Linux Mint Forums

Hi many people have problems with installing nvidia drivers in lmde and it breaks the os, you may need to instal the drivers outside x etc. well to solve this
Edit: if you have run this before i got it wrong please follow it again to fix and install. Edit
for a rolling release setup yo can try thisclick here the manual click here see manual for ati and other drivers

it seemed to go ok

This is for nvidia graphics. Note: read the above links for how-to for other cards
First: Add yourself to the video group

1. open menu go to Anministration>users and groups.
2. click on manage groups
3. select video
4. click preferences
5. select your username make sure the box is ticked and press ok

Now we are ready to install the rolling driver

1. close all programs running
2. presss ctrl+alt+f1 and login
3. you need to be in a root terminal

   Code: Select all

   sudo -i

4. stop x

   Code: Select all

   sudo service gdm3 stop

5. install drivers

   Code: Select all

   cd /usr/local/bin && wget -Nc smxi.org/sgfxi && chmod +x sgfxi && sgfxi

   ignore cant run sgfix permission denied error
6. reboot computer

   Code: Select all

   reboot

this should give you a rolling release driver for your g'card no more update issues

if someone who has update pack 3 could do this before updating to pack 4 could let us know if it works thanks

Thanks so much. Your instructions are very clear and I finally succeeded installing the nvidia driver. I have already updated to up4 so can't help you there but I would like to note that I had a problem with gnome 3 crashing on reboot. I had to log in in fallback mode. I tried starting glxgears in a terminal and it ran but with this error. NVIDIA: could not open the device file /dev/nvidiactl (Permission denied). Opening users and groups and adding myself to the video group solved the problem.

anthro_a wrote:Thanks so much. Your instructions are very clear and I finally succeeded installing the nvidia driver. I have already updated to up4 so can't help you there but I would like to note that I had a problem with gnome 3 crashing on reboot. I had to log in in fallback mode. I tried starting glxgears in a terminal and it ran but with this error. NVIDIA: could not open the device file /dev/nvidiactl (Permission denied). Opening users and groups and adding myself to the video group solved the problem.

Thanks allot for the encouragement and the great final step that is needed i have added it to the original post.

Thanks. Doesn't work though.

Fresh install - Here is what I get:
I have the xfce desktop. What do I need to tell him - this wrong resolution kills me....

Video card is a Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Ultra.

longtom,
in the new respins gdm3 was replaced with mdm, so you have to tweak the command above to reflect that.

Thanks - that shut it down.

However - installation failed because the 173.xxx Nvidia driver doesn't work with Xorg 1.11 (or so says the error).

What now?

Worked wonderfully for me, thank you sir!