[ubuntu] HOW TO Install Nvidia driver Hardy 8.04

[nbayiha]

After realizing that a lot of person had problem installing NVIDIA Driver series 8 and 9 on Hardy . I decide to open this Thread. Even if you don't find it useful , at least i hope it will be the only place where you will post the problem you encounter during the installation , so i(we) will try to resolve it , instead of having a thousand of thread around .

I. Prerequisites

• NVIDIA Graphic Card
• Hardy Heron installed 8.04
• Internet Connection

How to know if you have a NVIDIA graphic card . Paste the command under in the terminal

lspci | grep -i nvidia

It should printed out a line of text with the name of your card.

II. Driver Version
There are three version of the restricted driver in the repositories

• Nvidia-glx-legacy
• Nvidia-glx
• Nvidia-glx-new

III. Faster/Easier Way to Install

1. Go to System->Administration->Hardware Driver and check the box to enable the driver if it's provided .
   You can check Here Visually how to do it .
   http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/nvidia
   
   
2. If the driver are not provided , then try to install them throw Envy.
   

   sudo apt-get install envyng-gtk
   envyng-t

   then press 1, install and reboot .
   And You are good to go

IV. Tricky Way After Clean Installation

PS : If the first and the second method didn't work then you can use this one. Otherwise i recommend you to try them first. Cause they are easier and you don't need to do some manual change.

So we understand that the method above didn't work, so You should start by..

1. First uninstall the envy package if you installed them, otherwise just skip this step .

    sudo apt-get remove envyng-gtk

2. Make sure you have the build-essential installed

   sudo apt-get install build-essential

3. Download from NVIDIA the latest driver of you card.
   
   For the 8 series(8xxx) is this one : http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...32_177.13.html or this one http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_173.14.12.html
   
   For the other series(9xxx,7xxxx) : Just go to this web page and download the one for you http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us.
   
   
4. We are going to kill the gdm (gnome), so i will advice you to write down a paper the following command.
   

   sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

   that will kill gnome or ctrl+alt+F1.
   You should now log in + password.
   
   
5. Go where you downloaded the NVIDIA driver. Mine was in the desktop so i had to do this
   

    cd /home/nbayiha/Desktop

   But yours can be in your home directory . Just use the command

   ls

   to be sure that the driver are in the right directory.
   
   
6. Then

   sudo sh NVIDIA*

   Accept the configuration and the backing up of the xorg files.
   
   PS: If you had in this step some problem with telinit just do

   sudo telinit 3

   
   
   
7. After the installation is complete just restart gdm
   

    sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

8. Now we will edit your xorg.conf go to .
   Application->System Tool->NVIDIA X Server Settings->X server Display configuration-> Save to X Configuration File(click on it,down on you right)->show preview (copy all the text inside preview).
   
   
   
9. Now backup your xorg.conf
   

   sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backUp

10. gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    And delete all the file and paste what you copy in step 8 .
    
    Save and You are Good to go .

V. Tricky Tricky Way After Mainly attempt

1. 
   First make sure everything comporting NVIDIA is uninstall, if so uninstall them from the repository(nvidia-setting nvidia-glx nvidia-glx-new....) , just remove all of them.
   now follow those command step by step , better if u write it down cause we are going to kill the server.
   
2. Download the NVIDIA driver from the web page http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us and save them in your home directory.
   
3. We are going to disable the NVIDIA driver in the repository ,so they won't have conflicted problem with the one we download.
   

   gksudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

   edit the DISABLED_MODULES line so it will look like this
   
   

   DISABLED_MODULES="nv nvidia_new"

4. Note in a Paper the following command cause we are killing gdm .
   

   sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

   or ctrl+alt+f1 Log+passwd
   

5. sudo telinit 3

   go to the folder where you downloaded the NVIDIA driver.
   

6. sudo sh NVIDIA*

   accept everything.
   
7. Reboot and you are good to go .

Problems

1- For those who lost their old xorg.conf just do it to get it back

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

2- For those using Laptop(Notebook) with a Geforce Go card , if you hear the startup sound without nothing appearing on the screen , then you should check your xorg.conf and edit it that way (just do it after trying the three way provide above )

*Reboot and use recovery mode , log in +passwd

*

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.cong

Find the line with Section "Screen" insert a new line that say
Option "UseDisplayDevice""DFP"
Save the file and reboot .


If one of the method work partially or didn't work at all , report in which level you encounter the problem and we will figure out what to do .

