Is there a definitive, crystal clear, step by step How to NVidia proprietary driver?

[Geezanansa]

Do you have just the one video card?

Yes on an asrock alivenf6g vsta mobo.

Have you tried installing the drivers on a fresh/clean install of Ubuntu?

Not yet.

What/which error logs or other info are the start to diagnosing?

[awr]

Is there a definitive, crystal clear, step by step How to NVidia proprietary driver?

There is a ton of information on the net that will tell you how to install the drivers, including various means of resolving issues. But for the sake of not knowing exactly what you have tried already, try this:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bi...erHowto/Nvidia

as stated several times when trying to illustrate ,prove and explain that i understand, know how to and can install nvidia-current (but it does not boot to log in screen)
what happens at boot time when any driver other than nouveau is used is ....

Sorry if we have trouble understanding your level of knowledge, but unless you include ALL the information (including exactly what you have tried, what has failed, etc) we don't know where you are at. Answers will come quicker if you include all the info to begin with.

As for your particular problem, if you can try it from a clean install of Ubuntu, then we have a base to work from and know what to expect as far as what files are changed etc. Because you have tried many different methods, it is impossible to tell what is going on in your system. If this is not possible, then either your answer may take longer or you may not get a working answer.

If you can't try on a fresh install, then I would suggest checking and perhaps posting some system logs and Xorg config files so we can work out where your system is failing.

[Geezanansa]

Thanks awr
Installing ubuntu 12.04 lts 32 bit onto its own hdd then updating and then installing nvidia-current (by cli from 3d desktop session) uses the recommended driver as indicated in gkjockey(additional drivers).

Can confirm in 3d session as launcher icons can be resized.

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119 [GeForce GT 520] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: ZOTAC International (MCO) Ltd. Device 3214
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at df000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at dc000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
I/O ports at ec00 [size=128]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at def80000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia_current, nouveau, nvidiafb

Everything seems to be behaving as expected on a clean install.

Not connected other hdd yet so will get it hooked up...

[Geezanansa]

Are the drivers direct from nvidia's website proprietary?

There is a ton of information on the net that will tell you how to install the drivers, including various means of resolving issues. But for the sake of not knowing exactly what you have tried already, try this:
http://https://help.ubuntu.com/commu...erHowto/Nvidia

no. closed source. soz

Thank you- that answers that then...

Have had success with binary drivers in passed as with proprietary drivers. But just starting to grasp concept of sym links, dependencies runlevels... i.e. configuring hardware/os. Proprietary drivers were not behaving as expected so wanted to go for installing closed drivers just to try other options. some people sacrifice wobbly windows(ccsm) to get their games going by using binary drivers as they perform better for the purpose of running game... apparently!
It seems to be a compromise of fixing one thing to break something else.... in order to achieve playing games(or anything else it seems....that is if it is not installed from ubuntu software centre)

Are there any steam users (windows client) out there that use ubuntu to play their games that could share how to get going ? ooh that could be the title of my next thread..

[vanquishedangel]

I don't know if this helps or not but I used to have many issues with ATI cards that are similar to what you are experiencing here in this thread so i will explain the best I can the different scenario's that may help you find an answer.

When you install from the website you get a .run file, This file does not uninstall until you tell it to plus you need to uninstall the opensource drivers as well. Since it is not a .deb file or from the repos, the system will not uninstall it. This leads to conflicting drivers and a crash usually and both need to be uninstalled and the one you want reinstalled, this can be a hassle. You will need to look up how to uninstall the driver from the website.

A post I read before contained the experimental file that leads me to believe that most likely you guys with this issue have bits and pieces of other drivers trying to use the same resources, If the .run driver is installed it is trying to run the card along side what bits of the opensource one you have installed, or if you installed the proprietary ones with jockey some may be left.

also the tools bleachbit and deborphan were helpful in clearing up alot of left over crap as well but use at your own risk, I also run upgrade-system as well as it sanitizes the system, again your own risk but they help immensely with getting bits and pieces out. also run "sudo apt-get autoremove".

