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**doctordruidphd** · Oct 30, 2009, 09:44 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

The newest NVIDIA drivers provide another option for customizing -- and possibly destroying -- your NVIDIA card, so use this ONLY if you understand the risks.

Setting the COOLBITS option to 5 will enable fan control in the nvidia-settings program.

If you are running 2 cards in sli configuration, you will need to add a separate DEVICE entry for each card. To do this, run the lspci command as shown below:

Code:

doctordruidphd@wolfenstein:/etc/X11$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GT] (rev a2)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GT] (rev a2)

The first numbers in the output are the ones you want. You will need to set up your xorg.conf file DEVICE entries for the cards, as follows, adding the Busid and Option lines:

Code:

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Busid     "PCI:01:00:00"
  Option     "sli" "auto"
EndSection

Section "Device"
  Identifier   "Device0"
  Driver     "nvidia"
  VendorName   "NVIDIA Corporation"
  Busid     "PCI:02:00:00"
  Option     "sli" "auto"
EndSection

substituting whatever numbers you got from your lspci command. Stop and restart kdm, and your nvidia-settings program should now give you entries for both cards. This will also enable the "Enable SLI heads up display" option under OpenGL Settings.

**dibl** · Oct 30, 2009, 09:51 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Aha -- nice! Thanks for the added help, DD!

**askrieger** · Nov 26, 2009, 10:02 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Is there any particular reason to switch from the 185 driver to the 190? What could I gain by doing so (other than the comfort of knowing that my system is totally up to date, today)?

**Telengard** · Nov 26, 2009, 01:56 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Mods, please sticky this thread!

I had already installed NVidia's driver on my Jaunty computer by following the instructions on their website (method 2 I think). It was very easy and worked like a charm.

Does Kubuntu graphical driver installer (method 1) really work reliably? Do many people seem to have problems after trying to use it?

Originally posted by dibl

. . . it is bad practice to run "sudo" or root commands, including software installations, from your home directory -- if the .ICEauthority or .Xauthority hidden files are changed by root during your operation, you will be done logging in to KDE (until you figure out how to fix it).

I'm surprised this has not bitten me yet. What does one have to do to cause problems (so I can remember to avoid it)?

Excellent HowTo! Thanks so much, dibl

**doctordruidphd** · Nov 27, 2009, 04:18 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Installing the NVIDIA drivers on Karmic (and presumably later) releases just got much easier.

You can install the NVIDIA ppa repository like this:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
sudo apt-get update

This will now make the latest (as of this writing, 190.42) stable driver available.
It appears that, at this moment, there is no meta-package to insure the latest driver will be updated automatically.

Reference:
http://www.webupd8.org/2009/08/how-t...rivers-in.html

**PhilT** · Nov 29, 2009, 06:28 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Thanks for that tip!!

Just tried it - and it installed the new driver perfectly.

**dibl** · Nov 29, 2009, 08:07 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by askrieger

Is there any particular reason to switch from the 185 driver to the 190? What could I gain by doing so (other than the comfort of knowing that my system is totally up to date, today)?

Al, they do a pretty fair job of summarizing the improvements in each version release here:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show....php?p=2105790

You'd have to study the bug fixes to determine whether any of them are applicable to your platform and normal activities. Being easily bored by release notes, I just go with the new version, on the chance that it might be better.

**Telengard** · Dec 16, 2009, 05:56 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Today I booted my Jaunty computer after having it shut down for a few days. There were about 42 updates, including some kernel updates. I used apt-get to install the updates as below. (I never trusted KPackageKit since Intrepid.)

Code:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

I then walked away from the computer and returned later. Apparently Kubuntu must have tried to restart the system because I found myself facing a text mode login prompt on TTY2. TTY7 just showed a black screen and blinking cursor with no prompt or text.

After logging in to TTY1, sudo shutdown now failed to shutdown the system, but sudo shutdown -h worked. When I powered on I was again dropped to TTY2 with a login prompt.

After pondering the circumstances for some time, and searching the forums, I concluded that the new kernel must be incompatible with the NVidia drivers which were compiled under the older kernel.

Following dibl's instructions for The official Nvidia way solved the problem. My Jaunty computer boots and works perfectly again

**Detonate** · Dec 16, 2009, 06:22 PM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by Telengard

Code:

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

You can do that with one command. Saves a little time.

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

**Telengard** · Dec 17, 2009, 12:49 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by Detonate

Code:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Indeed, but I think it reads better when I separate the commands instead of building a chain.

I just wonder what I did wrong in my upgrade which caused the problem, or what I could have done to prevent it.

**dibl** · Dec 17, 2009, 05:31 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by Telengard

I just wonder what I did wrong in my upgrade which caused the problem, or what I could have done to prevent it.

You did not necessarily do anything wrong, nor could the breakage of the kernel module be prevented. Installation of a new version kernel will normally result in an incompatibility with the prior kernel's driver module. So the expected requirement is to re-install the proprietary driver on the new kernel, after an upgrade.

In other words, keep the downloaded driver/installer package handy -- you might need it again after a few weeks or a month.

**Telengard** · Dec 17, 2009, 09:31 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by dibl

You did not necessarily do anything wrong, nor could the breakage of the kernel module be prevented.

So I can expect my system to break after every kernel update? That is not at all what I expected. Where can I read more on the topic?

**dibl** · Dec 17, 2009, 09:42 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by Telengard

So I can expect my system to break after every kernel update?

Yes.

That is not at all what I expected. Where can I read more on the topic?

Not exactly on "why new kernels require a new driver compile", but a good resource: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14

One of the major benefits of the nvidia-glx packaged driver is that the new kernel will NOT be incompatible with the driver. You knew there was some reason, right?

**Telengard** · Dec 17, 2009, 10:04 AM

Re: Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

Originally posted by dibl

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14

I'll try to keep that in mind, although it is only a forum. Not sure if you had a specific thread in mind.

One of the major benefits of the nvidia-glx packaged driver is that the new kernel will NOT be incompatible with the driver. You knew there was some reason, right?

No, I honestly did not know. I have not done all the research needed to fully understand all my options for NVidia drivers.

A quick web search on the terms nvidia-glx packaged driver yielded the NvidiaGraphicsDrivers article on the Debian wiki. This paragraph looks pretty informative:

Originally posted by Overview

The NVIDIA 3D drivers consist of two parts: a kernel module, and a collection of user-space libraries and a X video driver. The libraries and the X driver (sometimes called the "binary driver" or GLX libraries) are distributed in binary form by NVIDIA, and are packaged for Debian in the nvidia-glx packages. Since NVIDIA's 3D drivers are not open source, non-free APT sources are needed to install them. The kernel module (aka the "kernel interface to the binary driver") is distributed in source form (though with one binary component), and packaged for Debian in the nvidia-kernel-source packages. The version numbers of the kernel module and user-space libraries and X video driver must match. User libraries only need be installed once, but the kernel module must be recompiled every time the kernel is changed.

Now that's not a very nice way to do things, from a user perspective, but since the binary driver is closed source I don't know how it could be done better. (Damn you Nvidia!)

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Nvidia Proprietary Video Driver -- HOW TO

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