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Geek Culture / Ubuntu - nVidia drivers?

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TheComet
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Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 17th Jan 2013 09:56
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Hey guys,

I'm having a little bit of trouble with setting up my nVidia graphics drivers for my laptop in Ubuntu. If someone is knowledgeable about the errors I'm getting and could help me out, I'd very much appreciate it!

What I did

I downloaded the Windows installer from the ubuntu website and dual-booted my PC with the x64 version.

I then proceeded to download the graphics drivers from nVidia. I downloaded the GeForce GT 540M x64 for Linux (I have a GT 540M in my laptop). Given to me was a ".run" file.

Next, I dropped back to the CLI (ctrl+alt+F2), stopped the xserver (sudo lightdm exit), CD'd to the .run file and executed it (sudo ./filename.run).

I got one error message during installation which read "pre-installation script failed! Do you want to try and install anyway?", to which I answered "yes". The installation went smoothly from there.

After rebooting, I was greeted with a 640x480 resolution login screen. I tried configuring it using the nvidia-xserver config app, but that just threw an error stating "you appear to not be using the nvidia drivers".

I tried running the command "sudo nvidia-xconfig", which should enable it, restarted the xserver, but that didn't help.

I've temporarily fixed the problem by removing /etc/X11/xorg.conf so it uses software rendering.

I'm lost now. No matter what I do, the driver just won't work.

Any help?

TheComet

http://blankflankstudios.tumblr.com/
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kaedroho
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Joined: 21st Aug 2007
Location: Oxford,UK
Posted: 17th Jan 2013 10:46 Edited at: 17th Jan 2013 10:48
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Find an application called "Additional Drivers". Fire that up, it will take a couple of minutes to scan your hardware. When thats done you should have a window with a list of nvidia drivers pop up.
- If you're a normal desktop user, select the one which says "reccomended"
- If you're using your PC for gaming then scroll down and select one of the beta drivers. (310 or over is what Steam reccommends).

Click Ok, you will be prompted for the admin password then the driver will be downloaded and installed automatically.

Hope that helps


EDIT: They've changed this in Ubuntu 12.10, heres some info http://itsfoss.com/how-to-install-additional-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10-quick-tip/

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Phaelax
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Location: Metropia
Posted: 17th Jan 2013 11:26
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Didn't nvidia recently start building linux drivers officially?

"You're not going crazy. You're going sane in a crazy world!" ~Tick
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TheComet
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Posted: 17th Jan 2013 12:27 Edited at: 17th Jan 2013 12:29
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Quote: "Didn't nvidia recently start building linux drivers officially?"


That's what I did in my initial post, but it hasn't worked for me.

Quote: "Find an application called "Additional Drivers". Fire that up, it will take a couple of minutes to scan your hardware. When thats done you should have a window with a list of nvidia drivers pop up."


Tried that just now, it didn't have any effect as far as I can see. I think it's not configured correctly yet.

Quote: "http://itsfoss.com/how-to-install-additional-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10-quick-tip/"


I'll give that a whirl and let you know.

TheComet

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WLGfx
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Location: NW United Kingdom
Posted: 17th Jan 2013 17:39
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Linux will use the openGL capabilities from any given graphics card installed on a PC, so there'd no DX stuff at all. As far as I know, linux simply picks up the openGL version thats needed to use the card and that's all. Some cards have to trick linux into upping the version required.

There are other options too with Ubuntu, there's the live chat that may help and if not there's the Ubuntu forums...

I've been using Linux Mint with the Cinammon desktop, closest to windows as you can get from Linux. I've also got openSUSE on one of my laptops which I rarely use. I keep trying Ubuntu and one day I'll go back to it.

Mental arithmetic? Me? (That's for computers) I can't subtract a fart from a plate of beans!
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RedFlames
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Joined: 25th Aug 2007
Location: Germania
Posted: 17th Jan 2013 23:30
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Does your laptop by any chance use the nVidia Optimus feature where it has an internal graphics card thingy on the motherboard and the GT540M on top of that? Because my laptop has that, so it only uses the nVidia card in games and other graphics-intensive stuff. In windows this works well and I can even assign programs to use one chip or the other.
The problem comes with the linux drivers... there are no official ones as far as I know. I never really got the whole thing set up and even if you decide to just use one of the cards for everything in linux, it's still a hassle.

Try looking into a project called "Bumblebee". Or "Ironhide". One is dicontined and the other is based on it... I think Bumblebee is the 'newer' one, but not sure.
I might find the links I had for this stuff when I was setting up (or trying to, anyway...) my Ubuntu but that was almost a year ago and I rarely boot to Ubuntu nowadays...

If you don't have the nVidia Optimus thing I guess you're in luck and just need to find out how to use the official drivers... or unofficial, dunno how these are managed for regular graphics cards. I think nVidia has official ones, right?

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WLGfx
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Posted: 17th Jan 2013 23:53
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I guess I'm fortunate not to have the problems you're having, my lappy is an old one now and has intel graphics.

However I did find a few links that might help:

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers/+question/212219

http://www.howopensource.com/2012/10/install-nvidia-geforce-driver-in-ubuntu-12-10-12-04-using-ppa/

http://pleph.appspot.com/init/posts/view/2687901

I keep an eye out and see how you get on...

Mental arithmetic? Me? (That's for computers) I can't subtract a fart from a plate of beans!
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