ubuntu's provided solution instead of the nvidia's generic one. (and you should still use the vanilla kernel you already have)

Yeah, I'm aware of this. I even went to the nvidia archives and downloaded the version that matches the module in restricted-modules, per the error message from trying to load X, but it's such a mess that it won't install properly either... :mad:

[JayMan8081]

My only suggestion would be to use slocate. Do an 'updatedb' and then a 'locate nvidia' and take out all results that are not part of an installed Ubuntu package. Using Synaptic you can find out what files are installed by each package, that way you don't take something out that is required. It's a long, possibly painful solution but one that might work without having to do a complete re-install.

[psych-major]

My only suggestion would be to use slocate. Do an 'updatedb' and then a 'locate nvidia' and take out all results that are not part of an installed Ubuntu package. Using Synaptic you can find out what files are installed by each package, that way you don't take something out that is required. It's a long, possibly painful solution but one that might work without having to do a complete re-install.

Kind of what I was thinking too, only I was going to go ahead and remove the ubuntu package as well, since I'm using the 'nv' driver at the moment anyway. That would also remove that variable...

[psych-major]

I finally got a few minutes to do some serious digging at the Ubuntu forums, and found a solution that a. worked, and b. didn't require a re-install!

The high-level view is here: (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=301527&highlight=nvidia+driver+wireless)

with the nVidia driver details here: (http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Latest_Nvidia_Edgy)

If anyone else comes across this thread, who also has a laptop with any kind of wireless and an nVidia display adapter, THIS WILL WORK - HOWEVER...please read it thoroughly, as the writer has a Latitude D820 with different versions of both the wifi and the display than what mine has. Follow the principles, but adapt for your hardware! (for example, he/she needed to use ndiswrapper for wireless, whereas my ipw card is supported by the linux-restricted modules available from the Ubuntu repositories)

Good luck.

[bwkaz]

Somebody over there is a little sudo-happy... ;)

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
sudo blacklist bcm43xx The modprobe.conf file (which all the modprobe.d/* files get catted into) requires "blacklist" to be the first element of a particular line. "sudo" is invalid in this config file. It needs to be removed from the second line.

Just to avoid confusion...

[psych-major]

good catch. when I'm going to do a number of things in a row in Ubuntu, I just sudo -s and be done with it.

As for the part you referenced, I didn't have to do that, so I missed it...

[bwkaz]

Yep, it'll only affect people that try to use ndiswrapper, I think. (Well -- people that try to use ndiswrapper, if their wireless NIC's PCI ID is registered in the MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE of a driver that's built as a module.)