Mint 14 and Nvidia 173 Legacy Driver Install

[maciimacii]

Currently the Nvidia 173 driver installation fails for Mint/Ubuntu packages due to failed dependencies, so manual installation of the Nvidia 173 drivers is necessary.

For Linux Mint 14 and Xorg 1.13

By default Linux Mint 14 seems to use the nouveau driver for Nvidia cards.

To change to the current Nvidia 173 legacy drivers (I used the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.37-pkg1.run.sh driver file)

copy the Nvidia driver file to /home/"your user name"/Downloads (replace "your user name" with your user name)

using Terminal, update the headers

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

then log in as root using your password

Ctrl + Alt+ F1

then

cd /home/"your user name"/Downloads

then

Stop xserver

/etc/init.d/mdm stop

then

run Nvidia driver install

sh Nvidiadriverfile.sh

I used sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.37-pkg1.run.sh

Let the nvidia driver installation do the blacklisting of the nouveau driver when running the Nvidia driver install and reboot and start the install again.

log in as root using your password

Ctrl + Alt+ F1

then

cd /home/"your user name"/Downloads

then

Stop xserver

/etc/init.d/mdm stop

then

run Nvidia driver install

sh Nvidiadriverfile.sh

then for Agp cards after the install

reboot and edit the xorg.conf file

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and add

Option "NvAgp" "1"

to Section "Device"

to fix wake up from sleep problems for Agp cards (wake up from sleep problems also happen with the nouveau driver for Nvidia Agp cards)

then

Install nvidia-settings utility

[maciimacii]

btw it seems that the dist-upgrade blows the Nvidia driver away, so a reinstall is needed after the dist-upgrade

cd /home/"your user name"/Downloads

then

run Nvidia driver install

sh Nvidiadriverfile.sh

[maciimacii]

I think that the absolute easiest way to install the Nvidia drivers manually for a noob might be to use recovery mode.

Stopping the xserver is not required.

Prepare the Nvidia driver install by updating the headers and downloading the Nvidia driver file, first.

using Terminal, update the headers

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

then download the Nvidia driver file (usually to /home/(your user name)/Downloads

might also be a good idea to rename the Nvidia driver file to a simpler name

sudo mv Nvidadownloadedname.run.sh Nvidia.run.sh


hold down the shift key at boot and then drop to a read/write root shell prompt from the menu

If the root shell is read only then remount it read/write

mount --options remount,rw /
mount --all

Some versions of Ubuntu only seem to have a read only root shell menu option for instance.

change to where the Nvidia.run.sh file is (usually in /home/(your user name)/Downloads and then run it

cd /home/(your user name)/Downloads

./Nivdia.run.sh

Let Nvidia blacklist Nouvea etc etc.

I had to reinstall the Nvidia driver from recovery mode after a problem I had with xorg and the Nvidia driver installed fine from recovery mode.