Is nVidia's proprietary driver default? (solved)

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renatov

Is nVidia's proprietary driver default? (solved)

Post by renatov »

Hey guys, I've just installed Mint 14 and I loved it :D

I have a nVidia GeForce 8500 GT installed, but I don't know if the correct driver is working. How do I check it? Does Mint 14 come with the proprietary driver installed by default?
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karlchen
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Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, renatov.

It is more than likely that your Mint 14 installation uses the "nouveau" driver.
You can install a proprietary nVidia driver on Mint 14. Yet, for legal reasons you have to do so yourself, Mint will not do so automatically.
You can check which driver is in use by executing this commandline in a terminal window:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx
Kind regards,
Karl
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renatov

Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by renatov »

karlchen, thanks for your reply. I checked as you suggested and I'm using the nouveau driver indeed. Do I have to remove it before installing the proprietary one (a ".run" file)? If yes, how do I remove it?
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karlchen
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Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, renatov.

No, there is no need to remove the "nouveau" driver beforehand.

Assuming you use Synaptic Package Manager in order to install the current NVidia driver there is a pretty simple way of installing it:
  • Launch Synaptic. - Doing so will yield a password dialogue where you type in your password.
  • Once Synaptic has been started, reload the list of available software: Edit => Reload Package Information
  • Once this has completed, locate the software package "nividia-current". Mark it for installation. Accept the found dependencies. Among other packages "nivdia-current" and "nvidia-settings" should be marked for installation. Click the [Apply] button.
  • Synaptic will download and install all required software packages. This may take a while.
  • Once the installation has been finished, close Synaptic.
  • Reboot.
  • Once the machine has rebooted and you have logged in use

    Code: Select all

    inxi -Gx
    to verify that the Nvidia driver has been loaded.
  • Do not panic in case inxi reports "FAILED: nvidia". - This is a small bug in inxi v1.8.x which makes it incorrectly say FAILED, although the driver has been loaded and is in use.
  • You may check the /var/log/syslog file to verify that the NVidia driver is in use.
HTH,
Karl
--
For comparison only:

Code: Select all

$ inxi -Gx
Graphics:  Card: NVIDIA ION VGA bus-ID: 03:00.0 
           X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: (unloaded: fbdev,vesa,nouveau) FAILED: nvidia Resolution: 1280x1024@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: ION/integrated/SSE2 GLX Version: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 304.64 Direct Rendering: Yes
(Sorry the other machine with the NVidia Geforce 8500GT card runs on Mint 13.)

Code: Select all

grep -i "nvidia" /var/log/syslog
Mar 25 23:02:50 unimatrix0 kernel: [   22.804908] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Mar 25 23:02:50 unimatrix0 kernel: [   23.013895] nvidia 0000:03:00.0: setting latency timer to 64
Mar 25 23:02:50 unimatrix0 kernel: [   23.021229] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module  304.64  Tue Oct 30 11:09:29 PDT 2012
Mar 25 23:02:53 unimatrix0 kernel: [   40.629082] NVRM: on the primary VGA device. The NVIDIA Linux graphics driver
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renatov

Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by renatov »

I prefered to install using the *.run file and everything is ok now, but I had to blacklist nouveau module before being able to run NVIDIA's setup.

Oh, only one problem though... my TTY's (ctrl+alt+1/2/3/4/5/6) resolution is too small now, it's probably 800x600 (the font is too big). How do I set them up to 1920x1080 again?
renatov

Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by renatov »

I managed to fix TTY's resolution by adding this line to /etc/default/grub

Code: Select all

GRUB_GFXMODE=1280x800
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karlchen
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Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default?

Post by karlchen »

Hello, renatov.
renatov wrote:I managed to fix TTY's resolution by adding this line to /etc/default/grub
Correct. Great, everything works now as supposed to. :)

Cheers,
Karl
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renatov

Re: Is nVidia's proprietary driver default? (solved)

Post by renatov »

Thanks for your help (:
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