I updated nVidia drivers and now "appearance" doesn't work.

[ozone]

So before I loaded the nVidia drivers, I customized the window boarders, the colors, the pointer, etc. I got it looking just the way I wanted. I loved it. After much research and many attempts, I finally loaded the nVidia drivers for my video card and all of the special effects started working. They look cool and I love them, however, now I can't change the boarder around the windows, the cursor only changes when I'm hovering over a program. In the OS it stays the rotating gold arrow, which I don't like and even though the sound works, sometimes it just doesn't make any sounds when it used to, like the start-up sound effect and clicking sound effects.

Can anyone tell me how to get my appearance setting to work again? I don't like the boarder I am stuck on.

Thanks.

[pclinuxguru]

Chances are your new driver lacked support for your gpu. Newer isn't always better .

Purge and just go back to the drivers that worked. You can use synaptic to purge the unwanted newer drivers. Then restart and activate the ones that worked.

[ozone]

The driver is the only one that supports my new card.

Also, I can't say it "worked" before, which is why I updated. I have an nVidia GTX570. It's pretty new.

I'd kind of like to use the special effects AND customize my desktop. Any other ideas?

[pclinuxguru]

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-current-modaliases nvidia-settings

Code: Select all

sudo nvidia-xconfig

This should added the latest and greatest , also configure all in one.

[ozone]

Thanks for the reply. I did what you said and now I'm back to being able to adjust the border and the cursor of the screen resolution is lower and I can't use the visual effects. I don't know which is worse.

Anyone have a suggestion that will allow me to use both?

[ozone]

Plus I get an error every time I boot, "Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode."

[ozone]

In the GRUB file, due to the way I loaded the driver in before, this line is still there. Would that cause your method not to work?

"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

[pclinuxguru]

In the GRUB file, due to the way I loaded the driver in before, this line is still there. Would that cause your method not to work?

"GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset"

All ya did was just update the repository to use the newest possible driver. It should have worked, I am wondering if nomodeset is effecting it .

Might pay to purge all nvidia drivers and all x configs. Start over from scratch.

I have seen bad configs get stuck before. Just remove all xorg configs. Use synaptic to completely remove drivers.

Before you restart do a fresh install. < but make sure all your xorg configs have been removed before you fresh install.

[pclinuxguru]

some reading info, should help I reckon.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1686576

http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/multimedia/442232-nvidia-nomodeset-kernel-parameter.html

[ozone]

Update.

Ok, part of the problem was my lack of understanding about how to change appearance. I was going to System>preferences>appearance. This worked when I did not have a driver. After loading the driver, I eventually made my way to the Compiz Fusion Icon at the top of the desktop. Using Emerald Theme Manager allowed me to edit the look, but it had limitations. The way I had it set up was not available in Emerald. I chanced upon the Window Decorator Feature and selected the GTK option, which allowed me to put it back to the way I liked. However, the cursor still won't stick with that and I didn't see an option for cursor at all in Emerald.

Anyway, it is much more usable now. Thank you for the help.

But I have to wonder, what is the "cursor selection" option under System for? It just shows what's available?