[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