Kernel update broke Nvidia

[Alan Dacey Sr.]

On Thursday, January 27, 2011 09:59:22 pm Goh Lip wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Jan 2011 04:48:56 +0800, Homer <fsunoles at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Well, it seems that wasn't the perfect "fix."  I've just noticed I'm
> > getting strange artifacts.  For example, on the on the top left of
> > each window the small icon and push pin are severely scrambled.  Some
> > icons on the panel are also scrambled beyond recognition.  Those
> > issues wouldn't be too bad, but I'm also getting random "blocks"
> > showing up when a new window/application is opened.  I can get rid of
> > those by opening and closing a window over them, but that isn't a good
> > solution.  I tried running nvidia-xconfig again just to see, and I get
> > dumped to a login prompt with the xorg.conf file in place.  I ran the
> > hardware drivers app and it claims I'm running the correct Nvidia
> > driver.
> > I'm certainly no expert at this stuff, but I'm wondering if I'm really
> > running the nvidia drive with the most current kernel.
> 
> 
> Alan made a suggestion about dkms in some earlier thread. It may be good  
> to check if the nvidia module is also set up in your new kernel by "dkms  
> status". For example in my system, this appears..
> 
> 
> pop at timon:~$ dkms status
> nvidia-current, 260.19.06, 2.6.35-22-generic, x86_64: installed
> nvidia-current, 260.19.06, 2.6.35-23-generic, x86_64: installed
> pop at timon:~$
> 
> If the module does not appear in your new kernel, set it up then. But  
> sorry, since I do not have any problem and hence not done this, I am  
> unable to help further, but "man dkms" may help. Of course, please let us  
> know how you do it so we can learn from you.  :)
> 
> 
> If it is not any problem with dkms, it may help to "sudo update-initramfs"  
> and see if this helps.
> 
> 
> Finally, if nothing works, remove the new kernel "sudo apt-get remove  
> --purge 2.6.32-28-* when you boot up to the old kernel 2.6.32-27 and then  
> update to new kernel one more time.
> 
> Regards - Goh Lip
> 

Before removing a kernel, I'd purge the nvidia driver , reboot into a command line, 
install nvida-current, then reboot into the usual graphical interface and see if 
that fixes it.  I've never had much luck messing with the kernel but then I haven't 
had to do that in quite a while.  

Glad you got it working good enough for you, Homer

Alan