Ubuntu – Ubuntu 13.04. fail to start after installing nvidia drivers (Vostro laptop)

First I need to say that, from experience, do not use the Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia site. Yeah sure, they will work for some people and even be the most recent ones but:

• When a kernel upgrade appears, they might (will) fail
• They create more problems when trying to upgrade from an older version or even downgrade.
• They are not automatically handled like the ones found in the X-Swat or Xorg-Edgers PPA.

So to save the trouble or several things associated with the Nvidia drivers coming from their site, do not use them. Instead go with the PPAs. Either the X-Swat or Xorg-Edgers.

For this case I see the following:

(EE) Failed to load module "nv" (module does not exist, 0)

This also happen to me one time when I used the Nvidia drivers from their site, it basically did not get loaded correctly.

Remove it by adding the --uninstall parameter to the .run file you executed to install the said driver. Then proceed to reboot. This will leave you with a system that is depending on the nv or nouveau drivers for the moment. Note that you need to press CTRL+ALT+F1 to go to a terminal after the error you mention in your question appears. Then type your login and password and then kill the GUI environment by issuing the following command:

sudo service lightdm stop

Remove the driver as I mentioned above first. Now make sure you have upgraded your system:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Then proceed to install the Xorg-Edgers PPA which is the one I recommend for 12.10:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa -y

Followed by another Update and Upgrade so it reads the new Nvidia drivers:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Now depending on your video card you would want one of the 3 types of Nvidia drivers in there. More info can be found in How do I install the Nvidia drivers?

The one I would recommend is the Nvidia 313 drivers. Install them like this:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-313 and reboot.

If by chance the Unity panel does not appear or you just get graphical glitches everywhere, then simply downgrade from the 313 to the 310. Do it again if the problem persists from 310 to 304. The versions available in 12.10 (And related to newer, middle or older versions) are listed here:

313 Series - Newest drivers for newest cards. Package: nvidia-313
310 Series - Newer drivers for newest cards. Package: nvidia-310
304 Series - Newest drivers for old/new cards. Package: nvidia-304
173 Series - Older drivers for old cards. Package: nvidia-173
96 Series - Oldest drivers for very old cards. Package: nvidia-96

So just do a sudo apt-get install PACKAGE where PACKAGE is one of the ones in the list. Again, for your case it would be the latest 313 drivers.

Apart from this I recommend opening Dash, typing Software Sources and on the Ubuntu Software Tab and Updates Tab, activate all 4 options in each one, including the options "Unsupported Updates" and "Pre-Released Updates". You will need to update and upgrade the system like I mentioned above. But this should solve any video problems you might have.

Try a clean install:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get remove unity unity-2d unity-2d-panel unity-2d-spread unity-asset-pool unity-services unity-lens-files unity-lens-music unity-lens-applications gir1.2-unity-5.0 unity-common indicator-sound indicator-power indicator-appmenu libindicator7 indicator-application indicator-datetime indicator-messages libnux-2.0-0 nux-tools libunity-misc4 unity-2d-common

sudo apt-get autoremove

sudo apt-get autoclean

sudo apt-get install unity unity-2d unity-2d-panel unity-2d-spread unity-asset-pool unity-services unity-lens-files unity-lens-music unity-lens-applications gir1.2-unity-5.0 unity-common indicator-sound indicator-power indicator-appmenu libindicator7 indicator-application indicator-datetime indicator-messages libnux-2.0-0 nux-tools libunity-misc4 unity-2d-common

sudo apt-get upgrade

I was able to fix a similar issue in the past like this.