Updated : How to Install Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu 12.10

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Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu

Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu : Image Source : Stanford EdTech

The latest Ubuntu 12.10 have several issues with both AMD/ATI and Nvidia proprietary drivers. Most of the Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu cases had a small dependency issue and it can be fixed.

Sometimes, after installing Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu, you might not see Unity or you’ll get worse graphics than before (for example : a very low resolution and everything is stretched). If you install linux-sources and the headers before installing the drivers, the issue can be fixed. So, here’s how to do it :

If you are on a fresh installation of Ubuntu (Didn’t tried to install Nvidia drivers) :

  • Open the terminal and issue the following commands to install the Nvidia drivers :

 If you already have installed Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu first remove them :

  • Open the terminal (If you don’t have Unity, use Ctrl+T to open a terminal) and enter the following commands :

  •  Now issue the following commands to install the drivers with the dependencies :

Now reboot and check whether its working. If it’s not working, please let us know by leaving a comment!

 

Update 1 : If the problem is still there even after following the above steps, try this :

  • Open the terminal (crtl+alt+t (If Unity is missing, use this shortcut to open the terminal)) and enter the following commands to remove the existing drivers :

  •  Next issue the following commands to add the x-swat/x-updates ppa and update the package list :

  •  Finally, do an upgrade and install the Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu :

Now reboot and see. If you get the issue again please leave a comment and we’ll find another way to fix the issue!

Update 2 : If you installed the Nvidia Drivers in Ubuntu before coming to the guide, sometimes you might need to re-install Ubuntu to try this.

Update 3 : If you are using a notebook with an Nvidia Optimus card, please check this guide : http://techhamlet.com/2012/12/install-linux-nvidia-optimus-drivers/

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This awesome post was written by Pubudu Kodikara

Pubudu has written 1036 great articles for us.

Currently, I'm preparing a delicious meal... I take ingredients from the tech world... I have already used 2 tea spoons of software, 3 table spoons of network, a cup of linux, a jug of web and many more tasty ingredients!
  • gnales

    Thank you,
    you save me ^^

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/raedalmohammadi Raed Almohammadi

    Thank you so much *_*

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Glad to help :)

  • Christopher Castaneira Madriga

    Verdaderamente amo ésta entrada!! Estuve buscando cómo loco y nada… MUCHAS GRACIAS :D …

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Cool :) Next time, please use English bro :D

  • Hélio Alves

    How do the “binary ATI driver for X.Org ‘here I installed and was showing only the wallpaper. I thank you.

  • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

    Can you please point to the exact post? Did it work for you? As I mentioned in my latest post, (http://techhamlet.com/2012/10/ati-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10/) there’s an dependency issue when installing Nvidia drivers. For some ATI cases it might work. But for most of us, the issue is still there :(

  • Wesley

    Work really fine thanks man.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/avenue2day Tarapong Sokkheng

    hi, after I followed your instruction and restart, my screen reduce to my screen and revert to 4:3 radio rather than 16:9. I couldn’t find option to change back. What shoud I do?

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Before installing the drivers, did you install linux-source and the headers?

  • dario

    thanks dude, really usefull

  • shadowguy14

    I did this on Linux Mint 14 and now my icons on the Cinnamon panel are bigger. How do I fix this?

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Before installing the drivers, did you install linux-source and the headers??

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      If you have… try this :

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

      sudo apt-get update

      sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

      Try those commands and let me know whether they worked or not :)

      • shadowguy14

        Yes finally this thing worked!

        • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

          Perfect… you mean it worked after adding the PPA? Perfect!

  • muhrizdar

    My sidebar and header is gone, my laptop is acer aspire V5, gt 620m.. please help thanks

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Before installing the drivers, did you install linux-source and the headers?

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      @64739ed0cef16370ea90a74ee2c5c8e4:disqus If you have, try this :

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

      sudo apt-get update

      sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

      Try those commands and let me know whether they worked or not :)

  • konst

    Didn’t helped. After installing drivers stupid unity just stopped working. I’m thinking to uninstall Ubuntu and use some other distributive, like Debian with Gnome, without that idiot interface.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Did you install the linux headers and the source? If yes, please try this :

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

      sudo apt-get update

      sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

      Try those commands and let me know whether they worked or not :)

  • Steve H

    Unity launcher still dissapears, (integrated geforce 8300). It comes back when I purge the driver.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Steve H Before installing the drivers, did you install linux-source and the headers? If you have, try this :

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates

      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

      sudo apt-get update

      sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

      Try those commands and let me know whether they worked or not :)

  • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

    @3878e21870255024f4cda8b683b16287:disqus @043dcd3292f8b372b9560723f2fbf841:disqus @64739ed0cef16370ea90a74ee2c5c8e4:disqus @facebook-100000454048185:disqus Everyone… I just updated the post with a new set of instructions. Special thanks go to @shadowguy14:disqus for testing the new steps. for him, they have worked. :)

    • konst

      Nope, didn’t helped. At least GPU stops overheating :D

    • konst

      I think i’ve found the answer. As long as i’m runing Ubuntu with hybrid graphics, i’ve installed the bumblebee, and that fixed my problem. Thx for your time :D

  • lukilker

    Dont work. i try everithink

  • Newby

    After installing Ubuntu 12.10 x32 as a second OS alongside Windows 7 x64, everything worked fine… until my attempt to update my NVIDIA drivers.

    I entered the following three commands in the terminal:

    sudo apt-get install linux-source
    sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
    sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates

    …I rebooted, logged-in and Unity didn’t appear, just my wallpaper with the sole ability to use the right-click context menu.

    Here is what I did in order to solve my problem:

    sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current
    sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

    … I deliberately ignored the last command (sudo apt-get install nvidia-current)

    It worked.

    Problem solved, cool, now WTF happened? Anyone?

    • http://graingert.co.uk/ Thomas Grainger

      It seems you uninstalled the nvidia drivers and are now using the nouveau drivers

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      @04d2473f6fc79a9ffc35dfe8d73ccaf2:disqus Yep… @graingert:disqus is right… Now you are not using the proprietary Nvidia drivers. You now have the open source drivers used in Ubuntu by default

  • nobsta

    All solutions does not work and my Ubuntu does not start anymore

  • Ademeion

    Thanks Pubudu! I finally got rid of this problem with the help your instructions. They didn’t work at the first couple of tries though, apparently because in addition to nvidia-current and nvidia-experimental-304 I had nvidia-experimental-310 installed (it’s one of the available drivers on the sofware updater tool (or whatever it’s called in english). When I added that to be purged too, I ended up to have a working Nvidia driver. Perhaps you could add this detail to your instruction?

    It makes me sorry to see that Ubuntu (and pobably Linux in general) still has a lot of problems with basic things like getting display drivers to work. When I think of how many people trying Linux have a modern Nvidia graphics card, and how they will be turned down the one time they are ready to make the effort to try a new operating system (it’s a great effort to an unexperienced person), it makes me feel sad. It took me four intensive (and somewhat exhaustive to my poor brain) hours to find the solution to this problem, and I’ve been using Ubuntu since the first version, and although I’m not an expert, I’m somewhat used to deal with this kind of problems and search for information on them. I hope there will be a day when installing Linux just works.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      @312f770202acabcc9c0ce94566ae46a5:disqus Thanks for the tip mate! I just updated the post! Don’t worry friend… Linux is improving… Microsoft is playing evil with Windows 8 and Apple is playing old and boring with Mac… The only option is Linux. Thats why even Steam is moving in… Thins will change a lot in the next year :D

      • http://www.facebook.com/stjepan.obrankovic Stjepan Obranković

        If Linux does not fix its issues including driver issues people will stick with Windows and Mac.

  • http://www.facebook.com/raedalmohammadi Raed Almohammadi

    after install nvidia driver i see the animations ( minimize windows – compiz ) changed , is there any way to restore it .

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      What happened to them?

  • Wabuf

    Massive thanks, Pubudu Kodikara! The first section of your post fixed my issue and I’m back to work in my native resolution! :D

    My issue (800×600) was caused by today’s (Nov 30th) updates on 12.10.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome :)

  • psablo

    I tried everything listed and no luck. What is really strange is that before I started messing with the various nvidia driver updates I had 800×640 resolution, but ever since I have been stuck at 640×480. I am on a clean install of MINT 14 and here’s my graphics card info:
    ~ $ inxi -G
    Graphics: Card: NVIDIA NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]
    X.Org: 1.13.0 drivers: vesa,nouveau (unloaded: fbdev) FAILED: nvidia Resolution: 640×[email protected]
    GLX Renderer: N/A GLX Version: N/A

  • vandenplas

    first solution didn’t fix the problem. After login, no Unity.

