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How To Install Nvidia 275.09.07 Driver in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot & 12.04?

Installing the proper VGA driver in GNU/Linux is not the most easiest (not user friendly is the best word I guess) thing. This is because, usually you have to get the Kernel-source code and then get the driver from the vendor, change the run-level and finally you'll have to let the driver to build the Kernel modules (loadable "plugins")... which is kind of a long process.

Although I'm not entirely sure about if there's a PPA available for ATI but with Nvidia, thanks to a dedicated X-org PPA which releases a lot of X-org related drivers and utilities (proprietary ones) by default we can do this pretty easily. So unilke with the above mentioned method... you just type few command and the pre-build drivers are installed and you're ready to rock the heck out of that video game :P.

Anyhow, few days ago Nvidia released a never version of display driver series which brings few enhancements (including an interesting one for Gnome 3 users!) such as ...


*. A Gnome 3 related bug which seemed to be doing a little corruption ;-) but finally fixed.

*. Added support for Nvidia GPUs such as GeForce GTX 560, GeForce GT 545, GeForce GTX 560M, etc.

*. KDE4 desktop effect bug fixed.

*. Few issues with audio jack unplugging errors fixed.

*. Performance enhancements in KDE4.

*. New configuration named "BaseMosanic" added which lets you to easily expand a singe display screen in multiple other displays... are just a few to name.

You can install this Nvidia Driver 275.09.07 version in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot & 12.04 Precise Pangolin by entering the below command in your Terminal window. Once done, make sure to do a reboot of your Ubuntu PC/Laptop as well.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
Although this driver is not currently added for Ubuntu 11.04 or below ones... So, I'll update you on them once they update the packages.

40 comments:

Tyler Hutchison said...

this is the order i had to run the first command:

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

Gayan said...

@Tyler,

Of course dude, I've mistype the command :/. Now corrected ... thank man appreciate it :).

Гриня said...

It works! thank you )))

Gayan said...

@Гриня,

You are welcome :D.

Iang123 said...

It looked like it worked, but I rebooted and went to system setting, and it still has graphics as unknown?

Gayan said...

@lang123,

Okay... um have you tried to launch the "nvidia-xconfig" tool which should solve some common issues (the install do run it by default as far I know, but) you can manually run it.

To do that, open the terminal and enter the below command first.

sudo nvidia-xconfig

If this doesn't fix the issue, then you can also try launching "nvidia-settings" tool as well. For that, enter the below command after pressing "Alt" + "F2" keys

gksudo nvidia-settings

You can read more from the below official Ubuntu WiKi page.

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

And also the below Nvidia official read-me file is worth reading

http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/285.05.09/README/index.html

Hope this helps you. If you have further questions, throw me some comments, I'll try my best to help:). Good luck.

Iang123 said...

Thanks for that mate!

I am new to linux, I have many questions ha ha

Gayan said...

@lang123,

You are welcome :D!

Anonymous said...

thanks,I installed the Nvidia driver275.09.07 now is ok,before white screen cover desktop

Gayan said...

@Anonymous,

The pleasure is all mine ;-).

Anonymous said...

Hmm I tried this but still couldn't get it to work. It always seems to freeze on the bootup. Removing Nvidia seems fine but I'm not sure what to do extra? I'm using an Lenovo Intel Machine (and pretty new at setting this up :/)

Gayan said...

@shane,

I'm sorry Shane... don't have the faintest idea...but as I've said in the above comments have you tried manually running the Nvidia driver related commands (please have a look at the 6'th comment). Good luck.

Anonymous said...

tried this last code. sudo apt-get install nvidia-current. and this is what i get:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
dkms fakeroot patch
Suggested packages:
diffutils-doc
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dkms fakeroot nvidia-current patch
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 32.4 MB/32.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 97.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
'Ubuntu 11.10 _Oneiric Ocelot_ - Release i386 (20111012)'
in the drive '/media/cdrom/' and press enter

Gayan said...

@Anonymous,

You have to use all the 3 lines of commands for the installation to take place because the Nvidia PPA is not added by default otherwise you'd be asked for the Ubuntu CD (since the CD also has a bit older version of Nvidia drivers).

But if you've done that already but still get this message, then it seems like you haven't enabled Multiverse and Universe repositories, which is highly unlikely since Ubuntu comes with them pre-enabled by default.

