Nvidia Graphics Drivers - Install Guide

[Mad_Sunday]

After weeks of suffering with the nouveau driver removal and then LOADS of related issues, I have had to give up trying. The farce that is the nouveau/Plymouth/grub integration, is I believe, the biggest Linux backward step since the Pulse Audio cock-up a few years ago.

What happened to "choice" ? It has been sacrificed at the alter of petty morality.

It's about 30 months since I switched to Mint because it offered choice and ease of installation. Sadly for me (and countless others I suggest) it has eventually failed me.

I have returned to using PClinuxOS, Nvidia drivers automatically loaded at installation, no messing about, its just working as it should.

I've enjoyed my time with Mint.

Pete

[GregE]

You could have achieved the same thing by installing the main edition of Mint.

[BostonPeng]

Thanks for posting this, Oscar. I recently found myself with a laptop with LMDE on it and this thread resolved my issues with enabling KDE's extra fancy desktop effects. Now I've got my full range of tasty eye candy! I owe you a brew.

[Lendo]

I'm somewhat confused. Do I install the new drivers before I blacklist and remove the old ones? Then reboot after that?

[proxima_centauri]

Install new nvidia drivers, blacklist or remove the nouveau drivers. I suggest blacklisting.

[Lendo]

Guess installing these drivers isn't going to correct my conky problem LOL. Thanks though. They installed fine.

[Mad_Sunday]

You could have achieved the same thing by installing the main edition of Mint.

Wrong! that's why I tried LMDE the main edition gave the same problems.

Pete

[GregE]

You could have achieved the same thing by installing the main edition of Mint.

Wrong! that's why I tried LMDE the main edition gave the same problems.

Pete

I am sorry you have had so many issues, but problems have solutions. Nvidia based systems are the best way to enjoy Linux. Intel based systems are also trouble free these days, but without the same level of performance. The ATI open source drivers are also very good except for gaming. Fglrx never seems to be quite right (especially for Gnome Shell users).

The main edition is based on Ubuntu and thus includes the restricted drivers applet. Just install, wait a few minutes until the icon pops up and select install Nvidia drivers. I have installed Mint and Ubuntu countless times on Nvidia based computers and this has never been a problem. There are many thousands of users who actually prefer nouveau, but I am not one of them. There have been recent issues with an Nvidia 290 release not working, but that has now passed with 290.10.

Many LMDE Mint users simply boot to a command line and install and run sgfxi to fetch and install the latest Nvidia drivers. But the LMDE crowd are a breed apart.

If PCLinuxOS works for you then good luck, that is what Linux is about - endless alternatives and freedom of choice.

Greg

[rjs]

If you want to get the most out of your big dollar hardware, it would be recommended to use the Nvidia drivers provided by Nvidia.com.

To install:
1) Download the 32bit or 64bit (based on what kernel you installed) driver for your card.
2)

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sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

3)

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sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

4) Reboot to Single user (maintenance mode), login, and go to where you downloaded the Nvidia driver install (.run). (There are other ways of course)
5)

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sudo /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop

6)

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sh nvidia-driver.run -z --no-x-check

Possible Errors:
1) "You do not have the right GCC compiler version." Just click no and it should continue to use the compiler that you have.
2) "You have Nouveau drivers loaded." or "Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'." Even after removing/purging i've witnessed this happen, you can blacklist but I find it easier to just run "sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau" from the single user mode and reboot. This should have removed the driver. Then re-run

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sh nvidia-driver.run -z --no-x-check

and it should build the kernel module, install the binaries, etc..

Why use Nvidia proprietary drivers downloaded from their site?
1) Newer versions provide better support for latter hardware.
2) http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=a ... 011&num=24

The Nouveau driver can be usable for those that just care about a basic composited Linux desktop for office and Internet tasks, but for gaming and other demanding workloads it is not too viable.

Which is something I've known just with use and simple tests for quite some time. Nouveau is still better than what we had on linux years ago. That was always an issue back then, with ATI even being more of a headache.

Please note that as of the time of this writing, a considerable amount of bug fixes have been applied to the lateset "290.10" drivers provided by Nvidia.

[miladp]

TL:DR;

For the newer nvidia cards listed in http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... chips.html

install the following packages through Package Manager or terminal:

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apt install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-glx build-essential nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig

For older cards listed in http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... dix-a.html

install the following packages through Package Manager or terminal:

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apt install nvidia-kernel-legacy-173xx-dkms nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx build-essential
nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig

For ancient cards listed in http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... dix-a.html

Install the following packages through Package Manager or terminal:

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apt install nvidia-kernel-legacy-96xx-dkms nvidia-glx-legacy-96xx build-essential
nvidia-settings nvidia-xconfig

When done, execute nvidia-xconfig in terminal. After a reboot, the driver is installed.

