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IsaacS
Asked: 2014-01-29 09:13:34 +0800 CST

'nvidia-settings' received an X Window System error (error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.)

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Since the last apt-get dist-upgrade this morning, I've started seeing nvidia-settings crashes when I try setting something with the error below:

$ The program 'nvidia-settings' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)'.
  (Details: serial 666 error_code 2 request_code 139 minor_code 25)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)

Having spent a few hours already I've tried several things below and no luck:

  • Rename ~/.nvidia-settings-rc --> New file was made at some point I'm not sure.
  • Rename /etc/X11/xorg.conf --> New file hasn't been generated.
  • Install bumblebee --> Had same situation with this ticket and gave up. Uninstalled.
  • Tried installing and/or removing nvidia's libraries (versions tried: 304, 319, 331 afai remember)

Since it looks like the latest nvidia driver 331.20 was just released early this morning, I suspect the newly installed library contains a wrongdoer. But does anyone have an idea to fix this?

System logs:

$ cat /etc/issue
Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS \n \l

$ uname -a
Linux 130s-serval 3.2.0-58-generic #88-Ubuntu SMP Tue Dec 3 17:37:58 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ for keyword in baseboard-manufacturer baseboard-product-name baseboard-version system-manufacturer system-product-name system-version bios-vendor bios-version bios-release-date; done
>     printf "%-22s: " "$keyword";
>     sudo dmidecode -s "$keyword";
> done
System76, Inc.                            
baseboard-product-name: Serval Professional
baseboard-version     : serp7                    
system-manufacturer   : System76, Inc.                          
system-product-name   : Serval Professional
system-version        : serp7                    
bios-vendor           : American Megatrends Inc.
bios-version          : 4.6.4
bios-release-date     : 06/01/2011

$ dpkg -p nvidia-settings |grep Version
Version: 331.20-0ubuntu0.0.1

Thanks!

nvidia

2 Answers

  1. I saw the same issue yesterday. Downgrading from 331.20 to 304.88 worked for me:

    wget https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-security/+archive/ppa/+build/4479926/+files/nvidia-settings_304.88-0ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i nvidia-settings_304.88-0ubuntu0.2_amd64.deb
    • 3
  2. Best Answer

    Yes, as @Eric suggested downgrading to 304.88 works. As I was on i386 and was missing a few dependencies had to go through a few more steps. The following should solve it for people using i386.

    First download the i386 package

    wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/n/nvidia-settings/nvidia-settings_304.88-1_i386.deb

    The package has a few dependencies, we need'em installed before dpkging the above package. (In my case I was missing nvidia-installer-cleanup and libxnvctrl0):

    wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/n/nvidia-support/nvidia-installer-cleanup_20131102+1_i386.deb
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/pool/contrib/n/nvidia-settings/libxnvctrl0_319.72-1_i386.deb

    In order to dpkg - nvidia-installer-cleanup, we need to do a little clean-up.

    sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current nvidia-current-updates nvidia-common

    After the above packages have been removed you can dpkg the downloaded packages one by one.

    sudo -i
dpkg nvidia-installer-cleanup_20131102+1_i386.deb
dpkg libxnvctrl0
dpkg nvidia-settings_304.88-1_i386.deb

    Once, you have rolled back to version 304.88 and do not want it to update it, you can lock the version as follows:

    echo “nvidia-settings-304 hold” | dpkg --set-selections

    In future, if you'd want to remove the hold, you can do:

    echo “nvidia-settings-304 install” | dpkg --set-selections

    NOTE: You can also use the synaptic package manager. Just select your package, and from the package menu select Lock Version.

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