Ubuntu 6.06 - Part 2: Installing nVidia Graphics Drivers
- Open the SYnaptic package manager by selecting the “Add/Remove…” entry in the Applications menu.
- Click the Advanced button and enter your password when prompted.
- Click the Settings menu and choose the “Repositories” item.
- Click the “+Add” button to add more repositories.
- Select the “Community Maintained (Universe)” and “Non-free (Multiverse)” checkboxes, then click “+Add”. Click the close button from the “Software Preferences” window as well.
- Click the “Reload” button to refresh your repository index.
- Click the Search button and type “nvidia” as your search criteria; hit search.
- Select the following packages: nvidia-glx, nvidia-settings, nvidia-config. Also make sure that the linux-restricted-modules-[xxx] and nvidia-kernel-common are either already installed or selected for installation, then click the “Apply” button.
- Once everything is installed close Synaptic.
- Open a terminal window.
- Enter the following command:
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup
and hit
. - Enter the the following when the previous step is done:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and hit
. Scroll down to the section called “Module” and comment out the lines ‘Load “dri”‘ and ‘Load “GLcore”‘ by putting a ‘#’ at the front of the line. Add the line ‘Load “glx”‘. - Next find the section called “Device” and change the line ‘Driver “nv”‘ to ‘Driver “nvidia”‘. Also add the following line: ‘Option “RenderAccel” “true”‘.
- Hit
-O to save, then -X to exit. - Type
sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/NVIDIA-Settings.desktop
and hit enter. A blank editor screen will appear.
- Paste the following lines:
[Desktop Entry]Name=NVIDIA SettingsExec=nvidia-settingsIcon=Terminal=falseType=ApplicationCategories=Application;System;
then save the file.
- Log out and restart your computer.
NVidia drivers should now be enabled (you may see an NVidia splash screen when booting up). Please note that this guide is not intended for older graphic cards such as the MX400 as they require special instructions.