nvidia driver

[neuromancer1970]

I'm new to Mint. Previously, I've used Ubuntu before switching to Mint 14 Maya Cinnamon on my laptop. The installer always detected and installed the Nvidia drivers for me Geforce GT 650M in Ubuntu. For some reason, Mint loaded Intel graphics drivers for my laptop. "Software Sources>Additional Drivers" does not show an option to load Nvidia drivers. Can someone please point me to a let that would tell me how to switch drivers?

[den68]

Hi,
you could give a try to the Device Driver Manager, as shown here :
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=113559

that worked for me

[nomko]

Hi,
you could give a try to the Device Driver Manager, as shown here :
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=113559

that worked for me

Yes , that worked for you since you must be using LMDE with KDE??? And since the developer asked for tester to test it for other Mint version i doubt it will work for the toipic starter. The topic starter is using Mint 14 + Cinnamon.

Best to do in this case: x-swat PPA

* open a terminal
* type the following command:

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

Press Enter and follow the instructions given in the terminal
* type the following command:

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sudo apt-get update

Press Enter

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sudo apt-get upgrade

Press Enter

[den68]

I'm actually using Mint 14 + Mate.
but I didn't know x-swat, thanks for the tip !

[zerozero]

that worked for you since you must be using LMDE with KDE???

not relevant, ddm is not tied to any DE or mint edition, actually is not even completely tied to mint to be functional: i used it in debian proper and the result is similar.

now what ddm doesn't support (yet) is Optimus cards (as is the gt 650m)

For some reason, Mint loaded Intel graphics drivers for my laptop. "Software Sources>Additional Drivers" does not show an option to load Nvidia drivers.

x-swat won't solve your problem either, you need bumblebee https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee
and good luck

[neuromancer1970]

nomko,
Thank you for the detailed instructions. However, it did nothing to switch my graphics driver. Is there another step you omitted? According to preferences>details, I'm still using Intel IvyBridge Mobile for my graphics. According to lshw -c video, I have:

*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: GK107 [GeForce GT 650M]
vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
physical id: 0
bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
version: a1
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
resources: irq:16 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:a0000000-afffffff memory:b0000000-b1ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memory:b2000000-b207ffff
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 09
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:45 memory:d3000000-d33fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff ioport:5000(size=64)

I assume the Intel graphics controller is integrated into the motherboard. I didn't find any settings in the BIOS to disable it.

[neuromancer1970]

zerozero,
That didn't work either. Maybe preferences>details are not reporting accurately which driver is being used? I rebooted.
It still says I'm using Intel IvyBridge Mobile, Standard

[neuromancer1970]

This is a deal-breaker. If I can't get the Nvidia driver working, I'll have to switch back to using Ubuntu

[zerozero]

the installation in ubuntu and in mint is similar; what works in a ubuntu release works in the correspondent mint release: 12.04 = mint13; 12.10 = mint14;

can you please open the terminal and give us the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -SGx

[neuromancer1970]

the installation in ubuntu and in mint is similar; what works in a ubuntu release works in the correspondent mint release: 12.04 = mint13; 12.10 = mint14;

can you please open the terminal and give us the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -SGx

System: Host: jdunn-Notebook-PC Kernel: 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.7.2)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Graphics: Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 650M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1920x1080@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 9.0 Direct Rendering: Yes

Well, thanks. That answers my question. Definitely, the Intel driver is being used.

[zerozero]

and the output of

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grep nvidia /var/log/apt/history.log

[neuromancer1970]

and the output of

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grep nvidia /var/log/apt/history.log

