Ubuntu 12.10 x32 + NVIDIA drivers

[forums4me]

After installing Ubuntu 12.10 x32 as a second OS alongside Windows 7 x64, everything worked fine... until my attempt to update my NVIDIA drivers.


Note that everything worked fine, with no lag or resolution issues.
I decided to update my drivers after checking Software Sources > Additional Drivers and saw that I had no proprietary drivers in use.
Similarly, under System Settings > Details > Graphics I saw that my driver was labelled as “Unknown” (and “Experience” as “Standard”).


After a quick search I found this: http://techhamlet.com/2012/11/instal...-ubuntu-12-10/ and followed the steps.


First, I entered the following three commands in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install linux-source
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

...I rebooted, logged-in and Unity didn't appear, just my wallpaper with the sole ability to use the right-click context menu.


Here is what I did in order to solve my problem:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current
sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

... I deliberately ignored the last suggested command (sudo apt-get install nvidia-current)


It worked.


Problem solved, cool, now could anyone tell me what happened?


How come my driver is unknown yet works perfectly well?

[forums4me]

Ok, after removing dconf to replace it with UnSettings, the above problem reoccurred.

This time, I couldn't solve the problem using the above steps.

If anyone could actually guide me towards an explanation of what *seems* to be an enormous Ubuntu/Nvidia driver cluster**** (or of my own doing)other than this video...that'll be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[sabrefresco]

I own a Samsung NP700Z5C-S04US and all was well when I was using Windows 7 and 8. I had epic battery life and awesome GPU performance and then I planned to switch to Ubuntu because I always loved it. Unfortunately, NVIDIA Optimus is only supported on Windows at the moment and NVIDIA has no comment on supporting other OSes like Linux in the near future(or do they?).

So there is no support for NVIDIA GPUs which use the Optimus feature and I believe in your case the Intel GPU was working but NVIDIA GPU was not although the NVIDIA GPU was not properly switched off (You will have high temps and poor battery life when running in this state). To fix this, you have to install Bumblebee, which helps offloading the work and switching off your NVIDIA GPU when not required(using bbswitch).

My laptop has a GT640M which, as far as I understand, is not fully supported. Fortunately, it seems that the GT630M is supported since its not really a Kepler GPU, so you might get be able to get Bumblebee to work.

Installation instructions are here. Check their wiki for more information and also things that are working.

I tried it on my Ubuntu 12.04 using Wubi and it did not work. But now I have Win8 and Wubi is broken so I cannot really retry or help you with any further instructions.

[Axxon95]

The graphics driver showing up "Unknown" is because Ubuntu doesn't come by default with the mesa-utils package. Once you install it Ubuntu will correctly detect it.

sudo apt-get install mesa-utils

And a few other testers:

glxinfo | grep render
glxinfo | grep OpenGL
glxgears

A quick YouTube video I uploaded regarding this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxD6S8P1P3A

Hope this helps!

[forums4me]

Thank you for your feedback guys

Interestingly, Linux Mint 14 recognised the Intel graphic card and "Intel (R) Ivybridge Mobile" can be found under Details > Driver.

So I guess I should get that following Axxon95's procedure under Ubuntu though I'm hesitating to re-load it.

Regardless, again, thank you for your help.

[Axxon95]

Thank you for your feedback guys

Interestingly, Linux Mint 14 recognised the Intel graphic card and "Intel (R) Ivybridge Mobile" can be found under Details > Driver.

So I guess I should get that following Axxon95's procedure under Ubuntu though I'm hesitating to re-load it.

Regardless, again, thank you for your help.

Linux Mint by default has mesa-utils.
And yes if the drivers are installed and you have that package it will show.

[forums4me]

Thank you for your time.

I'll give Ubuntu another shot.

I hope it'll work; I really like this OS.

[forums4me]

Yep, it does work, thank you.

[Axxon95]

Glad I could help.