How do I install the latest NVIDIA drivers from the .run file?
This is what I am trying to do. I downloaded the latest driver for my VGA from http://www.nvidia.com. The installation needs the X11 to be shut down, so I log out of my account, then press Ctrl + Alt + F1 , then log in with my username and password, then run the command
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-285.05.09.run in every possible way, I have even tried CHMODing the package with 777 permissions, but still I’m getting the
sh: can't open NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-285.05.09.run Is there a reason you’re trying to install it by hand? Ubuntu can install the driver for you: askubuntu.com/questions/47506/…
Do not use the nvidia installer from nvidia.com, it’s not compatible with Ubuntu and you’ll certainly run into issues when upgrading. If you’re trying to get a recent card to work on a notebook, you’ll fail because recent cards are Optimus ones.
5 Answers 5
Make sure that no proprietary drivers are installed. If they are, un-activate them — otherwise, they WILL cause problems.
This is the procedure I use:
- Press Ctrl + Alt + F1 .
- Login
- cd to the location of the file (only if it is in a location other than your $HOME directory)
- Thereafter, run the following commands:
sudo su sudo service lightdm stop ## if you are using 11.04 replace `lightdm` with `gdm` chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-285.05.09.run sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-285.05.09.run The installer will then complain about Nouveau needing to be disabled. It will do so, then you will need to restart your PC. You will then have to redo the above mentioned procedure again to restart the installation.
If you have another driver installed, this installer will uninstall it for you.
PLEASE NOTE that installing Nvidia driver of version 319.23 this way failed for me — I got a blank screen upon startup and spent a day of tweaking Ubuntu from the console to revert the old X server configuration — I have Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M graphcis card. As per Nvidia driver additional info: Note that many Linux distributions provide their own packages of the NVIDIA Linux Graphics Driver in the distribution’s native package management format. This may interact better with the rest of your distribution’s framework, and you may want to use this rather than NVIDIA’s official package.
The guide works for 12.04 LTS and 14.04 LTS as well.
For the test I took one of the latest Nvidia drivers released by official Nvidia.
Download the driver from Nvidia official Source.
it’ll be named something like nvidia-304.119.run for example.
before going to do anything backup your current nvidia configuration simply run:
it’ll automatically backup your current configuration and create a new config file.
Disable conflicting software (recommended!) to avoid any problems during installation. Open or create the /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common file with an editor, in Ubuntu use:
gksudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common and paste or replace a line:
DISABLED_MODULES="nv nvidia_new" Done! Now remove what is installed:
login to TTY terminal ( Ctrl + Alt + F1 ) and remove and purge your current configuration doing next commands:
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm stop (or whatever display manager installed on your system xdm for Xubuntu kdm for Kubuntu for example)
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r` or find the right ones for your platform with command uname -r for example:
sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-`3.8.0-36-generic` (if it says already the latest installed or something like that go next)
sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia* (removes nvidia-common for some might need to sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop to bring it back manually, wasn’t necessary for me)
(removes xorg configuration)
After you finish with this one, you should also blacklist the nouveau driver by editing this file:
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf …and add these lines at the end:
blacklist nouveau blacklist lbm-nouveau options nouveau modeset=0 alias nouveau off alias lbm-nouveau off And you can also disable the Kernel Nouveau by typing these lines in a terminal window:
echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf or you can remove nouveau from the system:
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-nouveau (WARNING! removes open-source video driver from the system! the step is optional, I did this to prevent all conflicts with Nvidia do this at your own risk or leave it alone if you’re not sure)
Before continuing you can also install dkms on the way.
(*DKMS is a framework designed to allow individual kernel modules to be upgraded without changing the whole kernel. It is also very easy to rebuild modules as you upgrade kernels.)
Next when all is done, let’s install the driver. Navigate to the location where you downloaded driver at, for example:
and make it executable and run:
sudo chmod +x nvidia-304.119.run sudo ./nvidia-304.119.run (don’t forget to install with a root privileges using sudo otherwise it won’t continue)
Click Yes (commonly) during installation pop ups and at the end of installation wizard you’ll be asked if you want Nvidia to configure and activate driver for you? Click Yes!
Now you have to bring back the Display Manager:
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start sudo sevice lightdm restart When logged in do not run sudo nvidia-xconfig as it’s already been configured just run gksudo nvidia-settings .
The driver works basically on all Nvidia video cards including old ones.
Troubleshootings
If for any reason after reboot you are not able to login or get stuck during boot make sure you followed all the steps if you did and still got problems login to Recovery Mode press and hold Shift enter Recovery Mode and start Failsafe boot for some reason your xorg.conf maybe named differently even when you run sudo nvidia-xconfig it names itself for example XF86Config it’s actually good working configuration and if needed you can just simply rename it:
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm stop (just to be sure) sudo mv /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/X11/xorg.conf sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg (Do mention though, if you’re using different point releases let say 14.04.2 running this command will return no package installed or etc. you’ll have to make sure if any is installed in this case it be xserver-xorg-lts-utopic so you’ll have to run sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg-lts-utopic instead.)
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm start now you should be at the login screen, enter your initials and when logged in run:
gksudo nvidia-settings (just to be sure) it didn’t work!?
When trying to start X, if you get an error about nvidiactl (you will need to see the X log), try the following:
sudo update-rc.d -f nvidia-kernel remove If you want to go back to the Restricted Manager method after performing the above instructions, do this:
sudo update-rc.d nvidia-kernel defaults If the installer fails, go through the following checklist:
- Was Xorg already properly configured for the nv driver?
- Did you disable the loading of Ubuntu provided NVIDIA drivers using DISABLED_MODULES=»nv nvidia_new» in /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common ? This is a common cause of driver mismatch errors on manual installations due to conflicts with the Ubuntu provided NVIDIA binary driver.
- You may need to remove the file /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_new_installed
- Did you remove the nvidia-glx/nvidia-glx-legacy/nvidia-glx-new and nvidia-settings packages?
- Did you read the log found in /var/log/nvidia-installer-log for errors that can guide you?
- Did you check the output of dmesg ?
- Did you install the kernel headers (and possibly source package)?
- Did you check the NVIDIA readme found on their site to make sure your card is supported with that version of driver?
WARNING!
Sometimes it might not work, e.g. with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, currently there are incompatibilities that may occur with newer linux-image kernels to some video cards and after reboot you might be left with a blank screen.
What you can do then is try this:
How do I make Nvidia driver working after the kernel update in 14.04?
When you have manually installed Nvidia driver in 14.04, if the kernel got updated then do not reboot after an update otherwise you will boot to a blank screen.
If the workaround with dkms didn’t succeed, you will need to re-install the driver. Launch a console Ctrl + Alt + F1 and type:
sudo service lightdm stop navigate to nvidia .run file location using cd command and re-install nvidia driver press always Yes when prompted. After installation has been finished, type:
sudo service lightdm restart Login to your account, open a terminal Ctrl + Alt + T and type:
sudo nvidia-xconfig (only if xorg.conf is missing) gksudo nvidia-settings sudo update-initramfs -u -k all sudo reboot Done. You should login as normal now.