Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED 2014

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ridobe

Re: Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDA

Post by ridobe »

za8bit wrote:followed the tutorial step by step, trying to install Nvidia driver 331.67

after finishing i did CTRL+ALT+F1 and its telling me

"Failed to start the X server. It is likely that it is not set up correctly."

I viewed the x server outout and at the bottom it says
"(EE) no screens found (EE)"

I would appreciate any help :)

P.S. though I'm not new to linux or mint, I am still quite new to the terminal commands so please keep that in mind

thanks :)
I'm not sure what you mean by when you finished you typed ctrl+alt+f1 because after an install you shouldn't need to do anything but restart the display manager, ie. sudo start mdm.

Follow the instructions laid out by roblm in post #40. http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 65#p847465

I struggled with this until I came across this post.

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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

za8bit,

Are you making any progress? You're getting the message “Failed to start the X server” because there is no video driver enabled
on your system now. My guess is that you first installed an Nvidia driver in Driver Manager and then downloaded a driver from Nvidia's
website and used kk5000's instructions for installaton, where a previous Nvidia driver was already installed. You will have to remove
the downloaded driver first. You should be able to get to the virtual console tty1. Log in and type this command:
sudo service mdm stop

If the Nvidia driver file is in your "/home/user-name" directory, then type:
sudo sh N.run --uninstall

Replace “N.run” with the name of the Nvidia driver you previously used for the installation.
If the driver file is in the Downloads directory, then you will need to change to that directory first with this command:
cd Downloads

Then type:
sudo reboot

After rebooting you will probably see a message about being in “Fallback Mode”, so just click “No”. Open Driver Manager and select
“xserver-xorg-video-nouveau”.

When the installation is finished open the Terminal and type:
sudo reboot

or lightly press the power button to see a shutdown menu and select “Restart”.

Then follow my updated instructions for installation in this topic. You can use ridobe's link in his last post to go to the exact location.
The only change is that you can skip the first step where the package “libc6-dev” is installed, because it will have already been installed
when you installed the driver in Driver Manager.
minno

Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by minno »

I'm having the same problem as carsten888 did back here http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 20#p825799.

When I enter CLI mode with ctrl-alt-f1, I get a black window with white text labeled "tty1" and asking me to log in. When I do, I get to a command prompt. When I then do "sudo service mdm stop", the screen goes completely blank after I enter my superuser password. I've tried typing things, including "sudo service mdm start", and gotten no response. A bit of text does appear when I hit the power button on my computer case, though.

I'm running Mint 17 RC on a desktop with a GTX 760 discrete graphics card.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

minno,

Did you follow kk5000's installation instructions or my updated instructions on page 2? When you got the black screen, did you first
try pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 again?

I just downloaded and installed Mint 17 Cinnamon RC on my extra partition and was able to install the 331.67 driver from
Nvidia's website.
ridobe

Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by ridobe »

^

edit: picture fail

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Last edited by ridobe on Tue May 20, 2014 9:08 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

ridobe,

Were you trying to show an image in your last post. I don't see anything?
ridobe

Re: Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDA

Post by ridobe »

roblm wrote:ridobe,

Were you trying to show an image in your last post. I don't see anything?
Really? I see it in tapatalk and on my pc.

It's just a funny about you, assuming you are even remotely familiar with reddit. ;)

edit: well, I was wrong. Couldn't see it in the browser.

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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

Anyone looking to download video drivers from Nvidia's website may also want to check the drivers section of "geforce.com".
Most people are probably using the driver downloads section of "Nvidia.com", which only displays the most recent
recommended/certified driver. However, "geforce.com" lists that driver, older drivers, and the newest BETA drivers available.
Here is the result I got from doing a search:
geforce.com.png
All Nvidia video card products cannot be searched at "geforce.com". Only GeForce, Legacy, 3D Vision, and ION.
The "Nvidia.com" site may have some useful information under “Release Highlights”, and lists all the supported video cards for a
particular driver.

