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[NW <ubuntu329473297432745@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I encountered similar issues on a geForce FX 5200 (at least with regard
to the 'llvmpipe' fallback behavior.)  However, according to Nvidia that
8600M GPU should be using the 340 series driver and Ubuntu should not
offer to install 304 or 331 on the OP's platform (unless I misread
something here.)  Is it possible that he installed the wrong driver
manually instead of accepting what Ubuntu offers through Software &
Updates "Additional Drivers" ?

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html
_____

The default behavior is to install Nouveau (though it may silently
fail), but 'Software & Updates' did offer the correct Nvidia proprietary
driver for my 5200, and it does initialize as shown here:

[   23.731531] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[   23.731548] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[   23.983464] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCJ] enabled at IRQ 21
[   24.018659] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or  required key missing - tainting kernel
[   24.449665] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCE] enabled at IRQ 16
[   24.449706] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:02:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
[   24.483764] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  173.14.39

https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/655258/unix-graphics-announcements-and-news/linux-solaris-and-freebsd-driver-173-14-39-legacy-for-geforce-fx-series-/
_____

But now there is another problem: I get a kernel panic with spontaneous reboot when the Unity desktop begins to load.  I suspect others may be encountering the same issue with other proprietary legacy Nvidia drivers.  In this case, you cannot revert the driver directly from the GRUB recovery menu: you would have to uninstall Nvidia's driver from terminal or install LXDE from terminal if you want to regain access to a GUI desktop environment.  This would really aggravate the ordinary user because there is no obvious way to extract logs from the affected machine and request help in the forums.  Furthermore, it appears that a crash report on this issue would not be sent automatically if you are running Unity, so the developers are probably not receiving any feedback from most of the users affected by this bug.  You may encounter these display faults on any geForce, Quadro or Tesla GPU using a proprietary legacy Nvidia driver, including the frozen 173.14.39, 71.86, 96.43, 304.xx (supported through 2017) and 340.xx (supported through 2019), for example:
_____

96.43.23:  file date 2012-09-04; incompatible with X.Org included in
Slackware 14.1.  Usable with Slackware 14.0, but needs patching for
kernel compatibility.  96.43 is needed by cards in the GeForce2 MX to
GeForce4 range.

71.86.15:  Incompatible with recent X.Org.  The file date of 2011-07-20
is misleading: apparently Nvidia maintained kernel compatibility for
quite some time after they let the X server ABI breakage go to hell.  I
had to go all the way back to Slackware 12.2 (2008-12) before the driver
would work, which means that the last compatible X server version is
either 1.4 or 1.5.  The last kernel for which the 71.86.15 module will
build and load without patching is 3.2.x (a longterm branch), and then
only with an old environment.  It worked for me with GCC 4.2.4 (what
came with Slackware 12.2), but with GCC 4.8.2 under Slackware 14.1 it
would say "Unknown symbol init_mm (err 0)" and refuse to load.

2012-09:  304 broke my custom modelines.  Reverted to 295.75.
2012-10:  295.75 won't build with kernel 3.6.  Reverted to kernel 3.5.7.

2013-08:  173.14.37 needs a patch to build with kernel 3.10.10.
2013-12:  173.14.39 doesn't need a patch to build with kernel 3.12.3.
2014-01:  173.14.39 again needs patching to build with kernel 3.13.0.  Unknown symbol acpi_os_wait_events_complete:  delete the line NV_ACPI_OS_WAIT_EVENTS_COMPLETE(); from nvacpi.c and hope.

http://www.flaterco.com/kb/video/X-regressions.html
_____

I would also add that Unity is basically unusable with 'gallium on
llvmpipe' as the refresh rate is only about 1 frame per second.
However, when I use Nvidia's driver I only see a kernel panic when I
start the Unity desktop.  Other desktop environments fail in less
obvious ways.  For example, Gnome causes a kernel panic but does not
trigger a reboot.  Openbox shows a blank screen with an active mouse
cursor.  It may be relevant here to note that LXDE works perfectly with
Nvidia's driver, and performs well.  But none of the mainline upstream
kernels I tried have made any difference with Gnome or Unity.  (I am
posting crash logs for them here just for general reference.)

