Ubuntu 13.10 which driver should I install?

Question

I have the nvidia gt 420m and the closes source driver 319.60. I red that with the drivers 319.* the nvidia optimus is native. Is that true? What about the open source drivers? I have not use them for 2-3 years. Are the closes source still better? Thanks

Answer 1

I would stay away from all drivers 319 version.Maybe you want to install latest drivers from Nvidia corporation for a change. These are a few links for drivers for your video card, GT 420m, which is a GeForce 400M series for Notebooks.

These are the latest drivers for Linux 32bit:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73965/en-us

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/72476/en-us

And these are the latest drivers for Linux 64bit:

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73966/en-us

http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/72477/en-us

My guess is that you're using Ubuntu 64bit so you'll have to install the nvidia linux 64bit drivers. I gave you 2 links for each architecture just in case one of them won't work, and you need to test the other one.

Driver installation is not that tough. You need to type in a terminal this code:

  sudo apt-get remove nvidia*

And next you have to remove the Nouveau driver from your system. Install Synaptic:

  sudo apt-get install synaptic

Open Synaptic Package Manager and use 'nouveau' for a quick search. Remove Nouveau driver, and close synaptic package manager.

After that, without rebooting, you have to blacklist the NOUVEAU driver, and all the proprietary driver(s) that generates conflicts or drivers that you may have used before by editing this file:

 gksu leafpad etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

Make sure first that you have installed GKSU and LEAFPAD.

 sudo apt-get install gksu leafpad

You should add in your 'nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf' file these lines:

blacklist vga16fb

blacklist rivafb

blacklist nvidiafb

blacklist rivatv

blacklist nouveau

blacklist lbm-nouveau

blacklist nvidia-319

If no file named 'nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf' is present in etc/modprobe.d/ , then you simply create the file using the same command:

gksu leafpad etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf

and adding those lines needed to blacklist all the other conflicting drivers as indicated above. Save the file as 'nvidia-graphics-drivers.conf' without the quotes and you're done for now.

Next, you reboot computer and after reboot exit to console at login prompt ( CTRL+ALT+F1 ) and login as 'user' which is your username for ubuntu/linux. You may get some error message about your system running in low graphics mode. You should ignore it, and exit to console by pressing CTRL+ALT+F1.

Next type this code in the console to stop the display manager (DM) interfering with video driver update:

 sudo stop lightdm  or 

 sudo lightdm stop

If you use KDM as default display manager you need to replace 'lightdm' with 'kdm'.

You should get a message in the console saying 'lightdm stopped/waiting'. And now you have to navigate to where you saved your nvidia drivers. I recommend you make a new folder named 'nvidia' in your /home folder, and download your drivers in this folder. You can navigate to your drivers by simply typing in the console:

  cd nvidia

And next you can type 'dir' without the quotes so you can see the exact name for your drivers. To install the drivers choose the one which matches your Ubuntu architecture, 32bit for Ubuntu 32bit or 64bit for Ubuntu 64bit.

Type this code in the console to start installing your driver:

 sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86...... .run

You have to use the exact name for your driver, capital letters and everything else included. Nvidia installer should start, and you just follow the instructions to be able to finish your driver installation.

After that you reboot, and after you login and change your display resolution and monitor frequency, you can use this command to save you new nvidia settings:

 sudo nvidia-xconfig

I hope this will work for you.