Updating NVIDIA Graphics Driver in Linux (Ubuntu 14.04)

Updating NVIDIA Graphics Driver in Linux (Ubuntu 14.04)

If you have been playing with NVIDIA graphics installs then deactivate the driver from the Additional Drivers window and then reactivate to reinstall.

You can also remove all references to nvidia kernels install via

sudo apt-get remove nvidia*

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-*

Then installing nvidia-current:

sudo apt-get install nvdia-current

Then reinstall the driver from Additional Drivers window.

Install nvidia-331. I did it through Synaptic Package Manager.

 sudo apt-get install nvidia-331

 

Additionally run the Nvidia routine to generate a new xorg.conf

gksudo nvidia-settings

 

To stop your display manager or the X server, you can type in the console this code:

   sudo stop lightdm   or

   sudo lightdm stop

If you are not using lightdm as your default display manager (DM), replace lightdm with your default display manager, which can be either kdm or gdm or whatever your display manager is.

You should get a message in the terminal console saying –> lightdm stopped/waiting

And now you can finally install the nvidia driver using a code similar to this one:

  sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64.....run    (for Ubuntu 64bit)

or

  sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86.....run    (for Ubuntu 32bit)

If you don’t type the exact name of the driver, you’ll get this message: NVIDIA-Linux… could not be found and you should type again the code for installing the driver.

Nvidia installer automatically installs the driver, and at the end it will ask you whether you want to save your new X configuration. Press Yes. After reboot and getting to your desktop and changing your NVIDIA settings as you please you should open a terminal window and type in this code:

  sudo nvidia-xconfig

sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

to save your new nvidia configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

It can happen that after reboot your system shows a black screen or enters the low graphics mode. To fix this you should exit again to the console terminal, login with your username and password, and use the code provided above sudo nvidia-xconfig and also make use of the following tutorial. It is meant to fix the greeter assuming that they haven’t fixed this bug in Ubuntu 14.04.