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When I ran to Nvidia's website to download their 64bit Linux drivers, it downloaded a file named "NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.49.run". Since this wasn't a file extension I'd seen before, I assumed double clicking would do nothing (Incorrect; it actually tried opening it in a word processor which hilariously meets with a crashed word processor).

I installed new drivers through a terminal. For future reference, however, assuming this is an archive, and clearly Nvidia expects everyone to be able to crack it open on command, how would I go about making the .run file actually be useful? Was there a command to decompress it and install the drivers? Was it a script and I just have no idea how to execute it?

(Very new to Linux; Ubuntu's my first attempt at running a distro since ...oh, RedHat 6.something. Anyways, so much for context.)

Commander Keen
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    While the part of your question is about Nvidia drivers should be answered in the duplicate link. The more general part of your question"how to run a ".run" file" I can help you with. When downloaded, Linux will not allow a program to be executable until you change the properties of the file. Via command line you would type chmod +x {filename} GUI method: In Nautilus, right click on the file, click "Permissions", then check the box to "Allow executing this file as a program. After this, when double-clicking it will open as a program not a file. – TrailRider Sep 13 '13 at 00:45
  • Could you instead answer Why you want to install NVidia drivers? If you are very new to Linux as whole, I don't see why you should mess with your system trying to install Nvidia drivers that more likely you don't need. Please, edit your question and respond this queries. – Braiam Sep 13 '13 at 02:38
  • I wasn't asking how to install Nvidia drivers; that was simply put in there for context in case it was specific to drivers. As I said, I had already installed updated drivers. All I wanted to do was know how to extract a .RUN, which you answered perfectly. Suddenly that makes a lot of sense!

    Why would I want to install NVidia drivers? As a Windows user, I'm used to having to make sure my drivers are updated to ensure compatibility and maximize performance, and I assumed this would be the case in Linux as well. Does Ubuntu magically do this without my permission or instruction?

     – Commander Keen Sep 14 '13 at 00:28
  • One of Ubuntu main "selling point" is being a user friendly Linux OS. When I say being user friendly is referring to the part where every bit of Ubuntu works out of the box without the end user having to mess their system, nor compiling drivers, nor doing other thing but use the system. NVidia privative drivers (and video cards in general) are being known for being problematic to a wide range of users of Linux, and the policy I adopted with problems with them is "if it works, and you can't afford down time, why mess with it?". – Braiam Sep 14 '13 at 01:17
  • Ubuntu comes with nouveau drivers that works fine with "older" cards and unless some mayor problem arrises, is recommended to stick with them. For actually uncompress them, you will need to run the file with -x to extract it. The first ~100 lines are bash script, the file was made with Makeself. Also, just as nice reminder, when you "double clicked" it probably did nothing because it would need root permissions to run. So my money is that you still use nouveau drivers. – Braiam Sep 14 '13 at 01:17
  • Well, the biggest reason I had for trying to update drivers was to continue testing compatibility with Windows apps through the WINE API, and for some reason a lot of programs were detecting I had a card from the GeForce 6XXX line, which is like, a decade old, and isn't supported in higher-end graphics-intense games. I was hoping that updating drivers might fix these compatibility issues but it ended up not being helpful. I think in the future I will go ahead and just stick with a stock install so as to not have to worry about these sorts of things and stick to Windows for Windows things. – Commander Keen Sep 14 '13 at 13:49

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The way to do this is to simply make the .run file executable and run it.

chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.49.run

You need to kill the x-server first. Check this question for the way to kill the x server. First go to virtual terminal tty1 by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1. Then run

sudo service lightdm stop

Later run this

sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-319.49.run

This will install the driver. To restart, run this command in the same F1 terminal

sudo service lightdm start

or just restart.

I have tried to install NVidia drivers and they made my system crash badly. Hence, I advice you to avoid NVidia and stick to Nouveau (as mentioned in the comments) unless you want to test your patience and Ubuntu's sturdiness.

Community
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VedVals
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  • Is there a difference between the virtual terminal (through CTRL-ALT-F1) and the terminal I've been using for everything else up to this point (through CTRL-ALT-T)? – Commander Keen Sep 14 '13 at 13:51
  • @CommanderKeen This was recommended in a guide for installation. I think it is to avoid any clash with the x client i.e. the terminal window. tty1 has no x client. – VedVals Sep 14 '13 at 19:38
  • @CommanderKeen Also xkill wasn't the right command. – VedVals Sep 14 '13 at 19:52