NVidia Linux Compatibility
First Advice - Avoid NVidia, the company are not Linux Friendly.
Nvidia has two categories of drivers. Open source drivers called Nouveau and proprietary drivers from Nvidia itself. Linux distributions tend to install the open source Nouveau driver and you can choose to manually enable the proprietary drivers for better performance. Gamers will not like nouveau.
Linux Mint comes with a Driver Manager which facilitates selecting and installing graphic drivers. By default, you will probably notice the open-source xserver-xorg-video-nouveau driver for Nvidia cards installed prior to your intervention after a fresh system installation. When you open the Mint Driver Manager you will likely be prompted to consider an Nvidia driver for your card. A list of drivers and versions will be displayed. One will should be marked as (recommended.) On the driver list the higher the number, the more recent release driver. If the latest driver in the list causes issues or fails to work, you can try their next best option from the list in Driver Manager.
To see what video card driver is current being used by Mint (the one loaded)
lshw -c video|grep config
To help determine what actual video card you have installed
lshw -numeric -C display|grep product
Nvidia control panel
/usr/bin/nvidia-settings
Remove Nvidia driver that fails and start over
sudo apt remove --purge *nvidia*
nouveau - complete rubbish if you have any intention of gaming
You can try drivers from this PPA, but it didn't help me
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa sudo apt update
You can remove it
sudo apt-add-repository --remove ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa sudo apt update
If it is still there
ls -l /etc/apt/sources.list.d
Contents
NVidia Geforce 6150
To find out what model of Nvidia card that you have:
lshw -numeric -C display
or
lspci -vnn | grep VGA
Linux x64 (AMD64/EM64T) Display Driver
Version: 304.137 Release Date: 2017.9.19 Operating System: Linux 64-bit Language: English (US) File Size: 66.84 MB
ref: http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/123709/en-us
You can stop the X server with this command:
service lightdm stop
seen: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.137.run
VERSION: 304
sudo apt-get install nvidia-304
ref: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-install-the-latest-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu-16-04-xenial-xerus
Fix Suggestion 1
I found that the correct driver (working well now for two days) is the nvidia-304 which can be installed from repositories. This might be problematic if you are making a clean install because the Geforce 6150SE will not work well when installing from the Ubuntu DVD: the Ubuntu live session will freeze, so follow this sequence:
Boot from the DVD and press Space to choose different methods of installation. Choose Experienced Install. Install Ubuntu. After install is done, press CTRL+ALT+F1 and login.
Update your system:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Install the driver:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-304
DO NOT run nvidia-xconfig (THIS IS IMPORTANT). Reboot the system (just press CTRL+ALT+DEL) Login normally. Open Nvidia X server settings from the dash. Backup your configuration (you can copy and paste it to a txt file)
Fix Suggestion 2
1) Download Newest Nvidia drivers from here
2) Open module blacklist as admin
gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
Add these lines and save:
blacklist vga16fb blacklist nouveau blacklist rivafb blacklist nvidiafb blacklist rivatv
3) Uninstall any previously installed Nvidia drivers:
sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-*
4) Reboot your computer
5) When an error message pops up saying that Ubuntu cannot load Nvidia drivers, choose Exit to terminal (Exit to console)
6) Login and cd to the directory where you saved your file
7)Install drivers
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-195.36.24-pkg2.run
8)Start GDM
sudo service gdm start
ref: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1467074
Fix Suggestion 3
There is a problem with the driver in software center.The bug is fixed in latest NVIDIA drivers. Run these commands in a terminal.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
login screen displays, goes black after logging in
System boots to the graphical login screen, then after you enter password the screen goes black where the desktop should be.
NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
On linux Mint this card has no working driver in the PPAs. as of 19.2 Tina - and since it is an older card it is doubtful there ever will be. Again, the problem is the jerks and NVIDIA not helping out.
It can be made to work by downloading directly from the NVIDIA web site.
- download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run from NVIDIA web site
- blacklist nouveau and reboot
- kill your current X server session by typing sudo service lightdm stop or sudo lightdm stop
- chmod +x and run NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run - it will be ugly and lots of errors
- clean up broken symlinks
- reboot and keep fingers crossed
Recovery: Something Went Wrong
If something went wrong after installation of NVIDIA drivers, then follow these steps to recover.
1 Boot into recovery mode
If you don't see Grub (recovery option) just hold "Shift" before boot and choose recovery option
2 Now in the menu choose "root"
3 Uninstall Nvidia drivers using commands:
sudo apt-get remove nvidia* sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
4 Remove xorg configuration: Newer versions do not use this file. Skip this step.
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
5 Reinstall the Mesa package for GL: (You can probably skip this step and the system will auto detect the working open source driver)
sudo apt-get --reinstall install libgl1-mesa-glx
6 Reboot the system
Nvidia card worked until I upgraded to newer Mint / Ubuntu Version
After an update or upgrade, you might find you are out of luck with your particular Nvidia card.
Your Nvidia graphics card may no longer be supported. If so, the open-source nouveau driver is your only option which means you can forget SteamOS or gaming with any real FPS.
For example: Nvidia states Support timeframes for Unix legacy GPU releases,"The Linux 340.* legacy driver series is the last to support the G8x, G9x, and GT2xx GPUs, and motherboard chipsets based on them. Support for X.Org xserver version 1.20 was added to the 340.* legacy driver series with version 340.107, and support for Linux kernels up to Linux 5.4 was added with version 340.108. No further releases from the 340.* series are planned."' Mint 21 uses X.Org version 1.21.1.3 (a version newer than 1.20).