So far Mint 17 Cinnamon RC appears to be working well with downloaded Nvidia drivers. I've just tested the installation of the
newest 331.79 and 337.19 BETA driver.
astaroth

Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by astaroth »

roblm wrote:
UPDATE: 4-20-14
I did some more testing and found that the installation process can be simplified. The step adding a kernel parameter to the GRUB
file does not have to be done in Mint 16, as was necessary in Mint 14 and 15. Download the driver and move it to your
“/home/user-name” directory. If you have a GeForce series 8 or 9, or series 100 through 800 video card, then the only two drivers
available are the Nvidia-331.67 and Nvidia-334.21. Both will work with Mint 16. Older drivers will not work, but I haven't tested all of
them. During the installation you should see the screen in the picture above, about installing libvdpau, or the installation will probably
not work.
I'm using the NVIDIA-331.67” driver in the package “NVIDIA-Linux-x86-331.67.run”.
Rename it “N-331.run”, so you don't have to type that long name later.

Install the package “libc6-dev” by opening the Terminal and typing:
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev

Then type this command to create a file named “disable-nouveau.conf”:
gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nouveau.conf

Add these two lines to the opened file:
blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Save the file. In the Terminal type this command:
sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot.
Enter the virtual console tty1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1.
Log in and type this command to stop the display manager:
sudo service mdm stop

Sometimes you may now see a different screen. Just press Ctrl+Alt+F1 again.
Then type:
sudo sh N-331.run

Always choose “yes” during installation, and when it's finished type:
sudo service mdm start
Sorry I need to bump this thread up. I am attempting to install the 340 drivers on LM16 Cinammon, which itself is freshly installed. May I know whether anyone had any success with the same steps listed above? My GFX is a Quadro FX 1700, will the same steps work?
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

astaroth,

I have a backup image of Mint 16 Cinnamon so I installed it on my extra partition. I then downloaded the Nvidia 340.32 driver and
had no problems installing it. I also installed it successfully on my Mint 17 installation. The Nvidia Quadro series video cards are not
too common in this forum but I would expect you to have success.
I assume you are aware that you should be using Mint 17 now, which has long term support.
astaroth

Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by astaroth »

Yes I am aware, thank you very much for the reminder. Since it works on LM17 I will try it on that instead of 16, thank you once again!
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by Robynsveil »

I just thought I'd throw my hat in here... I've been having a horrible time getting any Ubuntu-based flavour of Linux running on this box. Indeed, I wasn't clear if it wasn't perhaps the HDD, as it would freeze just when was doing certain things.
In any event, here is how I ended up installing Mint: just running it from the CD, I'd get into the desktop and then, trying to install it would freeze where I was trying to "Do Something Else" (which is my default approach for manually configuring swap file, choosing partition, partition size and mount point on drives where I want to preserve other stuff on the drive). So, I rebooted and loaded in "Compatibility mode", which meant I was using software rendering, a temporary fix just to keep working. The install finished normally, but when I rebooted it got a "kernel panic" among other things. I went into "Recovery mode", activated netowrking, ran the "Fix Broken Packages" bit (which essentially finished the install, that long update bit) then dropped to the CLI as root and checking first that no nvidia-nouveau was installed or active (it wasn't), followed the instructions from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkKkuzWlaGo

I notice the mouse behaviour is a bit quirky, but at least the desktop is up and running, so that's actually amazing.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

Robynsveil,

This topic, which was started by kk5000, mainly covers the manual installation of Nvidia video drivers downloaded from Nvidia's website.
The video in the link you listed discusses adding the PPA xorg-edgers to your software sources, and using the distribution's package
manager to automatically install the newest available Nvidia video drivers from that PPA.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by Robynsveil »

roblm wrote:Robynsveil,

This topic, which was started by kk5000, mainly covers the manual installation of Nvidia video drivers downloaded from Nvidia's website.
The video in the link you listed discusses adding the PPA xorg-edgers to your software sources, and using the distribution's package
manager to automatically install the newest available Nvidia video drivers from that PPA.
Thank you for the clarification, Robim. I've found your help extremely useful in the past, and thank you again for it. Sorry to be posting at cross-purposes.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

Robynsveil,

I didn't mean to imply that only information on the manual installation of Nvidia drivers should be posted in this topic, and that's
certainly not implied in the name of the topic either. I just wanted to alert other users that are looking specifically for this kind of
information, that they would not find it in the video in your link, saving them the time to check it out.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by grungy_me »

Some feedback for user kk5000, perhaps you should change the title to reflect the version of LinuxMint that this guide is for rather than showing a year.

