This post is reconstituted from the original 30 OCT 2009 post, cached here: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0
Here is what I hope will be a useful reference, especially for the less experienced folks. It is written for Kubuntu ver. 9.10 or later -- note that there are some command variations for prior versions, including the command to start and stop the X server.
1. The Official Kubuntu Way:
NOTE: For ver. 11.04 and later, FIRST DO THIS:
- Click your "K" menu launcher
- Choose "Applications > System > Additional Drivers" -- after it scans your hardware, it should pop up a window that looks like this (Kubuntu 11.04):
If you want the driver that it is offering, you click the "Activate" button and wait patiently -- it has to download the driver in the background and it may appear that nothing is happening for a short while.
That's it -- you "OK" out of there and if you like the results you can be done.
2. An unofficial *buntu way:
New release Nvidia drivers are not added to released *buntu versions, but they go into the "x-swat" repository, so you can use that to get them.
This repository conatains the latest nvidia drivers. If you keep the repository enabled, version upgrades will be automatically installed.
3. The (kinda complicated but always works) official Nvidia way:
Possibly the official Kubuntu method did not find your Nvidia GPU, or for some other reason did not offer you a driver. Possibly you observed that it is offering a version that is not the most current released version for your GPU. Perhaps you are an adventurer who would like to install and test the latest Beta driver from Nvidia. For any of these reasons, you may want or need to download the Nvidia packaged driver/installer. Here is what you need to do.
EDIT 5 March 2010: Kubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" comes with the nouveau driver installed by default. [POLITICS]I'm enthused about an open source driver for Nvidia hardware, and I really hope nouveau keeps improving -- it seems to work well for 2D graphics today, on my GTX260, and I've no doubt 3D will be supported one of these days. I'm looking forward to it.[/POLITICS].
The nouveau driver must be removed and the system rebooted before the proprietary Nvidia driver can be installed. So, if you want the proprietary driver on Lucid, you must
sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-backports-modules-nouveau-`uname -r`
and add the following to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
don't forget to add a carriage return at the end. **
Then reboot and proceed.
NOTE: If you previously used "Restricted Driver Manager" or "nvidia-xxx-glx" then you're going to have to do these things before you can install the downloaded new driver - otherwise proceed directly to Step #1:
- Open Adept or Synaptic, or use apt-get, and
- Remove any and all packages beginning with "nvidia-..." (see command line below) *
- Use your editor in root mode to open the file /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common (if it exists on your system), and on the last line where it says
DISABLED_MODULES=""
insert "nv" between the quote marks, so it reads:
DISABLED_MODULES="nv"
and save it. Next, at the root "you@karmic:/$" prompt
*
(Note that an archive file named "junk-nvidia-files.zip" will be created and will hold all the removed files, just in case ...)
Now proceed to Step #1 and begin.
Step #1. Download the 32-bit or 64-bit driver, as appropriate, to your /home/user/Downloads folder from here:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
or here:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=122606
Get the ...pkg1.run for 32-bit, or ...pkg2.run for 64-bit. (applicable to driver versions before 256.35)
Step #2. When it is done downloading, Ctrl-Alt-F1 out of the X server, and log in to the CLI. Stop the X server with the following command:
Step #3. Change to the /tmp directory, for two reasons. First, 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).
Secondly, any residual non-needed files that are left in /tmp will be dropped in the next reboot -- you can be lazy and not worry about cleaning up after yourself when the driver installation is finished.
Also, install the linux-headers and build-essential packages for your running kernel:
Step #4. Copy your downloaded driver installer file to /tmp:
NOTICE: (a) you can use the Tab key to finish that awkward file name automatically, and (b) THE "."! The period tells bash to copy the file to the directory where you are working.
Step #5. Run the installer:
and press Enter.
-- answer the questions as they come up:
a. Accept the license
b. Remove prior driver? = Y
c. Download a kernel interface? = Y
d. Compile a kernel interface? = OK
e. Install Nvidia's 32-bit compatibility OpenGL libraries? = Y
f. Run the nvidia-xconfig utility? = Y (or if you already have a proven good xorg.conf for this driver version, you can answer "N")
Step #6. Restart the X server:
Log in and enjoy the view! 