If so... you can manually enable them by reading the instruction on the below official wiki page...

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

kuson said...

I have a Dell E6400 Latitude and had problems with Multiple Display when installing Ubuntu 11.10 despite it working on LiveCD.

Here's my solution --
1) I downloaded and installed the latest NVIDIA drivers (either by downloading it directly [which I had to press CTRL-ALT-F1 to go to command line mode, ps -ef | grep X and killed the PID of X, and then ran the NVIDIA_DRIVER_FILE.run in bash] or by apt-get as suggested above -- I tried both, so not sure whether one was better than the other). However, I still could not get it to work, as I think the xorg.conf was not properly changed to make use of the driver;


2) HOWEVER, I was lucky to have a previous backup of xorg.conf (X Configuration that NVIDIA driver seems to modify during installation), and manually modified it so that the Dual Display works. After rebooting, the Multiple Display Works!

BTW, here is my new xorg.conf file, [cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf]:

------------------------------------
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 285.05.09 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-02.nvidia.com) Fri Sep 23 17:55:57 PDT 2011

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
#Screen 0 "Screen0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection


Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "DELL E178WFP"
HorizSync 30.0 - 83.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 77.0
#Identifier "Monitor0"
#VendorName "Unknown"
#ModelName "Unknown"
#HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
#VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
#Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
EndSection


Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
BoardName "Quadro NVS 160M"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-0"
Option "metamodes" "CRT: nvidia-auto-select +1280+0, DFP: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection
------------------------------------------

Best of luck guys,

@kuson

Anonymous said...

"sudo nvidia-xconfig" fixed it for me (no need for PPA).

Anonymous said...

A big thanks for this, my fresh install of 11.10 was lagging like a turtle!! :-)

Gayan said...

@Anonymous,

You are welcome!...

Anonymous said...

Hi, does anyone know how to activate the HDMI on this thing in Ubuntu please? It works on startup but then I can't find it at all.

Thanks,
Steve

Tameem Alauddin said...

It did not work. it said that it was held with some broken packages!

PLEASE HELP ME RESOLVE THIS!

Phil said...

Mine keeps freezing on boot into lightdm - no mouse or keyboard input - screen works fine tho :S

Gayan said...

@Phil,

Sorry to hear that Phil. GPU's and their drivers .... errrrr :/.

@Tameem Alauddin (above)

Sorry about the late response, I've been a bit busy lately.

Anyhow, these type of errors are usually due to package builds in Ubuntu repositories (since we're installing latest Nvidia drivers, etc) OR

If you already have installed an old Nvidia driver version, then first remove it.

And also make sure to do a system update before installing these drivers which should resolve some of these "broken packages" errors most of the time.

If nothing works, then it's best to wait till they update the PPA with another driver or you can use the built in Nvidia driver installation wizard in Ubuntu but that won't give you up-to date driver versions though ... Good luck.

Tension_ said...

Nice touch thx

Gayan said...

@Tension,

You are welcome.

Anonymous said...

I have instal nvidia as instuction
how we know version of driver already instaled?

Gayan said...

@Anonymous,

Try the below command in your Terminal window.

dpkg -l | grep nvidia

Unknown said...

Nothing against nvidia (except that their drivers are propriatory), however, I had some troubles recently with nvidia when suspending and waking up. The (login) screen where just unreadable and one could guess where the password box is only by change of the cursor.
After trying all the instructions here without success,
making the thing even worse, the new version froze the system during graphical boot, I gave the open source nouveau driver another try and yes it is working perfectly.

So:
lsb_release -a ; lspci | grep VGA
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.10
Release: 11.10
Codename: oneiric
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800M GT] (rev a2)

nvidia-173 ... problems with suspend / resume
nvidia-common ... freeze during boot

nouveau ... works super on my setup

Gayan said...

@klar

Good for you mate!, lol.

Anonymous said...

can i ask what nouveau is ?

Gayan said...

@Anonymous,

Of course,

It's a totally open-source project for creating Nvidia GPU (graphics processing unit) drivers rather than the official proprietary ones.

Roger said...

This worked great thx

Gayan said...

@Roger,

You are welcome mate! :).

Z said...

I did all 3 commands, but my ubuntu 11.10 says it can't find nvidia-graphics-drivers package?

When I type apt-get install nvidia- and then it lists the available packages. nvidia-graphics-drivers isn't listed.

