Nvidia
ContentsBRTableOfContents |
This guide is for installing the NVIDIA drivers on a system running an nVidia graphics card. For other drivers, refer to the BinaryDriverHowto
Prerequisites
- The command lspci | grep nVidia prints out a line of text
- You need hardware-accelerated 3D support
Installation
Enable restricted packages
The NVIDIA drivers are in the "restricted" section of the Ubuntu package repository, so before you will be able to install the drivers, you must enable this section on your system.
Select the System menu at the top of the screen.
Select Administration then Synaptic Package Manager. Enter your password when prompted.
In the package manager, select the Settings menu, then Repositories.
In the Software Sources dialog that comes up, click the Add button.
In the Edit Repository dialog, ensure that the Restricted copyright box is checked, then press OK.
Press OK to close the Software Sources dialog, when Synaptic asks you to reload the package database, say yes.
You now have access to the many additional packages in the restricted section, including the NVIDIA driver packages.
Install and activate drivers
Packages may be installed by right-clicking on the package and selecting Mark for Installation.
Click the Search button and search for "nvidia".
If your card is a TNT, TNT2, TNT Ultra, GeForce1, or GeForce2, then install nvidia-glx-legacy, otherwise install nvidia-glx.
If you are running Hoary Hedgehog or Breezy Badger, then install nvidia-settings. DO NOT install nvidia-settings in Ubuntu 6.06 LTS because it will remove nvidia-glx.
Click the Search button and search for "linux-restricted-modules". You must have restricted modules enabled (see above).
Find the appropriate module for your kernel. For example, if you have linux-image-amd64-k8 installed, then you should install linux-restricted-modules-amd64-k8.
Click the Apply button to install the new packages.
- Once Synaptic has finished applying your changes, exit the application.
Select the Applications menu at the top of the screen, then Accessories, then Terminal.
- In the terminal window, type the following:
sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
Close all your applications, then press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart the X server. If you see an NVIDIA splashscreen after hitting Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, your drivers are properly installed.
Note: A reboot is sometimes required at the last step.
Remove the nVidia logotype
If you want to get rid of the nVidia logotype that shows up before your login screen you need to perform some manual edits in the Xorg configuration file.
Select the Applications menu at the top of the screen, then Accessories and then Terminal.
- Type the following:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
- Find the line Driver "nvidia" in the Device section
- Just after this line, add
Option "NoLogo"
- Save the file and exit
Close all your applications, then press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to restart the X server. If the logotype is gone and everything seems to work you are done.
Troubleshooting
If 3D acceleration still isn't working, be sure that you have the right version of linux-restricted-modules installed. It must match the version of the running kernel.
If you have the right version of linux-restricted-modules installed and 3D acceleration still isn't working, open your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for editing with sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and be sure that the Driver entry under Section "Device" is set to "nvidia".
- If you get an error while loading NVIDIA module try to rebuild module dependencies by running depmod.
sudo depmod
If suspend no longer works, see NvidiaLaptopBinaryDriverSuspend
For other problems, please visit the forums at http://www.ubuntuforums.org
Notes
Note: If you are going to compile 3d applications, you will need to install the nvidia-glx-dev package
Note: nvidia-glx provides a utility called nvidia-xconfig which can configure many of these options, including enabling TwinView. This utility is provided by NVIDIA, not by Ubuntu. To see all the options, open a terminal window and type:
man xconfig
Part of UserDocumentation