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How To Install Nvidia Drivers In Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal
Offbeat
Offbeat
Installing standard binary drivers in Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit was easily the worst experience I’ve had with installing standard drivers in 20 years, due to three (3) interacting bugs that each should never have made it past release. Here’s a writeup for anybody else to avoid that experience that sucked a day out of my life.
First, the short writeup on how to solve the problem. More detail will follow about what the problem is, but I picture most people who find this page will just want to solve it. (Some keywords for Google: Black screen, Nouveau failure, Jockey missing, Installation fails.)
Environment: 64-bit Quantal, NVidia 640, triple HD screens 1920×1080.
First, on a fresh install, don’t login to the graphic interface, but press Ctrl-Alt-F1 at the login prompt to get a text console login. Log in there. (If you’re more comfortable using a terminal in the graphic interface, that works just as well.)
Once logged in, become root.
sudo su
Then, install the linux-headers-generic package.
apt-get update
apt-get install linux-headers-generic
Once that is installed, we need to upgrade the kernel to match the recently-installed headers, and reboot to load the new kernel we just installed.
apt-get dist-upgrade
reboot
After reboot, log in again (Ctrl-Alt-F1 to do so in text mode). Become root again.
sudo su
Now, it’s time to actually install the nvidia drivers.
apt-get install nvidia-current-updates
After this has been installed, you will get a number of status messages saying you’re done and that the drivers are installed. You are not done. If you reboot now, your computer will boot back to a black screen and be effectively bricked. I spent a full working day tearing my hair at this. There’s one more thing you need to do. You need to give the drivers their initial settings file.
nvidia-xconfig
After this step, you can finally reboot and use fast drivers, as the open source drivers aren’t there quite yet.
reboot
The three four bugs here
So there are three bugs in the release that create this horrible experience with a new installation.
The first bug is that the linux-headers-generic package isn’t installed by default. This leads to a failure when installing new drivers, such as the nvidia-current or nvidia-current-updates package, as it can’t compile its module and will fail to install properly.
Also, I suspect this is the reason that the driver installation under the rightmost tab in “Software Sources” fails (or that could be another, separate bug).
The second bug is that once installed, linux-headers-generic installs the wrong version of headers. This may be working as intended, but the resulting experience is horrible. The fresh system boots into kernel 3.5.0-17, but the headers installed are version 3.5.0-23 – so trying to install binary drivers after having installed headers will fail, as there are no headers matching the kernel. You must first upgrade the kernel to match the headers you installed, and only then can you install the graphics drivers, which will be able to find headers matching the running kernel.
The third bug is that the script of the install packages doesn’t actually initialize the driver settings, leading to a bricked black screen if you just install them and think that’s it. You have to manually run nvidia-xconfig after installation to be good to go.
Seriously, Canonical, I’m a tech person with the skills, dedication and tenacity to make this work. This is nowhere near the concept of “Linux is ready for the desktop”. These are three prio-1 bugs that made it past shipping, and where QA failed.
Oh, and there’s also a fourth bug: the Create Startup Disk utility doesn’t work in Ubuntu 12.10; it fails as it tries to install the bootloader or just past that point. This means – ta-daah – that there’s no way to downgrade and avoid the hassle by reverting to the previous release. That was the real hair-tearing moment for me.
This is not quality.
About The Author: Rick Falkvinge
Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and is a political evangelist, traveling around Europe and the world to talk and write about ideas of a sensible information policy. He has a tech entrepreneur background and loves whisky.
This is great, assuming pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1 doesn’t give you a non-interactive black screen. Which is what happened to me.
I think the best way to install the drivers in 12.10 is to first install 12.04.
You could just as well log in to X and use Terminal. “Go to text mode and login” was shorter to write and explain, though.
Do the same commands apply to the 32 bit version?
Thanks,
Terry
It should, but there are subtle differences between the two repositories (32- and 64-bit), so I won’t guarantee any sequence of commands I haven’t run personally. It should work, but I can’t guarantee it.
Cheers,
Rick
I’m not an Ubuntu user myself, but since Ubuntu is derived directly from Debian (which I am a user of) I feel I should comment on the subject. Number 2 is not a bug. linux-headers-generic is probably a metapackage linked to the latest version of the headers. If you want those to match the kernel version, you have to keep the kernel up to date. There should be a similar metapackage for the kernel itself, which would always update the kernel to the latest version. If you don’t want that, you should simply lookup the headers package relevant to your running kernel. It’s no rocket science. Number 3 is probably Nvidia’s fault, since those are closed binary drivers and therefore delivered by Nvidia as is.