I would imagine that many people who install Ubuntu for the first time on a platform with a legacy Nvidia GPU are probably just abandoning Linux completely when they encounter these issues.  There are millions of these displays still in service and many people who use them are now trying Ubuntu for the first time since Windows XP was abandoned by Microsoft, so this bug is exceptionally damaging to Ubuntu from a public relations perspective.  If the same issues are present with ALL of Nvidia's legacy drivers (including those still under active development), there is much to gain by fixing this promptly and it should be a higher priority.  Perhaps it is a matter of semantics to say that the kernel is broken, or X is broken, or the driver is broken.  But I would be curious to know if/when/how Mir will be relevant here when it is enabled by default.  If Canonical wants to make Unity the standard desktop interface, then it needs to run on legacy GPU's, or they need some way to qualify the hardware before installation so first-time users don't get pulled into this mess.
_____

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Packages, which is subscribed to linux in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1310406

Title:
  [regression] Trusty kernel doesn't recognize GeForce 8600m GT nor with
  nouveau or nvidia drivers

Status in “linux” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  When loading trusty (also from a brand new live-USB) in an Acer Aspire 5920G, that has a Nvidia 8600m GT card, the nouveau driver fails to load and the UI falls back to llvmpipe.
  Using noacpi kernel cmdline doesn't help.

  The highlights from dmesg are:

  [   20.051842] nouveau 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0004 -> 0007)
  [   20.052191] [drm] hdmi device  not found 1 0 1
  [   20.052340] nouveau E[  DEVICE][0000:01:00.0] unknown chipset, 0xffffffff
  [   20.052346] nouveau E[     DRM] failed to create 0x80000080, -22
  [   20.052540] nouveau: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -22

  Installing the Nvidia drivers 331 or current (304) gives out a similar
  error when loading the nvidia kernel module:

  [   18.405583] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
  [   18.405588] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
  [   18.418853] nvidia: module verification failed: signature and/or  required key missing - tainting kernel
  [   18.426016] nvidia 0000:01:00.0: enabling device (0000 -> 0003)
  [   18.426115] vgaarb: device changed decodes: PCI:0000:01:00.0,olddecodes=io+mem,decodes=none:owns=none
  [   18.426161] NVRM: The NVIDIA GPU 0000:01:00.0 (PCI ID: 10de:0407)
  [   18.426161] NVRM: installed in this system is not supported by the 331.38
  [   18.426161] NVRM: NVIDIA Linux driver release.  Please see 'Appendix
  [   18.426161] NVRM: A - Supported NVIDIA GPU Products' in this release's
  [   18.426161] NVRM: README, available on the Linux driver download page
  [   18.426161] NVRM: at www.nvidia.com.
  [   18.426215] nvidia: probe of 0000:01:00.0 failed with error -1
  [   18.426869] NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine failed for 1 device(s).
  [   18.426872] NVRM: None of the NVIDIA graphics adapters were initialized!
  [   18.426874] [drm] Module unloaded
  [   18.426982] NVRM: NVIDIA init module failed!

  /var/log/gpu-manager.log: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7286246/
  nvidia-bug-report.sh (contains full dmesg and Xorg.log): http://paste.ubuntu.com/7287180/

  Fun fact is that the card is supported by the latest nvidia drivers as reported by their appendix [1].
  Also they used to work in 12.04.

  So, I've manually installed the saucy kernel, and with it both nouveau and nvidia modules are loaded properly, making X to load the proper driver and GLX to work.
  Everything works also using the daily mainline kernel linux-image-3.15.0-999-generic_3.15.0-999.201404190220_amd64.deb.
  Thus this seems to indicate pretty clearly that the bug is inside the trusty linux kernel itself.

  [1] ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-
  x86_64/331.38/README/supportedchips.html

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic 3.13.0-24.46
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-24.46-generic 3.13.9
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: amd64
  AudioDevicesInUse:
   USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0:  luca       1967 F.... pulseaudio
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Mon Apr 21 00:20:42 2014
  HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=375bbd5e-c25c-4d6e-bfa4-66bed5e80cb0
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2011-12-28 (844 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
  MachineType: Acer, inc. Aspire 5920G
  ProcFB:
   
  ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=UUID=d9d0e5ab-b408-439e-ae8b-c2bf704713bf ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7 noacpi
  RelatedPackageVersions:
   linux-restricted-modules-3.13.0-24-generic N/A
   linux-backports-modules-3.13.0-24-generic  N/A
   linux-firmware                             1.127
  SourcePackage: linux
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-04-19 (1 days ago)
  dmi.bios.date: 08/15/2007
  dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
  dmi.bios.version: v1.3708
  dmi.board.name: Chapala
  dmi.board.vendor: Acer, Inc.
  dmi.board.version: Not Applicable
  dmi.chassis.type: 1
  dmi.chassis.vendor: Acer, Inc.
  dmi.chassis.version: N/A
  dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv1.3708:bd08/15/2007:svnAcer,inc.:pnAspire5920G:pvrNotApplicable:rvnAcer,Inc.:rnChapala:rvrNotApplicable:cvnAcer,Inc.:ct1:cvrN/A:
  dmi.product.name: Aspire 5920G
  dmi.product.version: Not Applicable
  dmi.sys.vendor: Acer, inc.

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