8.10 install issues

Not sure if this is the correct place to post, but here goes anyway.

I am trying to get Intrepid Ibex 64biti installed on my custom desktop, and I'm having some issues. The install goes fine, and I can log into my user account and see the GUI desktop. I then get the notification that I have 160 or so updates to install, plus 2 optional nvidia video card drivers to install. I have gone through 3 iterations of install->update->restart (only the graphics card drivers, only the software updates, and both) and each time, after rebooting, the GUI fails to load. Not sure if it is an X problem, or a GNOME problem, or the fact that I'm running 2 nvidia geForce 8800 GT in SLI mode, but I only have access to the CLI.

I have been to the nvidia site and got the 177 drivers (via my secondary computer) and ran the install. Still no good. I have tried to update the xorg.conf file, still no good. I would really appreciate any help.

EDIT.. The last few lines of my boot process says:

kinit: name_to_dev_t(/dev/disk/by_uuid/1fa23a65-4d4f-4ada-b758-6c4b17bb3adb) = dev(8,7)

kinit: trying to resume from /dev/disk/by-uuid/1fa23a65-4d4f-4ada-b758-6c4b17bb3adb kinit: No resume image, doing normal boot...

Are you sure you cannot access the GUI when you boot at the command prompt. Run *startx* and post the output. If you skip the graphic driver updates, can you access the GUI with the former kernel? Since you're installing many updates, it's difficult to determine the cause of your problem. You could try an update skipping the graphic drivers and kernel updates to narrow down the possibilities.

The issue is you need to tell Ubuntu which video card to use. If you look for a post "GUI doesn't load after installing nvidia, I attached my xorg.conf file & explained what worked for me. There a few threads around about this, maybe they need a sticky with clear instructions. (my rambling mumbles don't count). Heck that post is still on this page.

Ok, I can try that, although I believe I already tried it last night.

Hi I get the same issue after I install the nvidia drivers. I will try and see if I can find the other post that you are talking about.

The output from startx says:

Primary device in not PCI

(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error: no screens found giving up.

That is the main part, anyway. It would appear that I have to edit my xorg config file to indicate that I have 2 PCI-Express video cards in SLI. Now, how to fix this?

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=997077&highlight=repairing+server

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=965180&highlight=installing+nvidia+sli&page=10

These are solutions which i'm going to try. They seem to make sense. The first is to uninstall the driver. The second will install the driver and adds a couple of extra steps which should make it work. If this works for me I will post so.

You just need to give it the bus id of the primary card. Also note the "SLI" "SFR" option line, I knew there was something missing. I'm going to do a clean install tomorrow. Which means I'll go thru this again, I will double check if left anything else out. Sorry I suffer from CRS... (can't remember squat). For the life of me I can't remember what the SFR was, might try google. Something to do with the way stuff was rendered, but what?

As dagrump said you need to tell it the bus id and note the sli...so far it seems to be working for me. I'm doing some updates and gonna restart. I had to also reinstall ubuntu and then follow the steps in the second link on the fourth to last post. So far its working good and the desktop looks awesome now. I also think there should be a tutorial sticky for this. It seems to be an issue with a lot of people.

Well this looks like the solution. It at least worked for me. Remember follow the instructions on the second to last post on the second link that I posted here. That is what worked for me.

Well, good news is that by messing around with my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, I was able to get back into my GUI, but I still wasn't able to get the nvidia 177 drivers enabled. This lead to the bad news, which is that I seem to recall someone else on this board suggesting removing all nvidia related packages from the system using synaptic. So I did that, and I've somehow managed to kill all of my modules that X tries to load upon startup (extmod, dbe, glx, record, and dri to be specific). Any ideas how to reload them, as I haven't had too much luck in my overtired state.