NVidia driver not working after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04

Ubuntu 9.04 has been released this week and I upgraded my machines to the latest version (download it here).

If you are using dual boot (GRUB) , NVidia drivers, and answered yes to keep your existing version of menu.lst, then you might have the same problem as me.

After I upgraded to Ubuntu 9.04, I get the following error message when restarting the machine:

Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode

The following error was encountered.  You may need
to update your configuration to solve this.

(EE) NVIDIA(0):  Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Although I have restricted drivers enabled, I tried to activate the NVidia driver on System/Administration/Hardware Drivers and nothing happens.

If I open a terminal window and run the following commands below, and then try to reactivate again, you will be able to see some error message displayed on the terminal window:

sudo killall jockey-backend
sudo /usr/share/jockey/jockey-backend --debug -l /tmp/jockey.log

In my case, I got the following error message:

FATAL: Module nvidia not found.

The NVidia module cannot be found because I am running an old version of the Kernel (remember that I said to keep my existing menu.lst version!!) and the NVidia driver is compiled to the latest version.

To check the kernel version I am running I just use the command "uname -r", and it returns 2.6.27-11-generic, but Ubuntu 9.07 comes with 2.6.28-11. So, I need to manually update my menu.lst file to be able to boot to the latest kernel version.

Warning: Only update your menu.lst file if you have done this before. This is not recommended for users that are not experienced with changing menu.lst file. If you are not an experienced Linux user, it is better to not proceed with these changes.


First, run the following commands to see that you have vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic:

ls /boot/*2.6.28*

You should be able to see vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic and initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic. Then, backup and edit your menu.lst file:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.bak
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

The safest way is to duplicate your first boot menu entry, then change only this new entry to use the latest kernel version. In my case, I changed it from 2.6.27-11 to 2.6.28-11. I also changed the title to 9.04. This way you still have your previous entries in case you have any problems rebooting and need to restore your previous menu.lst from the backup copy (menu.lst.bak).

Next time you reboot your machine, you can select the first boot entry and then you will see the following:

* Running DKMS auto installation service for kernel
* nvidia (173.14.16)...

And then your Ubuntu will be loaded with the proper video resolution!!

If you have any problems rebooting your machine with the new entry, you can reboot it using an existing entry (or Ubuntu CD) and revert the changes you made by restoring the backup copy: menu.lst.bak (manually created) or menu.lst~ (created by gedit).

LIDNUG LinkedIn .NET Users Group

Linked .NET Users Group (LIDNUG) is an official INETA .NET User Group with online presentations through Live Meeting.

These are some upcoming events in the next few weeks:

• Brian Harry talks about VSTS 2010, April 30, 12:30 PM PST - http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-Brian-Harry-Visual-Studio-Team/pub/54208
• Stephen Toub talks about the .NET Parallel Extensions, May 7, 12:00 PM PST - http://events.linkedin.com/LINDUG-Stephen-Toub-NET-Parallel/pub/60569
• Scott Guthrie talks shop with developers, May 11, 11:30 AM PST - http://events.linkedin.com/LIDNUG-ScottGu-talks-shop-developers/pub/60571

You can also have their complete schedule from the following calendar links:

• HTML: http://isaacabraham.calendar.live.com/calendar/Linked+In+.NET+User+Group+Events/index.html
• RSS: http://isaacabraham.calendar.live.com/calendar/Linked+In+.NET+User+Group+Events/calendar.xml
• ICS: webcal:/ /isaacabraham.calendar.live.com/calendar/Linked+In+.NET+User+Group+Events/calendar.ics

I am looking forward to attend their presentations. Enjoy!!

Error 1327 Invalid Drive when installing VMware Server

When I try to install WMware Server in Windows 7 (also happened on Vista and XP), I get the message Error 1327 Invalid Drive S:\ and the installation aborts.

For some reason, the VMware installer does not like when you change the default location of your shell folders. I have my Windows shell folders (My Documents, My Music, My Video, My Pictures) mapped to a network drive S:.

The workaround is to temporary change your shell folders back to the default location. An easy way to do it, it is by changing the User Shell Folders registry key. Be careful when editing your Windows registry, so use the following steps at your own risk.

1. Run regedit.exe

2. Locate the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. Click on File, Export and save this key to your desktop.

4. Change all entries that uses your mapped drive (S: in my case) to the default one (%USERPROFILE%).

5. Now, Install VMware Server.

6. After installation completes, restore your User Shell Folders registry info by double clicking on the file saved on step #3.

That is, you were able to install VMware server and also keep your shell folders at you custom location. I hope VMware folks fix this issue on their installer. Other people were also having this same issue when installing VMware tools.