Commandline: apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia linux-headers-generic
Install: libstdc++6:i386 (4.7.2-2ubuntu1, automatic), virtualgl:amd64 (2.3.2-1~quantalppa1, automatic), libxfixes3:i386 (5.0-4ubuntu5, automatic), libdrm-nouveau2:i386 (2.4.39-0ubuntu1, automatic), screen-resolution-extra:amd64 (0.15, automatic), libdrm-radeon1:i386 (2.4.39-0ubuntu1, automatic), nvidia-current:amd64 (304.64-0ubuntu1~quantal~xup1, automatic), libxxf86vm1:i386 (1.1.2-1, automatic), libgl1-mesa-dri:i386 (9.0-0ubuntu1, automatic), libxcb-glx0:i386 (1.8.1-1ubuntu1, automatic), libgl1-mesa-glx:i386 (9.0-0ubuntu1, automatic), bumblebee:amd64 (3.0.1-3~quantalppa1), virtualgl-libs-ia32:i386 (2.3.2-1~quantalppa1, automatic), libx11-xcb1:i386 (1.5.0-1, automatic), libtxc-dxtn-s2tc0:i386 (0~git20110809-3, automatic), libglapi-mesa:i386 (9.0-0ubuntu1, automatic), libexpat1:i386 (2.1.0-1ubuntu1, automatic), libturbojpeg:amd64 (1.2.1-0ubuntu2, automatic), libturbojpeg:i386 (1.2.1-0ubuntu2, automatic), libffi6:i386 (3.0.11-2, automatic), libgcc1:i386 (4.7.2-2ubuntu1, automatic), libxcb1:i386 (1.8.1-1ubuntu1, automatic), libdrm2:i386 (2.4.39-0ubuntu1, automatic), libxau6:i386 (1.0.7-1, automatic), libxdmcp6:i386 (1.1.1-1, automatic), libdrm-intel1:i386 (2.4.39-0ubuntu1, automatic), linux-headers-3.5.0-18-generic:amd64 (3.5.0-18.29, automatic), linux-headers-3.5.0-18:amd64 (3.5.0-18.29, automatic), virtualgl-libs:amd64 (2.3.2-1~quantalppa1, automatic), virtualgl-libs:i386 (2.3.2-1~quantalppa1, automatic), zlib1g:i386 (1.2.7.dfsg-13, automatic), bumblebee-nvidia:amd64 (3.0.1-3~quantalppa1), libpciaccess0:i386 (0.13.1-2, automatic), gcc-4.7-base:i386 (4.7.2-2ubuntu1, automatic), bbswitch-dkms:amd64 (0.4.2-2~quantalppa1, automatic), libx11-6:i386 (1.5.0-1, automatic), libxdamage1:i386 (1.1.3-2build2, automatic), python-xkit:amd64 (0.5.0, automatic), libc6:i386 (2.15-0ubuntu20, automatic), libxv1:i386 (1.0.7-1, automatic), libxext6:i386 (1.3.1-2, automatic), nvidia-settings:amd64 (304.64-0ubuntu1~quantal~xup1, automatic), libllvm3.1:i386 (3.1-2ubuntu1, automatic)

[zerozero]

1- the nvidia blob is installed.
2- i see a discrepancy (might not be important but anyway): when you issued the command apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia linux-headers-generic as per the ubuntu wiki linux-headers-3.5.0-18-generic:amd64 are installed (it's the latest ubuntu kernel) but you are running System: Host: jdunn-Notebook-PC Kernel: 3.5.0-17-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.7.2)

[xclusive585]

If he has a nvidia card that he knows was working with proprietary nvidia drivers, why can't the op just do "sudo apt-get install nvidia-current" and then a "sudo nvidia-xconfig"??

People keep talking about bumblebee, that's for hybrid cards. Just cause the ops current driver is intel due to Mint, does not mean he has a hybrid card.

[nomko]

Try the Xorg-edgers PPA, this more a bleeding edge update, fresher than fresh.
To install this PPA, it goes the same as with x-swat PPA, only change ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates for ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa.

And always, when updating the nvidia driver with a PPA, do this in a terminal:

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sudo nvidia-xconfig

This will update your xorg file.

[ozpy]

I had the same issue + same hardware (nvidia, intel) but google chrome browser (neither firefox) does not get hardware acceleration at all. I have another dell studio (20 Gflops) and when CHROME://FLAGS I was able to make it work modifing the browser settings stuff. The laptop with the nvidia drivers (40 gflops processor) does not work when modifing the same settings on chrome://flags

Graphics Feature Status
Canvas: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Compositing: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
3D CSS: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
CSS Animation: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
WebGL: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
WebGL multisampling: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
Flash 3D: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
Flash Stage3D: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
Texture Sharing: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
Video Decode: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Video: Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable
Panel Fitting: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration disabled.
Force Compositing Mode: Unavailable. Hardware acceleration unavailable
GPU Switching: Automatic switching

What's wrong in there?