  • vandenplas

    2nd solution didnt work either. Still no Unity. I actually had an almost working system until 12.10 updated the kernel to 3.7.xx. Since then the system is not usable anymore. None of the Nvidia drivers works correctly, Nouveau included. Now trying 304 as 2nd last restort. Last resort is to revert back to Kernel 3.5. I can’t believe Canonical did that to its users!!! Their main fault is not the broken dependency, nor the buggy nvidia drivers. It’s the fact that Canonical removed 2D Unity as of Ubuntu 12.10!!!!!

  • vandenplas

    Reverted back to Kernel 3.5.x using the Nouveau driver. Unity works again. Don’t know yet how stable. Beware of Kernel 3.7! Hope Canonical will provide some emergency updates soon to fix the tens of thousands of Ubuntu installations that got corrupted through 12.10!! Bloody 2 days lost because of that and still running on a temp solution!

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Are you using the experimental drivers?

  • http://graingert.co.uk/ Thomas Grainger

    Your first fix didn’t work. I’m now trying with the x-swat PPA…

    • http://graingert.co.uk/ Thomas Grainger

      Nope still low resolution with the x-swat PPA

      • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

        Did you even purged the experimental drivers? (Just added the lines)

        • http://graingert.co.uk/ Thomas Grainger

          yeah I purged them all each time I tried something.

        • http://graingert.co.uk/ Thomas Grainger

          graingert@MS-7681-ubu:~$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current
          [sudo] password for graingert:
          Reading package lists… Done
          Building dependency tree
          Reading state information… Done
          Package ‘nvidia-current’ is not installed, so not removed
          0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
          graingert@MS-7681-ubu:~$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current-updates
          Reading package lists… Done
          Building dependency tree
          Reading state information… Done
          Package ‘nvidia-current-updates’ is not installed, so not removed
          0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
          graingert@MS-7681-ubu:~$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia-experimental-304
          Reading package lists… Done
          Building dependency tree
          Reading state information… Done
          Package ‘nvidia-experimental-304′ is not installed, so not removed
          0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
          graingert@MS-7681-ubu:~$ sudo apt-get purge nvidia-experimental-310
          Reading package lists… Done
          Building dependency tree
          Reading state information… Done
          Package ‘nvidia-experimental-310′ is not installed, so not removed
          0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

  • Matt

    Thanks so much! as 12/9 the instructions in your update about adding the swat repos is the only thing that has gotten me a working driver. You’re a live saver!

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Hehe… Thats my job :D

  • StevenCheng

    Very helpful, exactly what I was looking for. The first time Unity dissappeared your troubleshooting step was exactly what I needed. Thanks!

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome! :D Thanks for the comment!

  • http://www.processdiary.com Paul Caggegi

    I have tried everything, and this worked. Thankyou! This worked!!

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome friend! :)

  • QuaintJames

    Hey there, I’ve been running into this problem over and over again.

    My graphics card is a GTX 550 Ti and I’ve been trying to install the nvidia display drivers for it without success. I followed the above steps and then tried to install the experimental drivers as you suggest. During install of any of the nvidia drivers though, I always get a ‘System error’ popup on the screen saying there’s been a problem with the installation. The error line looks like this:

    Building initial module for 3.5.0-19-generic
    Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.5.0-19-generic (x86_64)
    Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-experimental-310/310.14/build/make.log for more information

    On rebooting, I end up with the crappy screen resolution and the thick black border around the screen. I use
    gksudo software-properties-gtk
    to bring up sources, where I can change back to the nouveau driver, which restores my screen. After that I can’t find /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-experimental-310/310.14/build/make.log so I can’t tell you what’s inside.

    Any ideas what might be preventing the nvidia driver from installing?

  • Dylan Pinn

    Hi,
    I have tried everything you have mentioned on this page including trying the experimental drivers. Do u have any other suggestions?
    Thanks

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      @google-1b8e1aeae9acebcf7b65303253d24c03:disqus Are you using a desktop or a notebook?

  • larry

    I have a new, clean install of 12.10 on a Dell Dimension 4550 desktop with an Nvidia TP601 card. It boots to a blank desktop (with default colored background) with a cursor. I tried all of the above. It did change some colors slightly and resolution once but no real success. I did see as I was going through it that my computer model number is never found (in the quirks that were going by).

    I am brand new to Linux. I pressed control-alt-f5 to get to the terminal to do what is listed above. I don’t know how to close terminal so I hit control-alt-f7 to get back to the blank desktop then shutdown. I don’t know if that makes a difference.

    I would really like to use Linux as my Windows has crashed for the last time. I will not use WIndows again but I need to see this work. I had loaded Kubuntu and likely had the same issue as that would not work either. Let me know what you think. Thanks, Larry

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You sure tats the model of the card? is it geforce?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bob-Honea/1219635615 Bob Honea

    Much Thanks

    Simple and effective for me!
    Worked on the first attempt.

