BinaryDriverHowto Nvidia

From:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia

Recommended step before you install the NVIDIA driver for Ubuntu 10.04 or higher

 

Nouveau, an open source driver, is installed by default. You can remove it by command-line by entering this:

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

 

 

How to install the NVIDIA driver in Ubuntu 9.10 or higher

 

• Go to System->Administration->Hardware Drivers and check the box to enable the restricted drivers for your NVIDIA card if the option is provided.

• Note that in Ubuntu 10.10, Hardware Drivers is renamed to Additional Drivers.
• If the restricted driver remains unactivated after attempting to activate it in the Hardware Drivers dialog, you may not have the appropriate linux headers installed to compile the driver. Ensure that the linux-headers-XXX and linux-restricted-modules-XXX packages are installed, where XXX matches the version of the kernel you are using (linux-image-XXX).

• If the activation hangs on download/install dialog, you can install the driver using System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager , make sure you pick the latest driver version recommended by the "Hardware Drivers" tool and all its dependencies. Go to Hardware Drivers tool and activate the driver you just installed.

• Once downloaded & installed, reboot your computer.

• In 10.04, running sudo nvidia-xconfig on the command-line may be necessary before the driver module will function.

• The Hardware Drivers tool may not work properly on machines that have previously used third party tools like 'Envy' or manual installation to install previous drivers. You should remove those drivers before attempting to install using the built-in tool.

 

Common Issues

 

 

Boot up splash screen issues for users of Ubuntu 10.04 & higher

 

• Open up a Ternimal and install the Startup-Manager

 

sudo apt-get install startupmanager 

 

• Launch the Startup Manager from "System>-Administration->Startup-Manager"

• In the "Boot options" tab, change the resolution to something your monitor can handle (1024x768 is usually enough for the boot screen to look nice).
• Change the color depth to "24 bits" and Press the "Close" button.Followed by a reboot to check that it is fixed.

 

Can't Save Settings

 

Nvidia-settings can't write to Xorg.conf if it hasn't been started with sudo. Work around one:

• Right click on your Desktop
• Choose create launcher
• The name is: nvidia-settings
• The command is: gksudo nvidia-settings

Work round two:

• Use the Monitors preferences (System->Preferences->Monitors )

Work round three:

• Right click on your menu
• Choose edit menus

• Find System->Administration->NVIDIA X Server Settings

• Click on properties

• Change the command to gksudo /usr/bin/nvidia-settings

 

Suspend/Hibernation

 

If you have an old legacy NVIDIA card (eg driver 96.43.19), hibernation & suspend will not work. To fix it see NvidiaLaptopBinaryDriverSuspend .

 

OnBoard Graphics chipset

 

• Nvidia - Solution to Overscan, black screen using DVI and nVidia driver

 

Low Screen Resolutions

 

Often screen resolutions on offer are far lower than those offered with the open source driver. The NVIDIA binary driver seems to be very weak at reliably probing this information from the monitor and relies on additional information in xorg.conf.

To fix this you can add more resolutions by entering xrandr --addmode S-video ... in a command-line (where the dots add the resolution you want). For further details and potential workarounds see Fix X Resolution .

 

Workaround for 10.10

 

All these methods previously mentioned do not seem to always work. The following workaround worked for me.

• The easiest way to install binary drivers is to use the built in Hardware Drivers manager in Ubuntu. In Ubuntu 10.04 and 9:10 this is found under System->Administration->Hardware Drivers . In Ubuntu 10:10 Hardware Drivers is now named additional Drivers

• Select a nvidia hardware driver (see above which one too pick) and click Activate . The driver is now being downloaded and installed.

• See NvidiaResolutionXorgConf

 

Screen Blanks/Monitor Turns Off

 

Using a laptop with a GeForce Go card, or connecting the sole display via DVI on a dual-head system sometimes results in the screen not receiving a picture. This is caused by the driver outputting video to the VGA port on the graphics card, instead of DVI.

The usual hint that you have this problem is when you hear the startup sound but nothing appears on the screen. If you do not hear any sound, you are more than likely experiencing unrelated problems.

This is a launchpad bug about displays on digital outputs being blank when using NVIDIA binary driver , and can be resolved by editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

• Switch to the console (Try using ctrl+alt+F1 , or reboot and select recovery mode from the GRUB menu.)

• Use your text editor to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf (try sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf ).

• Find the line that says Section "Screen"

• Insert a new line that says Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" .

• Save the file. If you had to restart into recovery mode, type reboot , otherwise restart your display using sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart .

 

Incorrect Refresh Rate Reported

 

If you are using nvidia-glx/nvidia-glx-new and the refresh rate appears wrong (or different to that actually reported by your monitor ) in gnome-display-properties/xrandr, you are probably seeing the effects of the DynamicTwinView feature. See this launchpad bug about being unable to "set" a proper screen refresh rate for details of this behaviour.

 

Problems with Video Playback

If you have problems with video playback, e.g. in mplayer, gxine, or mythtv frontend with a legacy card, it may be due to too high a color depth (e.g. using NT6 Vanta/Vanta LT "nvidia" driver, I experienced flickering vertical bars & blue screen flashing). To fix this, manually edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change DefaultDepth to 16 .