[zerozero]

ozpy
open a terminal and share with us the output of

Code: Select all

inxi -SGx

[ozpy]

Thanks for helping zero zero. My screen resolution is messed up. Don't know why

(I) sudo lshw -c video
*-display
descripción: VGA compatible controller
producto: GK107 [GeForce GT 650M]
fabricante: NVIDIA Corporation
id físico: 0
información del bus: pci@0000:01:00.0
versión: a1
anchura: 64 bits
reloj: 33MHz
capacidades: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuración: driver=nouveau latency=0
recursos: irq:16 memoria:72000000-72ffffff memoria:40000000-4fffffff memoria:50000000-51ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memoria:52000000-5207ffff
*-display
descripción: VGA compatible controller
producto: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
fabricante: Intel Corporation
id físico: 2
información del bus: pci@0000:00:02.0
versión: 09
anchura: 64 bits
reloj: 33MHz
capacidades: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuración: driver=i915 latency=0
recursos: irq:45 memoria:73000000-733fffff memoria:60000000-6fffffff ioport:5000(size=64)
AVISO: la salida puede ser incompleta o imprecisa, debería ejecutar este programa como superusuario.
oscarpaats@oscarpaats ~ $ sudo lshw -c video
[sudo] password for oscarpaats:
*-display
descripción: VGA compatible controller
producto: GK107 [GeForce GT 650M]
fabricante: NVIDIA Corporation
id físico: 0
información del bus: pci@0000:01:00.0
versión: a1
anchura: 64 bits
reloj: 33MHz
capacidades: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuración: driver=nouveau latency=0
recursos: irq:16 memoria:72000000-72ffffff memoria:40000000-4fffffff memoria:50000000-51ffffff ioport:4000(size=128) memoria:52000000-5207ffff
*-display
descripción: VGA compatible controller
producto: 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
fabricante: Intel Corporation
id físico: 2
información del bus: pci@0000:00:02.0
versión: 09
anchura: 64 bits
reloj: 33MHz
capacidades: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuración: driver=i915 latency=0
recursos: irq:45 memoria:73000000-733fffff memoria:60000000-6fffffff ioport:5000(size=64)

(II) inxi -SGx
System: Host: ozpy Kernel: 3.7.5-030705-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Graphics: Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 650M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: nouveau,intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 640x480@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A

(III) For NVIDIA I did
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

(IV) For Intel graphic i did
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers and got this:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers[sudo] password for oscarpaats:
Está a punto de añadir el siguiente PPA a su sistema:
PLEASE READ: don't email the package uploader to report bugs, unless you are sure it's a packaging bug. Not only is email not a good tool for tracking bugs, it also excludes anybody else from tracking or working on the issue. Please read the section "Debugging and reporting problems" below.

=============

Supported Ubuntu versions: 12.04 (precise) and 12.10 (quantal).

For forum support see: http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.p ... cs-Drivers

To support this PPA with a Paypal donation: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... aNonHosted

=== Introduction ===
This PPA provides updated X (2D) and mesa (3D) free graphics drivers for radeon, intel and nvidia hardware. It is somewhat inspired by the xorg-edgers PPA but it only provides graphics drivers to lower the risk of package breakage and other problems. Updates mesa packages provide:
 * OpenGL 3.1+ support (on compatible chipset) and new OpenGL extensions
 * New radeonsi driver
 * r600 LLVM shader compiler
 * improved games support
 * performance improvements, especially on the gallium drivers
 * xvmc and vdpau Gallium3D accelerated video drivers (install the libg3dvl-mesa package)
 * PostProcessing, including MLAA: http://cgit.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/p ... ocess.html
 * gallium llvmpipe as the default software renderer rather than classic swrast
 * nouveau gallium (for newer GPU) and classic (for older GPU) drivers
 * i915 gallium drivers in the experimental package
 * support for S3TC texture compression
 * support for floating textures
 * --enable-debug flag (to better debug mesa and games bugs)
 * custom OpenGL version string to make sure you are running drivers from this PPA

For more details check the changelog.