I'm using a recently new and clean install of LinuxMint 17 64-bit XFCE with all updates except levels 4 and 5 applied. I have an Nvidia GTX 750 currently running the default open source nouveau driver. But my problem is that I cannot get to virtual console tty1. When attempting to do so, all I get is a black, blank screen. Pressing the short cut key combo again or repeatedly does not make it show. Either does trying tty2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. Thankfully Ctrl + Alt + F7 gets me back to the desktop. From the research I've done, I know it is not an issue with the power saving features of the monitor. The monitor is powered on and not in standby mode when going to tty1. Does anyone have any ideas how to get tty1 so I can continue with the Nvidia proprietary graphics driver install instructions? Thanks.

Edit - Adding my inxi output:

CPU~Hexa core AMD Phenom II X6 1055T (-MCP-) clocked at Min:800.000Mhz Max:2800.000Mhz
Kernel~3.13.0-24-generic x86_64
Up~2:23
Mem~1103.5/16047.2MB
HDD~2000.4GB(0.2% used)
Procs~201 Client~Shell inxi~1.8.4

Graphics: Card: NVIDIA GM107 [GeForce GTX 750]
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: FAILED: fbdev,vesa,nouveau Resolution: 1920x1200@0.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 128 bits) GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.0
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

grungy_me,

The only post I've read in this forum about your problem is this one in the link below. However, the command “initctl | grep tty”
doesn't work in Mint 17 Xfce. You will have to open the file manager and go to “/etc/init” to check for the “tty1.conf” - “tty6.conf” files,
and any “tty1.override” file.
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 6&p=462365

In another post I've read in a different forum, some users reported this problem after installing the Nvidia proprietary driver and solved
it by installing a different version.

You can still install the Nvidia driver in Recovery Mode. Follow the steps in my Updated installation guide in this post, up to the point of
rebooting:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 20#p847465

For this example, I'll name the driver: N-340.32.run
After rebooting, select “Recovery Mode” at the GRUB boot menu. If no menu shows, then hold down the Shift key while starting. In the
menu, select “root - drop to root shell prompt”. When asked for the root password, just type your user password. Then change the file
permissions to read and write by typing:

Code: Select all

mount -o remount,rw /
Change to the directory containing the driver by typing:
cd /home/user-name

To start the installation, type:
sh N-340.32.run

After the installation finishes, type:
reboot

You'll go back to the Recovery Mode menu. Don't click anything, just wait for the reboot.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by grungy_me »

@roblm

Thank you so much! You are amazing and awesome! Your solution worked for me.

I installed libc6-dev via Synaptic Package Manager, then I used your updated 4-20-14 instructions after booting into recovery mode and choosing “root - drop to root shell prompt” and issuing that mount command. During the install at the end I opted to let it run "nvidia-xconfig". I have success with installing the Nvidia 340.32 64-bit proprietary graphic driver! On top of that, my virtual consoles tty1-6 are now working as I would expect them to. I tested with "Extreme Tux Racer", "SuperTux 2", "SuperTuxKart". They all ran great and as I would expect with great performance with the graphical settings all on high at native LCD resolution of 1920 x 1200. And "glxgears" ran properly at 60fps. And the "Nvidia X Server Settings" program is installed and opens correctly.

I do have some questions though...

Firstly upon running the Nvidia proprietary graphic card installation, the first message I got was:
The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue?
I opted to continue and the installation went normal as far as I can tell as a first timer doing this type of installer. Meaning there was no obvious error messages beyond this one that I could tell. Do I have any reason to be concerned even though the tests with the three games and glxgears worked fine?

I also opted not to include DKMS. My understanding is that by not including it, if the level 3 updates ever update the kernel I'd have to re-install the Nvidia driver from scratch just like I did today? Am I correct about this? Would it be worth my while to uninstall and re-install the driver with DKMS included?

I also opted to use the included libvdpau and libvdpau_trace libraries that come with the driver. But noticed during the install that the driver puts up an informational message saying that it is better to get these libraries from the package manager of your distribution. Do I have reason to be concerned since I didn't do this?

I'm completely willing and able to do this over if it benefits me as I have not restored my data, installed any other applications or done any significant configuration changes.

Thanks again for your help. :)

Edit: Slightly off topic. But this whole procedure makes me have a fine appreciation for how easy it is to install the AMD proprietary graphics driver. One terminal command from the desktop brings up the graphical GUI, run through the prompts, re-boot and then you are done. Too bad the performance of the AMD graphics cards and driver are not up to par with Nvidia.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by roblm »

grungy_me wrote:Firstly upon running the Nvidia proprietary graphic card installation, the first message I got was:
The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue?
I opted to continue and the installation went normal as far as I can tell as a first timer doing this type of installer. Meaning there was no obvious error messages beyond this one that I could tell. Do I have any reason to be concerned even though the tests with the three games and glxgears worked fine?

