12.04: Cannot install nvidia-173

[DexterF]

AMD socket 754 board with single core Athlon 3400, KT600 chipset, AGP, GeForce FX5200.

Aptitude won't install the nvidia-173 package, claims it can't install because something was held back.
Package is flagged "c".

What's wrong here?

[papibe]

Hi DexterF.

I'm afraid at this moment, the oldest version of the driver (173 and 93) are not compatible with the new versions of Ubuntu (actually any Linux distribution using an up-to-date versions of the Xorg - the windows manager).

This may change in the near future if Nvidia decides to update their legacy drivers to support the current version of X.

For now, I would recommend using the default open source driver, called nouveau. These days it is working pretty well supporting Nvidia cards.

Regards.

P.D.: sources: Bug #948053 and Bug #990539

[DexterF]

It fails already at compositing effects.
Target machine is office only, so that's not an issue, disabled them and that was that.
But if 96/173 are BROKEN, why are they in an official release, not to mention LTS.

[0xNimble]

Actually, nvidia-173 has been updated by nvidia, but it hasn't reached the repository yet:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show....php?p=2557225

I suppose you could install it on your own from the binary or you can wait until it gets picked up.

[cotcot]

There are freeze problems with the nvidia FX5200 and some others like the 7300 that I have. Maybe blacklisted therfore.

[digilizard]

Hopefully this 173 update by nvidia will reach the ubuntu repos sooner, I have an issue with nvidia-current which always gives me a black screen of death. I'm not sure if it is an 'Unity' issue, but I can't make it work in ubuntu 12. BTW 173 is installable in Linux Mint using Gnome3 and works flawlessly.

[rambux]

For others like me who upgraded and didn't RTFM before going on to 12.04.

I was able to install the nvidia 173 driver, straight from Ubuntu. I just downloaded the package from:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/poo...s-drivers-173/

Specifically, nvidia-173_173.14.35-0ubuntu1_i386.deb at:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/poo...untu1_i386.deb

After a quick cd to the Download directory, I installed via the command line with:

sudo dpkg -i nvidia-173_173.14.35-0ubuntu1_i386.deb

Then installed the nvidia-settings, rebooted, ran nvidia-settings, and everything is working out just fine!

(I have an nvidia GeForce FX 5200, (NV34). TV out via S-video is working perfectly! )

I hope this helps anyone who is in the same predicament I was in!!!