nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

[SteveRiley]

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

1. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=dkms

2. APT (and graphical tools based on it) always prefers later versions. So yes, once you add that repository and update your package list, installing nvidia-current will grab the bits from that repository.

3. nvidia-graphics-drivers is the name of the source package, but it will appear in package managers as nvidia-current.

one guy said he installed the raw drivers directly from the nVidia website. Hunting around I found a web page that said that the install script basically does everything for you. You need kernel source (or maybe just the headers?) and it builds the drivers to match the kernel. However that guy also said he always rebuilt his own kernel.

I've so far avoided getting in situations where I want to rebuild kernels. It isn't 1980 anymore, I don't feel like I should have to be doing something this low level just to make my PC work!

[JontomXire]

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Hmm. In the end I forgot to instal DKMS, but it all worked fine anyway. In fact I followed advice from another forum, downloaded "linux-source" and ran the nVidia install script and it worked like a dream! It built a driver/kernel interface layer to match my kernel, moved old copies of OpenGL out of the way and installed it's own OpenGL, updated the xorg.conf file, everything!

Then I installed Wine and discovered that it is important to install Wine BEFORE installing the drivers

However I just ran through the same driver install process again (it only takes a few minutes) and it detected the previous drivers and remvoed them before installing afresh.

Very very easy and highly recommended, and you get much more current drivers than using APT, and from what I've been told they are better and more reliable than even the PPA ones.

[SteveRiley]

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

You don't need to install DKMS on its own, because if another package needs that, APT's dependency resolver will take care of that for you. Notice that nvidia-current includes just such a dependency:

sriley@SRiley-T410:~$ apt-cache rdepends dkms
dkms
Reverse Depends:
 fglrx
 nvidia-current
 virtualbox-4.1
 virtualbox-4.0
 openvswitch-datapath-dkms
 nvidia-96
 virtualbox-guest-dkms
 virtualbox-dkms
 open-vm-dkms
 virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms
 virtualbox-ose-dkms
 oss4-dkms
 lirc-modules-source
 bcmwl-kernel-source
 open-vm-dkms
 xtables-addons-dkms
 virtualbox-ose-guest-dkms
 virtualbox-ose-dkms
 tp-smapi-dkms
 speakup
 oss4-dkms
 openvswitch-datapath-dkms
 openswan-modules-dkms
 openafs-modules-dkms
 ndiswrapper-dkms
 lirc-modules-source
 iscsitarget-dkms
 dahdi-dkms
 blcr-dkms
 batmand-gateway-dkms
 batman-adv-dkms
 backfire-dkms
 nvidia-current
 nvidia-96
 nvidia-173
 fglrx
 bcmwl-kernel-source

I'm wondering, if by following the build procedure you discovered, you might introduce odd behaviors. For example, you might have to recompile every time your kernel updates itself. It's also interesting to note that you had problems with WINE installation order. I installed WINE after I installed nvidia-current, and WINE performs well.

You mention that your procedure resulted in newer drivers, which piques my interest. What version number do you see? On Natty, nvidia-current gives me 280.13.

[JontomXire]

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

Yes, I'll probably; need to update my graphics drivers when the kernel updates. it's no biggy.

The driver version Ihave is the same as yours, 280.13, but the ones Lucid Lynx was offering me were much older if I remember correctly.

[oshunluvr]

Re: nVidia graphics card help needed (SOLVED)

If you want to install the "raw" (aka unpackaged) drivers from the nividia site, you can. The downside of that is no automatic updates or support and every time you update your kernel, you have to manually re-install the drivers. Also it puts a few of the files in different directories than the Ubuntu standards so advices/fixes from Ubuntu users may not always apply. You also will have to purge the ubuntu packaged drivers first to avoid conflicts. You don't have to really rebuild your own kernel, the nvidia script rebuilds it as is with it's drivers installed. This used to be (3 years ago) the best way to get updated drivers. Now-a-days the packagers keep up to date with nvidia within a day or two.

DKMS = Dynamic Kernel Module Service: does automatically what the nvidia script does manually. Every time you install a new kernel, it will automatically rebuild it with the drivers. The one thing you have to ensure is that you also install kernel-headers with each updated kernel as they are required by dkms. dkms will not install the headers automatically. If they are missing, it will just hold off on the kernel rebuild until you install the headers.