You can ignore that message. After the installation, if you check the "nvidia-installer.log" file located in "/var/log", it says that the distribution-provided pre-install script is located in "/usr/lib/nvidia". When you open that "pre-script" file, it will be empty.


Since you had to switch to Recovery Mode, then you didn't get to read the rest of the installation instructions for a tty1 installation. Then you would have read the instruction to answer yes at every screen.
I also opted not to include DKMS. My understanding is that by not including it, if the level 3 updates ever update the kernel I'd have to re-install the Nvidia driver from scratch just like I did today? Am I correct about this? Would it be worth my while to uninstall and re-install the driver with DKMS included?
A minor kernel update through the update manager will not have any effect on the Nvidia driver installation, such as going from the installed kernel 3.13.0-24.46 to 3.13.0-24.47.

A major kernel upgrade, such as going from kernel 3.13 to 3.14 or higher will require reinstalling the driver. You should not have to do this. Since Mint 17 has long term support, you won't have to worry about a major kernel upgrade until 2019. But if you're concerned about it, then just run through the installation again in tty1. All you need to do is:

Enter tty1 and log in. Then run these commands:
sudo service mdm stop
sudo sh N-340.32.run
sudo service mdm start

The installed Nvidia driver is automatically removed and then reinstalled.
I also opted to use the included libvdpau and libvdpau_trace libraries that come with the driver. But noticed during the install that the driver puts up an informational message saying that it is better to get these libraries from the package manager of your distribution. Do I have reason to be concerned since I didn't do this?
The driver installation will fail if you don't let those two packages be installed by the Nvidia installer. I have already tested an installation where I first installed them in the Synaptic Package Manager and then didn't have the Nvidia installer install them, but the installation failed. Evidently there is some difference in the packages, whether all the files in the packages are not identical or there is a version difference.
But this whole procedure makes me have a fine appreciation for how easy it is to install the AMD proprietary graphics driver. One terminal command from the desktop brings up the graphical GUI, run through the prompts, re-boot and then you are done. Too bad the performance of the AMD graphics cards and driver are not up to par with Nvidia.
If you had been able to use tty1 for the installation, then the steps would have been:

Install the package “libc6-dev”

Create the “disable-nouveau.conf” file, add 2 lines to it, and then run:

sudo update-initramfs -u

Reboot and enter tty1 to run these commands:

sudo service mdm stop

sudo sh N-331.run

sudo service mdm start

Two of those commands are to stop and start the display manager. Also, the package “libc6-dev” was already installed up through Mint 15, but for some unknown reason, the Mint developers removed it in Mint 16 and 17, although it gets installed with any Nvidia driver installation using Driver Manager, Synaptic or apt-get. So Nvidia can't be blamed entirely on lengthy installation procedures.
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Re: Install Nvidia proprietary drivers in LinuxMint UPDATED

Post by grungy_me »

@roblm

I re-installed the Nvidia driver and answered yes to everything, re-booted and then re-tested the games and everything appears to run fine. Thank you for the additional information and steps to get this done on top of answering my questions.
Since you had to switch to Recovery Mode, then you didn't get to read the rest of the installation instructions for a tty1 installation. Then you would have read the instruction to answer yes at every screen.
Nope, I had your post up on a second computer. It was likely more human error that I overlooked the part to say yes at every screen.

I still think the AMD proprietary graphic installer is way easier to run and install as you don't have to leave the desktop. But at least when tty1 works, it is easier than what I initially had to do to get the Nvidia proprietary graphics driver installed. Nvidia could stand to learn a thing a thing or two from AMD in that regard.


I also am speculating that the reason tty1-6 did not work was because the open source nouveau driver for Nvidia graphic cards doesn't properly support the 700 series yet except for very basic function. Hence why inxi -G showed this as part of the output:
drivers: FAILED: fbdev,vesa,nouveau
And that the included proprietary Nvidia drivers version provided as a part of the driver manager of LinuxMint 17 also does not support the 700 series, so no drivers are shown when I brought it up.

Any thoughts regarding this?

Thanks again for all of your help! You turned a frustration into a win!
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