Gayan said...

@Zacharias Luiten,

I'm sorry Luiten. Recently I updated this post and have entered the wrong command. I edited it manually. Please use the new commands, they should work (I tested it!).

Eyal said...

To actually activate the new driver I had to go to system settings, additional drivers, and activate the nvidia current (recommended) one.
It then said it was going to download the new driver, so not sure if this is an additional step to the above or an alternative (and easier if so) route.

FennecTECH said...

you can also just remove the cd sources from the sources list that fixed mine

Unknown said...

Dear Sir(Gayan),

I would like to have help From You, here Detailed Explanation of My Computer, This is my Ubuntu 11.10 64 bit Desktop, Ubuntu has taken the Drivers During the Time of Installation.
Here I have given the Detailed of chipset and VGA Drivers.

My Question is, is it possible to install Compiz on my computer and whether it works or not Properly?

Some People are saying that you have to have Nvidia Card then only you can use Compiz.

Some other people are saying that compiz works on G41 Chipset(the below given Details)

Please Kindly Help me Sir.It is my Eternal Gratitude to you Sir.

fool@localhost:~$grep -i chipset /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[ 17.764] (II) intel: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets: i810,
[ 17.770] (II) intel(0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) G41
[ 17.770] (–) intel(0): Chipset: “G41″

fool@localhost:~$dmesg |grep -i agp

[ 1.008912] Linux agpgart interface v0.103
[ 1.009057] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: Intel G41 Chipset
[ 1.009142] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected gtt size: 2097152K total, 262144K mappable
[ 1.010058] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: detected 32768K stolen memory
[ 1.010181] agpgart-intel 0000:00:00.0: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xe0000000

Gayan said...

@ Macmillana,

Hi, I'm actually not an expert on chipsets etc.

However I'm a bit confused by your question. Because, if you're already running Ubuntu 11.10 (with the default desktop session, called 'Unity 3D') then you should be running 'Compiz' by default and you no longer need to install it manually.

So I'm not sure what the problem is.

Anyhow, as far as I can see Intel G41 is well supported in Linux and again, if you can run the default desktop without any issues, then you don't have to worry about anything.

Unknown said...

Dear Sir,
you should be running 'Compiz' by default and you no longer need to install it manually.

Answer: When I give Search on Dash home, my Ubuntu does not show the installed Compiz Setting.

Thereafter, I do installation using Terminal Command, i.e. apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager ENTER.

THEN My Ubuntu Says that....

The Following NEW Packages will be installed:
|
|
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

Here If I say Yes then gets installed Compiz and starts showing Compiz Icon on Dash home Search BOX.

how to check whether Unity 3D is working or not in my Computer.

My Question is..At Any Condition I have got to install Compiz and it must function all the Features.

Sir, Heartily Give me Step by step Explanations.
I will do as per your suggestions.

Actually I have installed minimum 10 times Ubuntu 11.10 on my Computer. Because, When I make Changes in Compiz Features, then My computer gets Stuck and some times Dash home does not show.

Please Help me.

Gayan said...

@ Macmillana,

Sorry about the late respond friend :) (just call me 'Gayan', 'Sir' makes me feel like I'm oooooold, lol).

Anyway, concerning your problem, first of all, even when Ubuntu is running using Compiz, if you search for it in the 'Dash' it won't show anything even if 'Compiz' is actually running. Because ...

What you're referring here as 'compizconfig-settings-manager' is a utility that lets you adjust 'Compiz' related settings and it's a separate utility.

The reason why Ubuntu doesn't come with it install by default is simply because this tool is known to be problematic when used to tweak 'Compiz' related settings, which well could be the reason why your 'Dash' and other stuff got stuck after using it!.

So if you can, try not using it.

Anyhow, there's a simple trick that you can use to know whether you're using Unity 3D (the desktop with 'Compiz') or Unity 2D (the desktop without running 'Compiz').

1. For that, open your Terminal and enter the below command.

pgrep -lf unity-2d

If it gives you an output similar as shown below, then you're running Unity 2D (the numbers before those text might be different in your output).

3458 unity-2d-shell
3459 unity-2d-panel

2. If it doesn't give you any output text, then you're running Unity 3D with 'Compiz'.

Hope this helped to clear out the doubts you have. Good luck.

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