Jockey also offered the newer drivers and a set of older ones, for ati anyway but there was a glitch with installing the newer ones, that may also be the case for nvidia so use the older ones if offered.

Sorry I cannot give a definate way to do it as I havent had the issue in a long time also I have always had ATI.

[Geezanansa]

And finally...
here is a quote a member of the public made in the comments in the faster zombies article at steam on linux blog http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/linux/faster-zombies/ that was referred to earlier in this thread

n terms of the driver to be used for gaming, the AMD and Nvidia drivers are closed source (there are open drivers but they’re not in a usable state for gaming yet), and the Intel one is open-source, but Intel has never made a “gaming” GPU until their recent generations of CPUs. So basically, I’d love to see any discussion on whether Intel is a viable option for gaming on Linux, so that you don’t need to mess around with binary-only display drivers.
Also, if you have any feedback to the AMD open-source team or the community that do the Noveau driver I’m sure they’d love to hear from you

Actually found these comments on that blog one of the more constructive sources of getting things into some kind of perspective. Certainly makes me appreciate ubuntu more...
Huge... .huge undertaking
There was a BBC documentary(Horizon-senses) that tried to explain how a computer renders graphics and showed how similarly our own brains worked in order for light from our eyes be rendered in our mind .
so close

Is this the matrix?

maybe in couple years time we all have apu implants and running ubuntu

[Geezanansa]

Thx vanquishedangel for posting . Have been getting braver in cli, chopping and changing hardware config as well as multibooting with windows 8 and trying out onboard graphics just for curiousity sake..... and installing an older lexmark printer. All have not helped in preventing the current situation.
Think in 12.10 dkms can take care of nvidia updates (when you driver is installed.) or that is the plan (depend on kernel and driver)!?

Jockey is used for additional drivers = current/new(add ppa = newer) drivers
Jockey-common is used (run by jockey-text from cli) to load older drivers into Jockey(additional drivers) list.
Which could prove handy for running some games like doom and the first call of duty

Steam for linux is coming to 12.04 soon as beta (for a lucky few) Have two installations now side by side : one being nouveau ONLY and the other a fresh install with nvidia-current(system recommended)ANY

Both are ubuntu 12.04 32 bit.

Any body have good results with launching steam games in ubuntu? After clean install what would be process to get everything working to launch steam games?
Have tried wine with some success but better results with playonlinux and the game Call of Duty 2 which has many positive test results at appdb

Still did not get those log files uploaded to try and shed some light on what could be stopping/breaking driver installation on that other drive but will do.


would i be on the right line of thinking of a proprietary driver as a driver that has been modified by the owner/provider to allow use of by a third party as agreed with provider and third party or
nvidia adjust their driver for use by ubuntu before passing it on to ubuntu (users) so ubuntu cannot do their own tweeking before passing it on because that is not the agreement. any card player does not want to show their hand all the time....
but if you aint playing cards; why not?

[bogan]

Hi!, Geezanansa,

I fully understand your difficulty in finding "a definitive, crystal clear, step by step How to NVidia proprietary driver", as the advice in the forum is so conflicted and personalised.

I also run an nvidia GT 520 on one Desktop, and an nvidia GT 7650 on another, on each I run two versions of the latest release of Ubuntu [ as well as 10.04,11.10, & 12.04.1].

Because of trouble in the past, similar to your experience, I deliberately run one as a new direct install using the default [nouveau/Gallium] drivers , and the other being updated, originally from 9.10, using the proprietary nvidia drivers: [ Until 12.10, I always used the nvidia.com downloaded .run files and had no problems with them, but all manner of problems with the various nvidia-current drivers, especially with Ubuntu 12.04.]

