Ubuntu 13.04. fail to start after installing nvidia drivers (Vostro laptop)

Everything worked fine in 13.04 Ubuntu but then i installed nvidia-drivers-103 Now it does not load into login screen at all. I see blank purple screen during start-up and then just blank black screen appears and nothing happens after.

I booted into recovery mode and removed nvidia drivers, that did not helped. I noticed i had broken Unity environment in recovery mode (no launcher or toolbars, just wallpaper) so i followed :

Unity doesn't load, no Launcher, no Dash appears

where i reseted my unity/compiz back but this did not helped me to boot so finally i installem gdm and now i have compiz and unity fully removed and nvidia drivers too. I still cannot boot, only recovery mode works fine.

What i should try next to have Unity and Compiz happily working ? Which logs should i check and what could be wrong ?

I would expected that unity/compiz is problem but as i still cannot start my OS i guess the reason is much more deeper than i expected. How to restore original version of graphics drivers ? Obviously just removing NVidia drivers did not restored original configuration.

HW : laptop Vostro 3750, Nvidia GT 525M, Intel Mobile HM67 Chipset


I have a dell Latitude E6500, and got the same problems the only solution I found was the following :

  1. Switch to console mode: Alt+Ctrl+F1
  2. Kill x server: sudo service lightdm stop
  3. Remove nvidia drivers: sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*
  4. Generate new xorg.conf file: sudo X -configure -- this will create xorg.conf. A new file in your current dir
  5. Rename and move: sudo mv xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  6. Return to GUI: sudo start lightdm

Of course I would prefer a better solution


I had the same problem on Samsung RC530. Graphics was functional until Nvidia drivers installed which messed up the drivers (I could log in in low resolution, monitor was not recognized at all). I have to say that answer provided by Alain worked. After removing Nvidia drivers in console mode and adding new configuration file everything was back to the old graphics setup.