NOTE for 10.04 and later versions: Changes in the booting process for 10.04 may leave you with a call to the nouveau driver embedded in the init ramdisk. If you find you still have the nouveau driver, even after blacklisting it, then you will need to (after making the blacklist entry in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf), reboot into Recovery Console, and run
and then proceed (still in Recovery Console) with your Nvidia driver installation as described above.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...14&postcount=5
But, suppose you are not satisfied with the view -- the screen resolution is not pleasing, you insist on overclocking your $350 GPU, or something like that. With the proprietary driver comes the nvidia-settings utility. Use Alt-F2 to run it. Alt-F2 "nvidia-settings" (with no quote marks) brings up a panel that looks like this:
[img width=400 height=249]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2599/nvidia19042settings.png[/img]
The second menu item "X Server Display Configuration" opens a dialogue that lets you adjust the resolution and refresh rates. I always advise leaving the refresh rate set to "auto" -- let the X server control that dynamically, for best overall results. You'll see something like this:
[img width=400 height=323]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3629/nvidiaxserver.png[/img]
If you want to make a permanent change to the default screen resolution, then prefix the "nvidia-settings" command with "kdesudo" to run it in root mode. Click the "Detect Displays" button and if your monitor/LCD has an EDID capability it will be read and used by the driver. After you change the screen resolution, to make it the default click the "Save to X Configuration File" button in the lower right of the dialogue, and it will overwrite that section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
(I'm going to show the overclocking/coolbits information below, but as of driver 270-series, it appears Nvidia is no longer providing overclocking support. Instead there is a "PowerMizer" function that allows adaptive clocking on the fly -- it seems to work fine.)
If you want to accept the risk of overclocking your GPU, and void your warranty, then you add the "Coolbits" option line in your xorg.conf file. That enables the option in the nvidia-settings (see the third-to-last menu item on mine). There is an "Auto Detect" testing function that you can use, in the 3D mode settings, that will test your GPU and graphics memory and recommend maximum settings for you. Here's the dialogue where you can play with it:
[img width=400 height=244]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1613/nvidiaxserver1.png[/img]
Finally, I will post the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that driver 270.18 wrote for my GTX480 and NEC monitor, plus the last three options which I added per oshunluvr's advice -- it's doing a great job today with driver 270.41.19:
Also, as doctordruidphd points out, a coolbits option of "5" will (dangerously) enable fan control via nvidia-settings. I'm afraid to try it -- you may do that experiment on your Nvidia card, if you want. 
Here is what I hope will be a useful reference, especially for the less experienced folks. It is written for Kubuntu ver. 9.10 or later -- note that there are some command variations for prior versions, including the command to start and stop the X server.
1. The Official Kubuntu Way:
NOTE: For ver. 11.04 and later, FIRST DO THIS:
Code:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`
- Choose "Applications > System > Additional Drivers" -- after it scans your hardware, it should pop up a window that looks like this (Kubuntu 11.04):
If you want the driver that it is offering, you click the "Activate" button and wait patiently -- it has to download the driver in the background and it may appear that nothing is happening for a short while.
That's it -- you "OK" out of there and if you like the results you can be done.
2. An unofficial *buntu way:
New release Nvidia drivers are not added to released *buntu versions, but they go into the "x-swat" repository, so you can use that to get them.
Code:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
Code:
sudo apt-get update
Code:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-common nvidia-settings
3. The (kinda complicated but always works) official Nvidia way:
Possibly the official Kubuntu method did not find your Nvidia GPU, or for some other reason did not offer you a driver. Possibly you observed that it is offering a version that is not the most current released version for your GPU. Perhaps you are an adventurer who would like to install and test the latest Beta driver from Nvidia. For any of these reasons, you may want or need to download the Nvidia packaged driver/installer. Here is what you need to do.
EDIT 5 March 2010: Kubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" comes with the nouveau driver installed by default. [POLITICS]I'm enthused about an open source driver for Nvidia hardware, and I really hope nouveau keeps improving -- it seems to work well for 2D graphics today, on my GTX260, and I've no doubt 3D will be supported one of these days. I'm looking forward to it.[/POLITICS].
The nouveau driver must be removed and the system rebooted before the proprietary Nvidia driver can be installed. So, if you want the proprietary driver on Lucid, you must
sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-backports-modules-nouveau-`uname -r`
Code:
sudo apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
Code:
blacklist nouveau blacklist nvidiafb
Then reboot and proceed.
NOTE: If you previously used "Restricted Driver Manager" or "nvidia-xxx-glx" then you're going to have to do these things before you can install the downloaded new driver - otherwise proceed directly to Step #1:
- Open Adept or Synaptic, or use apt-get, and
Code:
sudo apt-get remove --purge linux-restricted-modules-`uname -r`
- Use your editor in root mode to open the file /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common (if it exists on your system), and on the last line where it says
DISABLED_MODULES=""
insert "nv" between the quote marks, so it reads:
DISABLED_MODULES="nv"
and save it. Next, at the root "you@karmic:/$" prompt
*
Code:
sudo find . -type f -name 'nvidia*' -exec zip -mT junk-nvidia-files.zip {} +
Now proceed to Step #1 and begin.
