Steam for Linux Video Driver Updates leading to graphics issues for new users
@cthornett What model video card do you use?
Nothing very fancy - only a Nvidia GTX 470 on one system. Sorry, when I referenced the Ubuntu Software Center in my post, I forgot to say I also ran Additional Drivers in System Settings to confirm I had the latest Ubuntu supported driver installed.
Steam doesn't come up with the recommendations, it just runs some system code. Do you see the same recommendation when you do a driver check through Ubuntu itself?
No I don't. When I run an Additional Driver search it indicates I have the most current Nvidia_304 drivers activated.
But when I load up Steam it comes up with an Nvidia-319 recommendation.
Basically, I fell for the driver update advice and followed a guide on how to manually install the Nvidia-319 thinking the latest drivers would be the best option, but I couldn't get a display up after reboot.
I ended up purging the Nvidia drivers entirely to try and fix things. I notice now that Steam has alerted me to the fact I'm not direct rendering with OpenGL all of sudden. I'm sure I'll figure out how to sort this out, but basically I wouldn't have done any of this if the Steam client hadn't flagged it up. That's more my concern with it really, particularly for new users (well, even newer than me). System info below:
Processor Information:
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
CPU Family: 0x10
CPU Model: 0xa
CPU Stepping: 0x0
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3000 Mhz
6 logical processors
6 physical processors
HyperThreading: Unsupported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Unsupported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Unsupported
SSE42: Unsupported
Network Information:
Network Speed:
Operating System Version:
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS (64 bit)
Kernel Name: Linux
Kernel Version: 3.5.0-43-generic
X Server Vendor: The X.Org Foundation
X Server Release: 11300000
X Window Manager: Compiz
Steam Runtime Version: steam-runtime-release_2013-10-23
Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA Corporation GeForce GTX 470/PCIe/SSE2
Driver Version: 2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.88
OpenGL Version: 2.1
Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x6cd
Number of Monitors: 1
Number of Logical Video Cards: 1
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Primary Display Size: 20.51" x 11.54" (23.50" diag)
52.1cm x 29.3cm (59.7cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 0 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x 16x
Sound card:
Audio device: VIA VT2020
Memory:
RAM: 7986 Mb
Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
LANG: en_GB.UTF-8
Microphone: Not set
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 319832 Mb
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 271605 Mb
There are other NVIDIA drivers in the list and that may be the source of the issue. Do you have jockey-text installed? If you do 'jockey-text -l' you should get a list similar to the UI but with version numbers. Does it show 319? If you do 'jockey-text -c' does it suggest anything?
The indirect rendering thing most likely indicates you need to refresh your 32-bit support. Steam is a 32-bit app so you have to get 32-bit OpenGL working in addition to the regular 64-bit OpenGL.
nvidia 304.88 with a GTX 470 declaring that it only supports opengl 2.1 ... something bad is happening.
Yeah, I noticed that...
Okay, appears that Nvidia-319 is there but Additional Drivers lists it without any designations, but it does say 319 in the licence info. Sorry, my fault. See below:
kmod:nvidia_304 - nvidia_304 (Proprietary, Enabled, Not in use)
kmod:nvidia_304_updates - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
kmod:nvidia_319 - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
kmod:nvidia_319_updates - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver, kernel module and VDPAU library (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
Would be much more user-friendly if Additional Driver listed them clearly. What's the best fix. Uninstall all these drivers through Software Center and do a fresh install of 319? Will that fix the OpenGL rendering problem too?
You might be better off asking on an Ubuntu forum but overall it's hard to say if uninstall and reinstall would fix your issues. It's simple to try, although time-consuming.
Understood. Thanks for the help!
Closing as steam no longer provides this functionality.
Nothing extracted yet.
This is closer to a feature request than an actual bug.
I'm using Ubuntu 12.04.3 and Nvidia's 304 driver, which is the 'current driver' option specified in the Ubuntu Software Center.
The Steam for Linux at start checks for Video Driver Updates and will throw up a window that tells a user that they must upgrade to 319 drivers as that is a more recent driver version.
Clicking 'Upgrade' creates an internal error most of the time.
Cancelling removes the window, but it leaves the user with a dilemma, either they continue using 304 drivers or, as many new users will do, they will go ahead and download the 319 drivers from Nvidia and attempt to install them. Gamers, particularly those moving from Windows, will always assume that the latest drivers are the best option (unless they are labelled as beta).
What ultimately has happened to me is that I installed them manually (stopped X to install them etc) and now have a system that doesn't boot into the desktop. I'll figure out how to purge the drivers and get my screen working again, but the point is that I'm using the recommended version of Ubuntu for Steam and shouldn't be experiencing this kind of thing.
My assumption is that either the automatic Check for Video Drivers Update doesn't check to see whether the installed Nvidia driver is the currently supported driver by the distro (in my case Ubuntu) or that the distros aren't supplying that information to the Steam team. I assume it just checks to see what the latest graphics driver is for your hardware and throws up the result.
In terms of user experience, the messages from the Steam for Linux client are confusing for new users and can lead to a less than smooth Linux experience and we don't want that. Thanks!