I suspect a lot of your problems arise from the 295.40 and 295.49 nvidia-current drivers that are still being offered with 12.04, despite being notoriously & seriously bugged. Edit: I see that, in 3.2.0-33 at least, nvidia-current is now 304.51,actually 304.48, although 295.40 is still there as nvidia-current-dev!!

The later nvidia.com drivers >=304.xx are DKMS compatible and the previous need to re-install after a kernal update, no longer obtains.

I would strongly recommend installing 12.10, despite the problem of the missing Linux-headers file, and repeated 'Apport' error messages.

As to your Thread title question, I am sending my attempt to provide one as a separate Post.

Caveat: I don't do gaming - apart from Flight SimulatorX - so although the GT 520 works perfectly in Unity 3D with nouveau, nvidia, nvidia-current[304] and nvidia-current-updates drivers on 12.10, that does not necessarily mean it will meet your Steam/Gaming requirements.

Chao!, bogan.

[bogan]

Hi!, All,

Right, so here is the full version of: 'How To Install Nvidia Drivers'. [ Slightly modified 29/10/2012]

Nvidia drivers for Linux come in various forms; directly downloaded from the Nvidia.com/Drivers website, or modified by Ubuntu as 'nvidia-current' and down loaded from a PPA . This guide is mainly concerned with the first, and installation via a Terminal.

Ubuntu nvidia-current drivers.
To install the Ubuntu modified drivers called nvidia-current and variants, the same preparatory steps should be taken, but omit stage 3.; and at stage 5, use:

 sudo apt-get install nvidia-current # or nvidia-current-updates

Nvidia-current drivers can also be installed from System Settings>Additional Drivers. From Ubuntu 12.10, 'Additional Drivers ' is included in Software Sources. You can Right-Click on the Desktop, select 'Change Desktop Background', click the 'All Settings' tab, select 'System>Software Sources' and the 'Additional Drivers ' tab, and Activate the driver you want.

[The following is based on Post #280 of MAFoElffen's Blank Screen magnum-opus Sticky in the Installations & Upgrades Forum.]
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...43535&page=109

Summary.
Under normal circumstances, this is all you need to do to install an nvidia.com downloaded driver:

Reboot to a 'TTY' [Text Terminal or Text Console], or shut down the Xsession from a GUI screen, as the nvidia driver must be installed when the Xserver and GUI screen are inactive. Then CD to the folder where you have downloaded the NVIDIAxxx.run file, make it executable and run it with 'sh'.

Preparation.
However, the first time you do this there are some preparatory steps: first you should add some Blacklists to the /etc/modprobe.d folder; then ensure the necessary build procedures and header files are installed, and it is also advisable to purge any previous nvidia installations.

Adding blacklists:
Note: There may already be nouveau blacklist files in /etc/modeprobe.d. Recent versions, v.304 onwards, of both the nvidia-installer and the Ubuntu-nvidia-current installations can create files blacklisting the default Nouveau driver so Stage 1. can be omitted. The Nvida installer will offer to create a blacklist file.

1.: Add blacklists, [ For drivers prior to v.304 ]:
In a Terminal ['Crtl+Alt+t'] enter:

 gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/nouveaublacklist.conf # If you do not have access to a GUI Screen 
# you will need to use a different text editor, eg. 'nano' or 'vim'.

If the file does not exist, gedit will show a blank screen with that name, add:

 # Added for nvidia driver.
blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off

Save and close gedit.[ The filename you use must end in: '.conf' ]

2.: Prep and make sure everything is there for any dependencies, and Cleanup:
Ensure you have fully updated your installation.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install build-essential gcc-4.5 g++-4.5 libxi-dev libxmu-dev freeglut3-dev
uname -r

Insert the output of 'uname -r' in the following command: substituting it for 'uname -r'; for example:
"sudo apt-get install linux-headers-3.2.0-233-generic-pae"

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-'uname -r'
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
sudo nvidia-installer --uninstall # not needed if no prior nvidia-installation 
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*

You may get some 'file not found' messages on the last commands. That is okay. Continue. We just want to make sure that older modules are removed so that there is no conflict.

