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I'm trying to understand what the PPA is and why some people use the command below for their Nvidia drivers to work:

ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

I haven't found anyone who can clearly explain why you would need this package for an Nvidia driver, what it does, or how it works. All the posts on various forums just tend to say to put the command in without giving any reasons of why. So can someone please do me the honour of explaining it?

john smith
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3 Answers3

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You can read THIS about "what PPA is".

Xorg-edgers ppa contains Nvidia drivers, that are not yet present in Ubuntu repositories. They are correctly packed to install with DKMS.

If you need an updated Nvidia driver, the best way is to install it from that ppa.

But xorg-edgers ppa also contains other testing packages, that are not always good to install automatically.

That's why it is recommended after you install Nvidia drivers to run

 sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

It removes that repository from sources.list.d and prevents from installing other updates from there.

Community
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Pilot6
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  • Oh right. So when my graphics card driver would not work using the command below it means the driver isn't in the Ubuntu repository?

    sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

     – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:09
  • @johnsmith What do you mean? – Pilot6 Jun 16 '15 at 14:10
  • Well like, I did a sudo apt-get install nvidia-current and it didn't install my graphics card properly (i assume this command just updates your pc with the latest graphics card driver from Nvidia). So I assume this is why people say that you need the PPA package from xorg-edgers? – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:11
  • Nvidia-current installs nvidia-304 package. you can see it in synaptic. – Pilot6 Jun 16 '15 at 14:15
  • Can you elaborate? What is the 304 package for, and what is a synaptic? Sorry I am a very new Linux learner. – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:18
  • Synaptic is an Ubuntu application to search, view, install, remove, etc packages. You can install in from Software Center or by sudo apt-get install synaptic. – Pilot6 Jun 16 '15 at 14:24
  • Ok why do people use the sudo apt-get install nvidia-current command then? Is it just because it's really old compared to package 352 and so it must be stable or something? – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:28
  • Sometime before, when there were not so many nvidia adapters, nvidia-current was the best safe choice. It pulled a stable recommended driver. Now it pulls 304 to be compatible with old cards, but then it is incompatible with new ones. – Pilot6 Jun 16 '15 at 14:37
  • Ah right okay. So now it is best just to find the latest stable version and just install that right after you have downloaded the ppa repository? Is there any way to find the latest stable version for your card (I'm still harping on about how you found it was 352 for my card). – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:57
  • @johnsmith Goto Nvidia.com, select drivers, enter your card name and linux64. It will give you the version. – Pilot6 Jun 16 '15 at 15:17
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Typically a PPA is a way for you to get an application installed in a way that you know were already tested working on a specific version of Ubuntu.

Do note when I say specific version of Ubuntu because sometimes installing the previous of future version of a PPA on your version of Ubuntu (eg: Installing packages from a PPA from Ubuntu 23.10 on your 23.04 or installing from 22.10 on your 23.04) can cause issues.

Specific PPAs only focus on very specific packages (Not all, but popular ones do) which gives them more stability and trust when it comes with using them for updating a particular application, driver, etc. On top of it, they are maintained and up to date with the latest versions of that particular application.

More PPA reasons can be found here:

Are PPAs safe to add to my system and what are some "red flags" to watch out for?

What are PPAs and how do I use them?

Now coming back to the Nvidia PPA question. The correct Nvidia PPA is this one:

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

And if you have an Nvidia card (Hybrid or Dedicated) then you can use the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

After running this, your Ubuntu will auto update itself and depending on your Nvidia model, you can pick from several updated packages for it.

Here are the ones found up to this day of posting:

enter image description here

Which can be summarized like this:

390 Driver - For Cards older than the Nvidia Geforce 8000 Series

470 Driver - For Cards between the Nvidia Geforce 8000 Series and the GT Series

5xx Driver - For Cards between the GTX and RTX versions. Including a bunch of Quadro and MX cards for Notebooks. The latest 525.xx was specifically made for the 4090, 4080 and 4070 series.

So if you have the latest card, you would do something like this to install it:

sudo apt install nvidia-graphics-drivers-525

Do also note that you can install it after install the PPA from the software & updates app. Simply open the gnome search with SUPER and type software then open the Software & Updates app. Should look like this:

enter image description here

Click on Additional Drivers and from there you can simply select the version of the driver available for your specific card and install. You will need to reboot afterwards:

enter image description here

In my case it only shows the 525 Driver because I have a 4090, but if you had an older one, it will show 2 or 3 other driver options (eg: 510, 515, 525 for example).

Luis Alvarado
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PPA stands for "Personal Package Archives". They are repositories, compiled by users or developers, to provide different versions of packages to those bundled in the main Ubuntu repositories or to provide software not available by default.

The reason that some people add the Nvidia PPA is because each Ubuntu release is packaged, by default, with access only to a specific set of versions of the driver and associated proprietary software. However, Nvidia frequently release updates to their drivers. In order to provide easy, seamless access to these newer versions, you can add the PPA and then, as soon as the PPA maintainer adds it, you can install the newer driver with the same ease as any other package.

Martin Eve
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  • Ok let me relate. My graphics wouldn't install so I had to manually install it from the Nvidia website. If I check the system settings, under "additional drivers", I don't see anything. However my graphics card is fully working now I got the specific driver from their website. So are you saying I should be using the ppa command above to install the extra new packages so that Ubuntu can automatically find the actual driver I need for my card? – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:14
  • The preferred mechanism for installing the driver is the PPA. When you use the manual Nvidia driver, you can't easily remove it in future or update it automatically. It should also then show up in the types of integration that you are discussing ("additional drivers" etc). – Martin Eve Jun 16 '15 at 14:20
  • Ok, so I will format again later then. If I just install the repository above, then do a sudo apt-get update, you think my graphics card driver will work then? – john smith Jun 16 '15 at 14:23
  • Well, you may have to select to enable the proprietary driver but theoretically yes. – Martin Eve Jun 16 '15 at 14:28