Have A good Day

[NT4usB]

1- For those who lost their old xorg.conf just do it to get it back sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phihg xserver-xorg

s/b -phigh

[nbayiha]

Thanks Dude

[logos34]

nbayiha,

Nice tut.

Do you know why my driver install (NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.14.09-pkg2.run) successfully builds the kernel interface module but consistently fails at the last, complaining about 'libnvidia.173...so.1' and libGL* files not being in expected place? It's killing me because I just compiled a custom kernel the other day, managed to install the -.09 driver, but when I attempted it two days later on another installation it kept failing.

her are the two messages:

-

> done. -> Driver file installation is complete. -> Running post-install sanity check: -> done. -> Post-install sanity check passed. -> Shared memory test passed. -> Running runtime sanity check: ERROR: The runtime configuration check failed for the library 'libnvidia-tls.so.173.14.05' (expected: '/usr/lib32/tls/libnvidia-tls.so.1', found: '/usr/lib32/libnvidia-tls.so.1'). The most likely reason for this is that conflicting OpenGL libraries are installed in a location not inspected by `nvidia-installer`. Please be sure you have uninstalled any third-party OpenGL and/or third-party graphics driver packages. -> done. -> Runtime sanity check failed.

and

-> done. -> Kernel module compilation complete. ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'. This happens most frequently when this kernel module was built against the wrong or improperly configured kernel sources, with a version of gcc that differs from the one used to build the target kernel, or if a driver such as rivafb/nvidiafb is present and prevents the NVIDIA kernel module from obtaining ownership of the NVIDIA graphics device(s). Please see the log entries 'Kernel module load error' and 'Kernel messages' at the end of the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for more information. -> Kernel module load error: insmod: error inserting './usr/src/nv/nvidia.ko': -1 Invalid module format

it can't be because of a GCC version mismatch, because the kernel sources match the current one.

[cowboyup6983]

i wonder what drivers i have install then because i use envy to install my drivers and it was way more simpler that stuff above. i have all my 3D effects and everything?

[logos34]

Originally Posted by cowboyup6983 i wonder what drivers i have install then because i use envy to install my drivers and it was way more simpler that stuff above. i have all my 3D effects and everything?

When I used EnvyNG a week ago the default was 173.14.09

[nbayiha]

@cowboyup6983 If you did succeed to install with envy them you have the 3D effect installed. Don't forget that The first step in this how to mention to use envy first before trying anything else .

@logos34

/usr/lib32/libnvidia-tls.so.1'). The most likely reason for this is that conflicting OpenGL libraries are installed in a location not inspected by `nvidia-installer`. Please be sure you have uninstalled any third-party OpenGL and/or third-party graphics driver packages.

Before doing anything else first uninstall any driver you have installed. I mean remove first the driver you install in the kernel you compile ,

managed to install the -.09 driver

remove them , and then try again to install using the method that suit you.

[logos34]

Yeah, EnvyNG install was a success (but I haven't tried it again since), but why can't I seem to get the driver in manually?

I did do all the recommeneded steps (I think), like uninstalling nvidia-glx-new and nvidia-settings. As far as I know, the nvidia graphics drivers are the only ones using openGL. I even checked /usr/lib directories after uninstalling the (glx) 169... driver, and all the libnv* and libGL.s0* etc files were gone. Then I tried the manual install of the 173....09 driver and it failed for either of the reasons I gave. I would then do 'sudo sh NVIDIA* --uninstall', then check the directories for any leftover files. I think it leaves behind the libGL files, so I took out those and reinstalled. Same problem. (even with the very latest .12 driver).

As I say, this is perplexing because I successfully installed the .09 driver on a nearly identical test partition with a custom compiled kernel. But when I tried it again on my regular installation, it failed.

[nbayiha]

@logos34
I think you have an and old install conflict problem, that's why you can't install the new one.

If either of nvidia-glx-legacy/nvidia-glx-new are installed a dotfile is created in /lib/linux-restricted-modules/ . Even after these packages are uninstalled the dotfile will remain and may frustrate efforts to use the nvidia-glx package

Try to do this.
go to your

cd /lib/linux-restricted-modules

then

ls -la

and there check if you have some hidden nvidia file something like

.nvidia_new_installed file

If it's the case remove that file , and after that try again the tricky way .
Hope that will help you.

[logos34]

ok, thanx, I'll remove it and try again.