Step #1. Download the 32-bit or 64-bit driver, as appropriate, to your /home/user/Downloads folder from here:
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
or here:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=122606
Get the ...pkg1.run for 32-bit, or ...pkg2.run for 64-bit. (applicable to driver versions before 256.35)
Step #2. When it is done downloading, Ctrl-Alt-F1 out of the X server, and log in to the CLI. Stop the X server with the following command:
Code:
sudo service kdm stop
Step #3. Change to the /tmp directory, for two reasons. First, 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).
Secondly, any residual non-needed files that are left in /tmp will be dropped in the next reboot -- you can be lazy and not worry about cleaning up after yourself when the driver installation is finished.Code:
cd /tmp
Code:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential
Step #4. Copy your downloaded driver installer file to /tmp:
Code:
sudo cp /home/dibl/Download/NV{TAB to complete} .
Step #5. Run the installer:
Code:
sudo sh NV{TAB to complete}
-- answer the questions as they come up:
a. Accept the license
b. Remove prior driver? = Y
c. Download a kernel interface? = Y
d. Compile a kernel interface? = OK
e. Install Nvidia's 32-bit compatibility OpenGL libraries? = Y
f. Run the nvidia-xconfig utility? = Y (or if you already have a proven good xorg.conf for this driver version, you can answer "N")
Step #6. Restart the X server:
Code:
sudo service kdm start
NOTE for 10.04 and later versions: Changes in the booting process for 10.04 may leave you with a call to the nouveau driver embedded in the init ramdisk. If you find you still have the nouveau driver, even after blacklisting it, then you will need to (after making the blacklist entry in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf), reboot into Recovery Console, and run
Code:
sudo update-initramfs -u
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...14&postcount=5
But, suppose you are not satisfied with the view -- the screen resolution is not pleasing, you insist on overclocking your $350 GPU, or something like that. With the proprietary driver comes the nvidia-settings utility. Use Alt-F2 to run it. Alt-F2 "nvidia-settings" (with no quote marks) brings up a panel that looks like this:
[img width=400 height=249]http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/2599/nvidia19042settings.png[/img]
The second menu item "X Server Display Configuration" opens a dialogue that lets you adjust the resolution and refresh rates. I always advise leaving the refresh rate set to "auto" -- let the X server control that dynamically, for best overall results. You'll see something like this:
[img width=400 height=323]http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/3629/nvidiaxserver.png[/img]
If you want to make a permanent change to the default screen resolution, then prefix the "nvidia-settings" command with "kdesudo" to run it in root mode. Click the "Detect Displays" button and if your monitor/LCD has an EDID capability it will be read and used by the driver. After you change the screen resolution, to make it the default click the "Save to X Configuration File" button in the lower right of the dialogue, and it will overwrite that section of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
(I'm going to show the overclocking/coolbits information below, but as of driver 270-series, it appears Nvidia is no longer providing overclocking support. Instead there is a "PowerMizer" function that allows adaptive clocking on the fly -- it seems to work fine.)
If you want to accept the risk of overclocking your GPU, and void your warranty, then you add the "Coolbits" option line in your xorg.conf file. That enables the option in the nvidia-settings (see the third-to-last menu item on mine). There is an "Auto Detect" testing function that you can use, in the 3D mode settings, that will test your GPU and graphics memory and recommend maximum settings for you. Here's the dialogue where you can play with it:
[img width=400 height=244]http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/1613/nvidiaxserver1.png[/img]
Finally, I will post the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file that driver 270.18 wrote for my GTX480 and NEC monitor, plus the last three options which I added per oshunluvr's advice -- it's doing a great job today with driver 270.41.19:
# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 270.18 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-08.nvidia.com) Tue Jan 18 22:06:28 PST 2011
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Option "Coolbits" "1"
Option "UseCompositeWrapper" "True" # Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one.
Option "BackingStore" "True" # Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later
Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True" # only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed
EndSubSection
EndSection
# nvidia-xconfig: version 270.18 (buildmeister@swio-display-x86-rhel47-08.nvidia.com) Tue Jan 18 22:06:28 PST 2011
Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection
Section "Files"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Mouse0"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
# generated from default
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Unknown"
ModelName "Unknown"
HorizSync 28.0 - 33.0
VertRefresh 43.0 - 72.0
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Device0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Option "Coolbits" "1"
Option "UseCompositeWrapper" "True" # Enables the X server's composite wrapper instead of the builtin one.
Option "BackingStore" "True" # Cache overlayed areas in case they get redisplayed later
Option "OnDemandVBlankInterrupts" "True" # only fire VBlank interrupts in modes where they are needed
EndSubSection
EndSection
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