Cinnamon Crash for OnBoard Intel Haswell+Geforce GTX 770M

[ravioactive]

Hi All,

I am a novice who is trying to get Linux Mint 16 64 bit with Cinnamon to work on an Alienware m17x r5 laptop. But I have not been able to find the correct drivers/procedure to install them. The live USB is not able to boot regularly, and I get a blank screen. I am able boot the live USB only in the Compatibility mode where I get a warning that Linux Mint is running in software rendering mode. Anyways, I installed Linux Mint 16, but on booting up normally, again I run into the same issue - a blank screen. I then boot into the recovery mode, where I get the same 'software rendering mode' warning as with the live USB.

I checked the driver manager, and it showed me 3 options for the Geforce GTX 770M - (a) nvidia-319 verison 319.32 (b) nvidia-319-updates version 319.60 and (c) noveau - which is pre-selected as the main driver. I then tried the following things so far:
(a) Changed to nvidia-319 drivers. Result: Cinnamon Crash repeatedly. with message: "cinnamon just crashed. You are currently running in Fallback Mode."
(b) Changed to nvidia-319-updates drivers. Result: -- do -- [Same as above]
(c) Downloaded and installed the latest nvidia .run drivers package from nvidia's website and tried to install it in Recovery Mode, by first stopping MDM as: "sudo service mdm stop" and then installing the .run shell file. Results are the same as above.

inxi -G output gives two cards : Card 1: Onboard Intel Haswell and Card 2: Gefore GTX 770M. I've come across multiple sources prescribing Ubuntu BumbleBee for my laptop, but I am not clear how will it solve the problem and just want to be sure that this is indeed the correct approach to solve this issue. I am not able to boot regularly at all. I can boot only into the Recovery Mode where Cinnamon Crashes repeatedly. Booting normally just gives me a blank screen. I tried changing to tty1 in normal boot, but even that is not working.

Please help me out with this, and suggest if BumbleBee should be used here or any other way. It will really help to explicitly mention the steps involved, since I am a noob/beginner. I have been trying to install Linux Mint 16 for a week now trying all sorts of things.

I absolutely need linux installed on this machine as it is essential for my work. If Linux Mint 16 with Cinnamon is having troubles then please suggest if choosing KDE etc. instead of Cinnamon can solve the problem or if some older versions of Linux Mint like 16, 14, 13 etc. work without such bugs or even if I have to go for an altogether different distro than Linux Mint.

Thank you so much in advance, I am in dire need of guidance.

[7Last7]

exactly the same situation with gtx 460

[clfarron4]

inxi -G output gives two cards : Card 1: Onboard Intel Haswell and Card 2: Gefore GTX 770M. I've come across multiple sources prescribing Ubuntu BumbleBee for my laptop, but I am not clear how will it solve the problem and just want to be sure that this is indeed the correct approach to solve this issue.

It's simple. You have a rig with nVidia Optimus.

This means that you need BumbleBee for both usage AND power management of your nVidia card.

Put another way, without BumbleBee, your nVidia card will always be on but you won't be able to use it, leaving you with the Integrated Intel Graphics.

exactly the same situation with gtx 460

As in Cinnamon doesn't work because you have an Intel Integrated card and an nVidia card OR Cinnamon doesn't work?

[ravioactive]

@clfarron4

Alright, I'm looking at installing Bumblebee now. But I have not heard about installing about this power management for the nVidia card before. Can you please explain about how to do this and why is it needed?

About the working on Cinnamon, I have seen it working in Software Rendering mode only, but that's because of this issue of drivers I've mentioned above. Can you please post a complete run-down of WHAT ALL should I install and in WHAT ORDER, for my particular case? Especially with this power management for the card that you have mentioned.

Thanks a lot for your time. I've been fighting this for a week now.

Also, just curious since you've mentioned

Put another way, without BumbleBee, your nVidia card will always be on but you won't be able to use it, leaving you with the Integrated Intel Graphics.

How is that different from what I have already tried? I haven't tried Bumblebee and tried without drivers, with ubuntu packages and with proprietary drivers respectively. Isn't that technically the same thing? And if it is, Cinnamon is still crashing. Or is there something I am missing?
Since, if it's just falling back on the Intel Graphics, then I am assuming that Intel Graphics should not have any special driver requirements - just like on board graphics have always been, and Cinnamon would have started without any problems.

But I just want the damn thing to work, I don't even need the card to work. I just need Mint booting/working normally. I absolutely do not mind the card to lay dead silent the whole time I am working on Mint.

[clfarron4]

I've just read your first post to check what you've done with the nVidia drivers.

The problem is with Linux systems with Hybrid Graphics is that, without extra software, they will only use and effectively manage the Integrated card, even if you have the drivers for the Discrete card installed.

Thus, even though you installed the nVidia drivers, you can't use the nVidia card or use any of the power management features of the nVidia drivers, because you don't have BumbleBee installed.

Instructions: http://followthegeeks.com/a-noobs-guide ... in-ubuntu/