How to switch graphic drivers? Nouveau to Nvidia official

[chaushev]

Ubuntu 13.10 Unity x64bit on Lenovo G560

Linux lenovo 3.11.0-17-generic #31-Ubuntu SMP Mon Feb 3 21:52:43 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

GPU - Nvidia 310M

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GT218M [GeForce 310M] [10de:0a75] (rev a2)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:392d]
Current driver in use: X.org server: Nouveau
I wish to disable/remove Nouveau and install the newest from nvidia official download page for various reasons.
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/73221/en-us - 331.49

I would appreciate if you could provide me detailed instructions as I am a new linux user.
Do you think I should Install these drivers from nvidia website or chose some of the ones listet in the Additional drivers tab?
250771
Thanks in advance!

[slickymaster]

BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia)

[grahammechanical]

What is wrong with the ones from the Additional Drivers tab? Ah, the latest and greatest myth. By activating a proprietary video driver we de-activate the open source driver. The Additional Drivers utility does a good job of doing that in my experience.

If you remove Nouveau you may find that when you need to use Recovery mode there are problems with getting to a desktop. Recovery Resume in 13.10 uses llvmpipe which is part of the open source video driver. Do not remove Nouveau. Just de-activate it.

Regards.

[chaushev]

I have already checked the link that you gave me - it doesnt clear enough things for me. The reason I want to switch drivers is because I cannot use the sleep/suspend/hibernate options. When waking or resuming system I get a blank screen with working cursor or sometimes no cursor at all. From what I have read problem might be caused by nvidia drivers.Another issue I came across today, which probably has nothing to do with gpu drivers, but I might as well post it here. Suddenly the window controls color has faded?! I have not touched any settings - just like that. Screenshots below show what I mean. First image is before next after. Do you got any idea how to fix that? It is driving me crazy!
Before:
250799
After:
250800

[chaushev]

I found a way to switch to the newest drivers from nvidia's website. In my case version 331.49. Here is what I did:

Ubuntu 13.10, just like its predecessors, benefits from a large repository, but Canonical developers don’t upload the most recent version of the driver for several considerations. The most important is that it they don’t risk uploading a piece of software that has yet to be proven stable.

Fortunately, there is a PPA that makes available the latest versions of the drivers, a day or two after the launch. Just enter the following command in a terminal (you will need root access):


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-331

If you already have an older version of the driver you will need to replace the last command with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After the process is finished, restart the computer and you’re set. The next time NVIDIA releases a new driver, you will only have to update the system, without adding the PPA.
What this does is it adds newest drivers in the Additional drivers tab and you can choose the lastest ones.