2012/08/28

Install proprietary Nvidia driver in Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

After trying to update Nvidia graphic drivers, my monitor was not detected properly and was at a lower resolution. The picture also did not fill the whole monitor leaving a 1 inch black border around the window. Below are the steps I took to install the newest Nvidia graphics drivers for Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit. My hardware was an micro-atx Zotac Geforce 8200-itx motherboard with an integrated Geforce 8200 graphics chip.

Links below will only be good for the 295.59 driver version.

  • These instructions come from the Nvidia website found in the "README" file
  • Check if your hardware is supported
  • Check if your software meets the minimum requirements
  • Download driver
  • Disable nouveau open source driver
    • open a terminal and paste in the following commands
    • Create a file to disable nouveau open source driver
      • sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nouveau.conf
      • Add the following lines to the file
        • # "#" lines are not read and are for your information
        • # Last updated by Chad Chenault on 2012-0725
        • # file created to install propriety nvidia video driver for geforce 8200 on zotac motherboard
        • # This file prevents the opensource nouveau driver from loading at startup
        • #
        • blacklist nouveau
        • options nouveau modeset=0
        • #
      • press "ctrl + o" to save the file
      • press "ctrl + x" to exit nano 
  • Create help text file
    • Open your favorite text editor (nano or gedit for me)
    • copy and paste text from this blog post other sources into the file
      • save file to your home folder as nvidia.help.txt
        • full path of file is "/home/[your user name here]/nvidia.help.txt"
  • login to 2 console windows
  • open help text file in one window with nano
    • ctrl + Alt + F2
    • open help file in text editor
      • nano ~/nvidia.help.txt
  • Open window to execute commands
    • ctrl + Alt + F1
  • I did not complete the instructions but I am posting any way so that I will be able to find the installation instructions if I need to reinstall the driver.