3.: Download. [ Omit if choosing the nvidia-current driver]
Down load the appropriate driver from nvidia.com/Drivers:
http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/linux...driver-uk.html That is for the 32.bit version, make sure you have the correct one for your GPU.

If you do not know which GPU/Video card you have, run:

lspci | grep -1A vga

4. Stopping the Graphics session.
To install the downloaded driver, Xorg cannot be running. You need to shut down the X-Session. In a TTY , [ 'Ctrl+Alt+F1' ] or Terminal, enter:

sudo service lightdm stop # If using 10.10 or earlier use 'gdm' in place of 'lightdm'

You will get a black screen; if it does not have a login prompt, to get one, press 'Ctrl+Alt+F1' [or F2-F6], login, enter your password.[ It will not show, just type it & press 'Enter'] If you need to return to the GUI screen, press: 'Ctrl+Alt+F7' but first, run:

sudo service lightdm start

Alternatively, reboot into the drop-down recovery menu, run 'Fsck' to set system to Read/Write, and drop to a Text Console and login:
In this case you should enter:

 telinit 3 # to set system level.

5.: Installing the driver. If choosing an nvidia-current driver, see the second paragraph above, and skip to Stage 6.

In the following substitute the correct file name:

Change directory [cd] to the directory where you saved the nvidiaxxx.run file, for example:

 cd /home/username/Downloads
ls

Running 'ls' will confirm you are in the right place and you can be sure the spelling is correct - entering 'NV' and pressing 'Tab' will Auto-complete the file name.

Mark the downloaded file as executable:

sudo chmod a+x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-3.04.60.run

Run the file to Install drivers:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-304.60.run

You may get an error message about a failed script, continue, accept the options, navigating by using 'Tab' and pressing 'Enter'.

6.: When complete, reboot,

 sudo reboot

If necessary edit the grub boot menu script, by pressing 'e' with the boot option highlighted and entering 'nomodset' after 'splash ' in the Linux line where it shows "ro quiet splash ", and pressing 'Ctrl+x' to boot.

7.: In case of difficulty you may need to run: sudo apt-get install --reinstall ubuntu-desktop # or:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-current*

Chao!, bogan

[Geezanansa]

Thank you bogan . Started following instructions to go for installation of the nvidia binary drivers from their website but...


Was unsure of what was meant by "text terminal" in order to start from step one of your guide so did a quick google and followed this guide http://http://rolling-ubuntu.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ubuntu-1204-tip-booting-to-text-mode.html Running "gksudo gedit /filename" from text mode/terminal gives "Gtk warning cannot open display. " Tried loading tty (ctrl+alt+F1) at log in screen but unsure how to mount ubuntu from tty. Did not try tty from within desktop session.(x server could still be running even if lightdm stoppped)-- (edit no Text Terminal till step 4 of instructions. Steps 1-3 from desktop session)

Here is a quote from nvidia readme regarding /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

How do I prevent Nouveau from loading and performing a kernel modeset?

A simple way to prevent Nouveau from loading and performing a kernel modeset is to add configuration directives for the module loader to a file in /etc/modprobe.d/. These configuration directives can technically be added to any file in /etc/modprobe.d/, but many of the existing files in that directory are provided and maintained by your distributor, which may from time to time provide updated configuration files which could conflict with your changes. Therefore, it is recommended to create a new file, for example, /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nouveau.conf, rather than editing one of the existing files, such as the popular /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf. Note that some module loaders will only look for configuration directives in files whose names end with .conf, so if you are creating a new file, make sure its name ends with .conf.
Whether you choose to create a new file or edit an existing one, the following two lines will need to be added:
blacklist nouveau options nouveau modeset=0

No right or wrong way just food for thought.... maybe first option may better improve nvidia updates working