Binary Driver Howto Nvidia

How To Install nVidia 256.35 Display Drivers In Ubuntu (From A PPA Repository)
nvidia.com/Download
gF 8400 GS linux-display-amd64-256.53-driver

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.
Also note that SuSE users should read the SuSE NVIDIA Installer HOWTO before downloading the driver.
Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.53-pkg2.run
One of the last installation steps will offer to update your X configuration file. Either accept that offer, edit your X configuration file manually so that the NVIDIA X driver will be used, or run nvidia-xconfig
See the README for more detailed instructions.
---------------------------------------------------

Source

This guide is for installing the NVIDIA closed source binary/restricted drivers on a system running an NVIDIA graphics card. For other graphics cards refer to the BinaryDriverHowto.

The NVIDIA provided driver supports hardware-accelerated 3D, TV-Out support, and dual-head functions.

Driver Versions

There are the following restricted driver versions available in the repositories. You may install the nvidia-current package for the driver of the current verson.

• 96.43.17
• 173.14.22
• 185.18.36
• 195.36.24

Installation recommended step for Ubuntu 10.04 or higher

*Nouveau is installed . this an open source driver .

*you can remove it by command-line by entering this:

sudo apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 

* Ubuntu does work with both installed .
Ubuntu (Gnome)

*Note in Ubuntu 10:10 Hardware Drivers is renamed to Additional Drivers .
Ubuntu 9.10 and Ubuntu 10.04

• Go to System - Administration - Hardware Drivers and check the box to enable the restricted drivers for your NVIDIA card if the option is provided.
• If the restricted driver remains unactivated after attempting to activate it in the Hardware Drivers dialog, you may not have the appropriate linux headers installed to compile the driver. Ensure that the linux-headers-XXX and linux-restricted-modules-XXX packages are installed, where XXX matches the version of the kernel you are using (linux-image-XXX).
• 
  
  If the activation hangs on download/install dialog, you can install the driver using System - Administration - Synaptic Package Manager, make sure you pick the latest driver version recommended by the "Hardware Drivers" tool and all its dependencies. Go to Hardware Drivers tool and activate the driver you just installed.
• 
  
  Once downloaded and installed reboot your computer.
• The Hardware Drivers tool may not work properly on machines that have previously used third party tools like 'Envy' or manual installation to install previous drivers. You should remove those drivers before attempting to install using the built in tool.

Common Issues
NVIDIA driver activated but not currently in use in ubuntu 10.04

Due to a bug see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/+bug/539997 .The NVIDIA driver may not work .

• 
  
  From a command-line enter this
  sudo apt-get install nvidia-current (or nvidia-173 or nvidia-96)
• select the alternative that matches the driver that you have installed
  (e.g. /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf for nvidia-current):
  sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf
  
• update the ld cache:
  sudo ldconfig
• then configure your xorg.conf with:
  sudo nvidia-xconfig
• And restart your computer.sudo reboot
  

Can't Save Settings
Nvidia-settings can't write to Xorg.conf if it hasn't been started with sudo

• Work round one :

• Right click on your Desktop
• choose make new launcher
• The name is : nvidia-settings
• The command is : gksudo nvidia-settings
  
  
  
  • Work round two :
  • use the Monitors preferences

Suspend/hibernation
If you have an old legacy NVIDIA card (eg driver 96.43.17) .

• 
  
  
  
  hibernation & Suspend will not work .
• 
  
  
  To fix it see NvidiaLaptopBinaryDriverSuspend .

Low Screen Resolutions
Often screen resolutions on offer are far lower than those offered with the open source driver. The NVIDIA binary driver seems to be very weak at reliably probing this information from the monitor and relies on additional information in xorg.conf.

To fix this you can Add more resolutions:

• 
  
  From a command-line enter this
• run "xrandr --addmode S-video ...." (with-out the "" where the dots add the resolution you want .)

for further details and potential workarounds see VideoResolutionHowto .

Screen Blanks/Monitor Turns Off
Using a laptop with a GeForce Go card, or connecting the sole display via DVI on a dual-head system sometimes results in the screen not receiving a picture. This is caused by the driver outputting video to the VGA port on the graphics card, instead of DVI.

The usual hint that you have this problem is when you hear the startup sound but nothing appears on the screen. If you do not hear any sound, you are more than likely experiencing unrelated problems.

This is a launchpad bug about displays on digital outputs being blank when using NVIDIA binary driver, and can be resolved by editing your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

• 
  
  Switch to the console (Try using ctrl+alt+F1, or reboot and select recovery mode from the GRUB menu.)
• 
  
  Use your text editor to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf. (try sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf)
• 
  
  Find the line that says Section "Screen"
• 
  
  Insert a new line that says Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP".
• 
  
  Save the file. If you had to restart into recovery mode, type reboot, otherwise restart your display using sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart.

Incorrect Refresh Rate Reported
If you are using nvidia-glx/nvidia-glx-new and the refresh rate appears wrong (or different to that actually reported by your monitor) in gnome-display-properties/xrandr, you are probably seeing the effects of the DynamicTwinView feature. See this launchpad bug about being unable to "set" a proper screen refresh rate for details of this behaviour.

Problems with Video Playback