    My system: Brand New Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 + AMD FX8350
    Plus ancient 9500 Graphics Adapter

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Cool :) Glad it helped!

  • Jonathan Wiklund

    Using
    ‘sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic’
    pulled linux-headers-3.5.0-22 for me

    while
    ‘uname -r’
    returned 3.5.0-17-generic

    The solution for me was to manually install the correct headers =)

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Perfect :) Thanks for the update @google-784ca37ff3621945c9737667944ff482:disqus :)

  • chris

    I am on a dell latitude d830 with quadro nvs 140m. I have been all over the internet doing all kinds of things trying to get this to work with LUBUNTU 12.10. I followed your directions with the x repository and I am still having problems. When I reboot, I just get a black screen. Lubuntu does not use unity ( the reason I chose lubuntu!). If you can help I’d appreciate it

  • glenn

    this finally fixed my problem with ubuntu 12.10 and dell e521 with nvidia geforce 6150le. thanks!!

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome :D

  • Rodrigo

    i did follow all steps , and don’t working yet.
    i don’t know what i should do more ,
    i think that i did try all methods.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Do you use a notebook?

  • jitk

    Hello i have NVIDIA Quadro 1000M end i try everething in this tutorial, i still not see UNITY or 3D Acceleration

  • Swen George

    Hi Pubudu, I folllowed your steps but it just doesn’t seem to be working for my 64bit 12.10 with a GeForce GTX 660M. Appreciate any suggestions.

  • http://www.facebook.com/Talaysen Tim Zulauf

    I’ve been messing with this all morning, it’s driving me nuts.

    I completely removed all of the nvidia files, updated the linux headers, I keep getting:

    sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    nvidia-current-updates
    0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 0 B/68.1 MB of archives.
    After this operation, 205 MB of additional disk space will be used.
    Selecting previously unselected package nvidia-current-updates.
    (Reading database … 155262 files and directories currently installed.)
    Unpacking nvidia-current-updates (from …/nvidia-current-updates_304.88-0ubuntu0.1_amd64.deb) …
    Processing triggers for man-db …
    Setting up nvidia-current-updates (304.88-0ubuntu0.1) …
    update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/x86_64-linux-gnu_GL.conf (x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf) in auto mode
    update-alternatives: using /usr/lib/nvidia-current-updates/alt_ld.so.conf to provide /etc/ld.so.conf.d/i386-linux-gnu_GL.conf (i386-linux-gnu_gl_conf) in auto mode
    update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
    INFO:Enable nvidia-current-updates
    DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
    DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
    DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
    DEBUG:Processing quirk Latitude E6530
    DEBUG:Failure to match EVGA with Dell Inc.
    DEBUG:Quirk doesn’t match
    DEBUG:Processing quirk ThinkPad T420s
    DEBUG:Failure to match EVGA with LENOVO
    DEBUG:Quirk doesn’t match
    Loading new nvidia-current-updates-304.88 DKMS files…
    First Installation: checking all kernels…
    Building only for 3.5.0-27-generic
    Building for architecture x86_64
    Building initial module for 3.5.0-27-generic
    Done.

    nvidia_current_updates:
    Running module version sanity check.
    – Original module
    – No original module exists within this kernel
    – Installation
    – Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0-27-generic/updates/dkms/

    depmod….

    DKMS: install completed.
    Processing triggers for bamfdaemon …
    Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index…
    Processing triggers for initramfs-tools …
    update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-27-generic

    —

    My launcher is visible, but my my resolution options for my monitors are horribly limited.

    When I go to system settings -> Details, under graphics it says ‘Driver Unknown’.
    I’m using an Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
    (Edit: Using Ubuntu 12.10, installed on 4/23/13)

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      Did you try ubuntu 13.04?

      • http://www.facebook.com/Talaysen Tim Zulauf

        Yes, I’m using 13.04 at the moment.
        I finally got it working, to be honest, I’m not sure what in particular finally fixed it. It was one of those ‘tear your hair out in a blind rage’ experiences.

        • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

          @facebook-100000949939030:disqus Perfect :) I hope the new Ubuntu have it fixed. :D

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=751353699 George Tasker

    My problem was the screen resolution went to something like 320×240. Followed the above instructions and rebooted. It all works as it should now which for me with older technology means 1600×1200. Thanks Pub.

    • http://techhamlet.com/ Pubudu Kodikara

      You welcome @facebook-751353699:disqus :)