=== Basic usage ===
See "Adding this PPA to your system" later on and update your Ubuntu with the package herein.

=== Using VDPAU/XvMC accelerated video ===
Supported XvMC drivers: softpipe, r300, r600, nouveau
Supported VDPAU drivers: softpipe, r300, r600, nouveau

* First you need to install the libg3dvl-mesa package:
sudo apt-get install libg3dvl-mesa

* Then to test the VDPAU driver with mplayer use:
for basic accelerated video output:
$ mplayer -vo vdpau yourvideofile
for accelerated video decoding (only some formats (i.e. mpeg2) are currently supported):
$ mplayer -vo vdpau -vc ffmpeg12vdpau yourvideofile

* To test the XvMC (e.g.) r600 driver edit the file /etc/X11/XvMCConfig and insert:
/usr/lib/dri/libXvMCr600.so

and restart the X server. Then to test it with mplayer:
mplayer -vo xvmc yourvideofile

=== Using alternative drivers ===
Example on how to run your OpenGL program (in this case glxgears -info) with non default drivers.

To use experimental i915 gallium driver, or classic swrast driver you need to install the experimental package:
$ sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental

To force the use of gallium llvmpipe software render:
$ LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 glxgears -info
To force the use of old non-gallium software render:
$ LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/lib/dri-alternates glxgears -info
To force the use of gallium i915 driver:
$ LIBGL_DRIVERS_PATH=/usr/lib/dri-alternates glxgears -info

=== Debugging and reporting problems ===
If you have some problem with the drivers try running the application from the command line and see if there are graphics related warnings (note that mesa is already built with --enable-debug which can provide useful debug informations). Also type dmesg to see if there are other related informations here.

If you get crashes install the relevant -dbg pacakges (libgl1-mesa-dri-dbg or libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental-dbg for 3D drivers and xserver-xorg-video-intel-dbg , xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-dbg or xserver-xorg-video-radeon-dbg for X drivers) and reproduce the crash with gdb. Example:
$ gdb glxgears
[...make your application crash and then get a backtrace with:]
(gdb) bt

If X.org crashes look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log (or /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old when a new X session is started after the crash).

With the gathered informations try searching at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/query.cgi (also try with google) if someone already reported a similar bug. If not you may want to report a new bug:
for 3D drivers bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Mesa
for X / 2D driver bugs: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=xorg

=== Revert to original drivers ===
To revert to standard Ubuntu drivers type the following in a prompt shell:
$ sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
$ sudo ppa-purge ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
Más información: https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers
Pulse [Intro] para continuar o ctrl-c para cancelar

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", line 161, in <module>
sp = SoftwareProperties(options=options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 104, in __init__
self.reload_sourceslist()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/softwareproperties/SoftwareProperties.py", line 592, in reload_sourceslist
self.distro.get_sources(self.sourceslist)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/aptsources/distro.py", line 87, in get_sources
raise NoDistroTemplateException("Error: could not find a "
aptsources.distro.NoDistroTemplateException: Error: could not find a distribution template

[zerozero]

Don't know why

the answer is here

inxi -SGx
System: Host: ozpy Kernel: 3.7.5-030705-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.6.3)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Graphics: Card-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
Card-2: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 650M] bus-ID: 01:00.0
X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: nouveau,intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 640x480@59.9hz
GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A Direct Rendering: N/A

and here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee
now the problem is that bumblebee doesn't like to see previous failed nvidia installations and you surely messed up your system installing not 1 wrong driver but 2.
i would advise a fresh install.

[ozpy]

Thanks zerozero. Questions after fresh reinstallation

1) since I have 2 graphic cards accelerators on this hp laptop (intel and nvidia), once bumblebee is installed, bumblebee will take care of both of them or only nvidia?

2) If only nvidia in (1), how to install Intel graphic card drivers? Is (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers) ok?

3) in the past I installed ubuntu 12.10 on the same laptop, but Unity dash dissapeared after installing nvidia drivers (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates). On mint 14 (runnung kernel 3.7.5), after installing Nvidia drivers (sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates), the Cinnamon search bar disappeared.
Is the Nvidia driver (installed via x-swat) messing up with it?