How to reinstall default video drivers in linux mint 18?

[Taleweaver]

Okay...lemme start by noting that I'm not adept at linux. At all. But running in a problem like this is IMHO a good way to actually learn something (and this is on a test machine, so it's not like there's really anything worth it on the HD).

So I was testing out a game both on linux (mint 18) on wine and the other partition: windows 7. Noticed it ran noticeably slower on the former, which is something that can happen when running wine. In poking around, I came across this guy on a forum who said I could try with gallium nine drivers (that may offer better performance on directx 9 games).

So after a quick google, I found this guide. Seemed simple enough at first: add a repository, download the drivers, configure it in wine and done.
That's where things started going wrong. Though the install seemed to work okay, the option to patch wine to use said drivers wasn't there -> wine wasn't patched. :-\

Then, after a reboot, cinnamon acted up. Or rather: pretty much every program acted up. Figuring that was the only thing that was changed, I decided to backpedal the gallium drivers out of there (ey...they were experimental in the first place ).

Unfortunately...during the uninstallation scripts, I noticed that it did quite some more uninstalling than it installed earlier. I sat it out until the end because a partially uninstall of something critical is probably worse than a finished one, I let it finish. And sure enough: after a reboot, the screen stays blank. Hmm...not so good.

Getting in the mint command prompt isn't so hard...but finding the right commands to get or install the correct drivers is something I just can't find. Anything I try seems to result in...well...just the same command prompt I had earlier. Or a black screen if I attempt to boot the normal way.

So hence this thread: does anyone know how to restore this mess I created myself?

(note: if I don't have an answer in a week, I'll just reinstall mint from scratch. As said: this is a test laptop).

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

Assuming you still have an internet connection, you could try the following, although I have no idea if it'd work:
1. remove any ppa repositories you installed relating to the issue
2. Update the package list

sudo apt-get update

3. Upgrade available packages

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Ideally you'd disable the repository, figure out what packages you'd installed via that repository, and then force a reinstall from the standard repository, but maybe the package manager can figure out which packages you need with the above solution. Even if you reinstalled everything, it's possible (though not likely) that config files got removed or modified by the drivers from outside repositories, and may not work correctly.

You should also see if you can at least get running Cinnamon in Fallback/Classic mode if your drivers exist and are simply misconfigured.

 

[Taleweaver]

Thanks for the suggestion, @FireEmblemGuy. Unfortunately, things aren't that simple. :-\

If I start mint in recovery mode and then choose "continue boot", it'll gets me the standard prompt with internet and all the options (it even gives a mention that some graphic cards require a reboot to properly function). I can run most if not all commands that I can find on the internet.
The recovery mode also has a "fix broken packages" option, but aside from fixing one (which I guess is at this time more because I hard reboot the thing while it's still loading but which I can't see because graphic card settings are still wrong), it doesn't do much.

I reinstalled cinnamon a bunch of times now, but starting it from the terminal is something that apparently isn't that easy to find or do.

I'll keep looking...

 

[GremlinMo]

late reply but i have an easier way and i'm sure it will help anyone stuck with similar issues who installed some drivers from Amd(of the older range cards no longer Amd supported) and found they didn't work with Mint 18:

Go to System settings>Scroll to Software Sources>Enter Your password if you have one>>>Scroll to Maintenance >>>Run remove Foreign Packages and any other options there run..don't worry if it doesn't find anything but make sure you run update cache after you run FixMergeList problems.. i admit i'm not an expert on everything these things actually do but i actually think of these options like a System restore option Windows Os will let you do.. After i did all that i opened a Terminal and ran :
sudo apt-get update
(that's it)
.. make sure you reboot your pc after these steps and if all works out right you will find your display back to normal , like in my case i lost 1080p but did a test and it's all fixed... hope this helps or anyone with a similar issue who has been Googling like i did to find this forum .

 

[Taleweaver]

Ow...thanks for the reply, GremlinMo.
But as you can figure out, it got solved in the end. I just reinstalled. As it turns out, that was less of a hassle than I thought it would be (but of course still not something I'd recommend).

 

[lawnmowerman]

late reply but i have an easier way and i'm sure it will help anyone stuck with similar issues who installed some drivers from Amd(of the older range cards no longer Amd supported) and found they didn't work with Mint 18:

Go to System settings>Scroll to Software Sources>Enter Your password if you have one>>>Scroll to Maintenance >>>Run remove Foreign Packages and any other options there run..don't worry if it doesn't find anything but make sure you run update cache after you run FixMergeList problems.. i admit i'm not an expert on everything these things actually do but i actually think of these options like a System restore option Windows Os will let you do.. After i did all that i opened a Terminal and ran :
sudo apt-get update
(that's it)
.. make sure you reboot your pc after these steps and if all works out right you will find your display back to normal , like in my case i lost 1080p but did a test and it's all fixed... hope this helps or anyone with a similar issue who has been Googling like i did to find this forum .

thanks for your help this worked great