Number 3 is because X.org does not care about proprietary drivers and won’t load them automatically even if there is nothing else to load. While it does that perfectly fine for open source drivers with having a config file. Why that happens is… open source logic: PROPRIETARY BAD WE NO DO THIS THING EVAH. User experience? Is that food?
Hi Zeissmann,
Indeed – the behavior as such may be “by design”, but the result is unexpected and annoying to the user.
This bug may be solved by making sure that the headers that correspond to the kernel being installed on a fresh install aren’t actively removed as part of the install process (which they are today).
Cheers,
Rick
Well, it may be no rocket science to you, but as a technical person I expect it just to be the same as my current kernel not the other way around.. And as Rick perfectly mentioned if they claim ‘linux is ready for desktop’ then it should also be easy for normal persons, not only people who live and breath linux.. At the moment, I’m strugling to even get my 13.04 back to work, all I did was say yes to the question of linux to upgrade my 12.10 to 13.04, and look what happened, it just doesn’t work anymore, only terminal seems to work.. In all my years I have updated/upgraded my windows (starting with 3.0) I have never ever had such problems as I have had with using linux and keeping it up to date without problems, and I’m a techie..
Another reason to stay at 12.04 until 14.04 ships.
Unfortunately I did not realize the recency of this post when I read it and was also installing the drivers from ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates so did not heed this advice and had to repair the mess after rebooting. I hope this will help future readers.
Another problem created by the GPL. The obvious solution would be to ship the driver like any other kernel module, but doing so is at least potentially illegal with that license.
You are awesome! I’ve been banging my head at the keyboard trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. While I did many of the things you did, your order and method was perfectly effective. Thank you!
Hi i tried using your method, but after first rebooting and when i try to install nvidia drivers with apt get-install nvidia-current-updates
I get message to insert disc labeled ubuntu 12.10 _Quantal Quetzal_ – Release amd64 (20121017.5) in the drive ‘/media/cdrom/’ and press enter
Problem is i don’t have dvd or cd with ubuntu, installed from stick. So again i am at dead end and basically i am thinking of going back to win couse this linux experience was for masohists….
Hi Tom,
this is a different problem – your installation thinks it installed from CD/DVD. You can fix this by removing the CD file source, provided you have a working network connection to install from instead.
You do this by accessing the text mode again, logging in as above, then typing
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.listThis will first ask for your password (for security reasons), then open a text editor with the update sources. The first line should begin with “deb cdrom:”. Put a # at the beginning of this line, which will comment it out – the line should turn blue in the nano editor in response.
Save and exit with Ctrl-O (WriteOut), Ctrl-X (Exit).
Then, update your sources again with
sudo apt-get updateand you should be able to install from network.
Cheers,
Rick
Hi sorry for long time no answer.
Thank you for the help, managed to get it all working
I followed these instructions on a Lubuntu 12.10 64 bits (Quadro FX570), and ended up with a 640X480 screen. It told me that I was not using the X driver, or somesuch thing.
What do I do now? Nvidia-settings is no help…
Thanks
Nvidia-settings won’t start unless the Nvidia driver has been successfully loaded.
One thing you can try, which I absolutely do not guarantee it will work (I do not know the specifics of the Lubuntu packaging, and this is really about details), is to try different graphics drivers packages. From your description, the nvidia-current-updates package may not have been included in Lubuntu. See if any of these three seem to install:
sudo su(to become root)then, one of these three (I suggest you try them from top down, rebooting after installing each and running nvidia-xconfig)
apt-get install nvidia-currentapt-get install nvidia-experimental-304apt-get install nvidia-experimental-310If that does not work, you could try going back to default drivers:
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-nouveauGLHF.
Cheers,
Rick
I had the same issue as you, let me know if you manage to install the nvidia drivers, as I ended up having to go back to nouveau. I was able to get nvidia to show up in lsmod, but nvidia-settings still couldn’t detect it.