* Full credit to fnkbss; copied from http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/331

EDIT:
Suggested to remove or blacklist the default nouveau driver after nvidia driver installation. (Thank you Elmacus for the recommendation)

To blacklist:

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sudo echo blacklist nouveau > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

Removal (in terminal):

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apt remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau libdrm-nouveau1a

This guide worked perfectly for me, but I want to make a suggestion to the author. The part where you state that:
"When done, execute nvidia-xconfig in terminal. After a reboot, the driver is installed."
This however has to be done as root, since it configures system files. I think for people who are LINUX beginners this should be mentioned since there is no info about it being successful or not.

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sudo nvidia-xconfig

Other than that great guide. Well done and keep it up.

PS: I just blacklisted nouveau! I was setting up LMDE for a friend of mine, who I'm trying to convert from MS WIN to LINUX . When we removed nouveau, the system would not boot up properly. Just a blinking cursor infinitely. I did a reinstall and this time just blacklisted nouveau and it worked superb.

[proxima_centauri]

Thank you for the suggestions, I will update accordingly.

[grraf]

whow i see a whole lot of info and steps listed here
for me all it took was the following commands inputed to terminal(got a recent nvidia card obviously):
sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx libgl1-nvidia-glx libcuda1 nvidia-xconfig xserver-xorg
sudo nvidia-xconfig
rebooted the pc and used : sudo glxinfo |grep rendering to see if 3d acceleration is working ok
i suppose its worth mentioning : lmde 64 bit xfce with a GeForce GTX 460 (went with the nouveau drives till all updates got finished including kernel to 3.x branch and only afterwards handled the driver installation issue)
btw this method' as well has been inspired' by : http://tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/debian/d ... howto.html

[Elmacus]

Update!
I just changed back to debian testing instead of mint incomming and got two new kernels, 3.0 and 3.1.
After reboot to 3.1 i was faced with terminal login(not the blinking cursor only), no GDM, but booting to 3.0 worked.

Fix was runnning this as root at terminal (booted 3.1):

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dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-kernel-dkms

Reboot and it worked again.

I hope this helps others with similar problem.

[alakin]

Thanks for the guidance in this thread I am now up and running with nvidia drivers. I do have one very irritating issue that wasn't there with the noveau drivers and I can't find a way to change it:

I have used the NVIDIA X Server Settings to obtain the display that I want i.e. 1280x1024 @ 85hz. This works well for me and the settings are saved on exit and reload fine for the next session. However, my wife's login does not remember the settings - she gets 1900x1200 @ 60hz (this appears to be the auto configuration setting). Help in sorting this one would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Alan

[alakin]

I have used the NVIDIA X Server Settings to obtain the display that I want i.e. 1280x1024 @ 85hz. This works well for me and the settings are saved on exit and reload fine for the next session. However, my wife's login does not remember the settings - she gets 1900x1200 @ 60hz (this appears to be the auto configuration setting). Help in sorting this one would be appreciated.

Problem solved.

If I use the Display Settings in the XFCE settings and select 1280x1024 the settings are retained I have no idea why, but who cares it works

Alan

[rdonnelly]

I installed the 173xx driver for my old Geforce 5500 and the system crashed and burned, I only got the flashing cursor. Would this have worked if I blacklisted the Noveau drivers? I have previously used this card with the 173xx of earlier versions.

Also I read the ATI can cause Gnome problems? This is a little off topic but when ever I go with a Kernel higher then 2.6.38.2-amd64 on my Lenovo, the system logs itself out once a week for no reason?

[melbo]

Update!
I just changed back to debian testing instead of mint incomming and got two new kernels, 3.0 and 3.1.
After reboot to 3.1 i was faced with terminal login(not the blinking cursor only), no GDM, but booting to 3.0 worked.

Fix was runnning this as root at terminal (booted 3.1):

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dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-kernel-dkms

Reboot and it worked again.

I hope this helps others with similar problem.

This did help indeed. Is there a way to run

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nvidia-kernel-dkms

and leave the driver enabled for the previous kernel rather than this method which first removes it from the previous kernel?

[Elmacus]

Update!
Kernel 3.2 to Testing.
After reboot to 3.2 i was faced with terminal login(not the blinking cursor only), no GDM.

Fix was runnning this as root at terminal:

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dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-kernel-dkms

Reboot and it worked again.

[Lendo]

How did you get to terminal? All I got was the command line. Couldn't start x.

[Chris621]

I tried the method suggested by proxima-centauri to install a driver for my GE Force 9500 GT graphics card in Linux Mint 11 but got a list of errors:

"Reading package lists......Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information......Done
Package nvidia-glx is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Unable to locate package nvidia-kernel-dkms
E: Package 'nvidia-glx' has no installation candidate
E: unable to locate package nvidia-settings
E: unable to locate package nvidia-xconfig"

Can anyone help by pointing me in the right direction to get this mess sorted out, please? I no longer have a desktop and only have a command line