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After various issues with Nvidia drivers (GT1030), trying various ones in the Ubuntu software manager with different levels of success, I went to the Nvidia site and searched for Linux drivers, for which very recent ones for my card seem to exist.

But the download was a .run file, something I'd not seen before. Is this right for Ubuntu? It would only let me run it in recovery mode (as said an Nvidia driver was already loaded) and once installed, instead of auto logging on, I got the login window with my account, but was unable to log in. I restored from Time Shift.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what I did wrong?

Many thanks.

Roger06
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    You do not use the .run file with Ubuntu. Ubuntu has the latest drivers available, configured for use with Ubuntu. And you cannot install a second driver without major complications. A new driver does not delete an old driver and creates conflicts. You have to uninstall all nVidia drivers before installing the correct one from Ubuntu repository. – oldfred Nov 08 '20 at 19:35

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Nvidia has been packaging its drivers in that format for decades so I wouldn't worry so much but you will have several problems with these drivers:

  • First they will be not updated with the Ubuntu package manager (apt)
  • Second they could create conflicts with the Ubuntu packages.

Perhaps if you give more information about the problems that you have with the controllers shipped with Ubuntu, I can try to help you better. Is this a laptop?

If you still interested on installing them you should go to a terminal with ctr+alt+f4 and login. Then type the following:

sudo apt apt-get -y install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` gcc-multilib
sudo systemctl stop gdm # maybe you need to press ctr+alt+f4 again
sudo sh HERE_YOUR_NVIDIA_RUN_FILE.run
sudo reboot

After the last cmd answer yes to any question that nvidia installer asks... unless you can foreseen any problem doing this.

To uninstall this drivers you can do

sudo sh HERE_YOUR_NVIDIA_RUN_FILE.run --uninstall

If you want to uninstall the Ubuntu's:

sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
Lord_Rafa
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  • Thanks for the reply. I've had no problems (using the open source driver) but have been trying to get Da Vinci Resolve to run. All research pointed to issues with graphics drivers. So I experimented with the ones with Ubuntu, but had no idea which to choose - 390, 418, 440, 450 etc - so tried a few. With most of these Resolve would run (though wouldn't not display video files) but then OBS, which had worked fine, failed to start with an error about an unsupported GPU. That's why I tried a driver (the .run) from the Nvidia site, which clearly caused problems as wouldn't even let me log in. – Roger06 Nov 08 '20 at 21:53
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    @Roger06 Ubuntu can install the correct Nvidia drivers automatically with sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall. That will pick the correct, most recent driver that is compatible with your graphics card. As others have said, you don't want to go with the .run file provided by Nvidia. It makes for a maintenance nightmare. – KGIII Nov 08 '20 at 22:08
  • I don't have any info about the software that you are using but I would try uninstalling all Nvidia drivers with the two CMDs that are in my answer and try to run the program and then use sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall as @KGIII says. Perhaps you can try to uninstall the proprietary drivers and then reboot, opensource driver nouveau will be in use then, there is a chance that this software work with it – Lord_Rafa Nov 09 '20 at 10:53
  • Running sudo apt-get remove --purge '^nvidia-.*' then sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall installs the 450 driver - but then OBS failed to load with an error about an incompatible GPU! I could try re-installing OBS but don't want to lose all my settings. – Roger06 Nov 13 '20 at 19:34
  • just one question, is this a laptop machine? I would assume no because of the GPU but I would like to double check. Also which CPU do you have? – Lord_Rafa Nov 16 '20 at 15:55
  • @Lord_Rafa It's a desktop. i7 with 16GB RAM, – Roger06 Nov 18 '20 at 19:50
  • @Roger06, hum if you run glxinfo | grep vendor can you see nvidia? if so I don't know really which one could be the problem. – Lord_Rafa Nov 18 '20 at 20:51