Install graphic driver from command line

[magicsandpiper]

I recently installed Kubuntu after a few problems and now when I boot the screen is covered in thin white vertical lines and my pc freezes before bootup is complete. I think my motherboard graphics chip doen't have the correct driver. I have found a Nvidia driver on a cd but don't know how to copy the driver from cd and install from the command line. i can only use my system from the command line. Can anyone help. I have re-installed several times but this doesn't solve the problem. I may buy a new graphics card if I think it will help.

[mchuskie]

Re: Install graphic driver from command line

If the driver you have on CD is a Windows driver, then don't try and use it - it won't work and you'll probably just get confused.

OK, let's see if we can get you some sort of GUI so you can better see what's going on... edit your X config file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf), find the 'Section "Device"' bit, and change:

"Driver" "nvidia"

to

"Driver" "nv"

(How to edit: first back up the file!

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup

Then run "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf". Make changes, then Ctrl+X (Exit) Y (save changes) Enter (keep same filename).)

You should then be able to do a

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

and get a GUI up. If that doesn't improve things you can try "vesa" rather than "nv".

[magicsandpiper]

Re: Install graphic driver from command line

I tried both "nvidia" and "nv" neither made any difference. After the inital selection screen, which is a blue screen covered in thin vertical lines giving a water effect,
bootup freezes about halfway through, not sure what at which process since the text display is too fast to read (maybe there is a way I can control each proces at startup?) Once the boot process freezes I have to cold start my machine.