I just bought a new laptop, acer aspire ethos 5951g. it comes with nvidia geforce gt540m. I followed these steps but when I tried to run ” nvidia-xconfig ” it said something short like it couldn’t configure X… I tried it again and it said something else, like X now configured to /somefileextension/I don’t remember. But it didn’t say it didn’t work so I rebooted.
Well, that wasn’t the right call I guess. Because now when I boot ubuntu it’s 600resolution login screen. It flashes black. After log in, no ui except the background. Thankfully I can right click and a shutdown/restart menu appears when I press the power button.
So, I’m back in the terminal trying what you told venik2020. Is it possible my Internet connection was interrupted before xconfig? Any other ideas? I’m kinda new at this, and this kind of craziness makes me doubt switching to Linux. ..
Thank you kindly for the (a) well described solution to this issue, which (b) worked, and (c) the follow-up explanation of the causes of the issue.
Thanks! this was really helpful for me!
Thanks mate!
Was very useful info!
Regards!
Tirso.
Thanks for the how-to I was having a hell of a time with this until I found your article, now I have it working (until I find a way to break it)
Rick, thank you for the instructions. They are the most clear and concise I have found.
Cheers!
thanks, you saved my life
and saved my ubuntu’s life from format :-)
Okay – Rick – MANY thanks for what you have posted here – I am one of those still going out of my mind trying to get it all working – I have 12.10 amd64 Ubuntu – just upgraded from 12.04) – I am STILL having problems though – and have to reinstall/tweak the nvidia stuff again and again – one thing is ”fixed” then another is ”broken” – for some reason the main issues now seem to be error messages that come up in the booting up ubuntu screen, ugly font/resolution stuff and when I am finally logged in I have issues with things like skype 4.1 and various other apps crashing – most apps work – but some don’t – it somehow fits with me using twin head (internal monitor on my Toshiba A660 laptop) and large samsung external monitor) and 3D cube desktop – I even managed to get the nivida splash screen displaying properly for a while – but now its broken again – and apparently the fixplymouth script can only be run once and my built in primary monitor in the laptop is 1366×968 and I think I set it when I ran that once but at 24 bit – and maybe for boot up I should have kept it at 8 – maybe its all too much of a mess and you won’t be able to help me at all now :)
Worked like a charm. Thank you very much, sir.
You are a lifesaver. I’m new to linux and I have spent the last 4 days trying different fixes for the nvidia drivers. I have had to completely reinstall ubuntu 4 or 5 times because everything I tried just wouldn’t work at all. This is the first thing I’ve done that has gotten my system to work, thank you very much. I was about to give up on linux, but I’m glad I found this site.
Thanks for the great port. I followed your commands exactly except I logined in Ubuntu 12.10
once and logged out immediately on a fresh install. My problem is not solved. I still don’t have the GUI and graphics is at low resolution. It looks like the system is still working, just no GUI. Could it be because I logined once? Does that matter?
That should – theoretically – not matter, provided you didn’t run any commands. Try
sudo apt-get install nvidia-currentand see if that helps, provided you have run all of the above? It should uninstall nvidia-current-updates and install nvidia-current instead.
(The difference between nvidia-current and nvidia-current-updates is fairly minimal.)
Thankyou so much!
Hi, I stumbled upon your blog while searching for somthing else bus I do have the same problem with my ACER with 7000m NVIDIA graphics. I tried the instructions on Ubuntu-Gnome 13.04 beta. This release leaves the correct headers in place (3.8.0-14 by the way). After installation of the 304 driver the screen looks as it should.BUT: no ALT-F1! No login prompt on any of the tty’s Login in X works fine but after logout: black screen. Poweroff is te only way out. I’m going to try 12.10 now…
OK. Same test with 12.10. Not the same results. X looks OK now. I can log out and back in again. Still NO tty’s under CTRL-ALT-Fx. I think I go to Linux MINT 14. It just all works there after installing the 304 driver. Pity. I rather would have stayed with Ubuntu but as you said already, Canonical has f**ked the 12.10 release and is on its way to do the same to 13.04.
Hey Rick,
Came across you post tonight, can you guess what I have been dealing with for the last 20 hours?
Also, to add more to the disfunction, the version of 12.04 that Ubuntu hosts now is actually 12.04.2, which includes backports of some quantal graphics stuff. I think that even downgrading back to 12.04.2 isn’t enough to fix everything.
Hello Rick
Ive been seaching the web for days on end trying to find information on how to install graphics drivers for my Acer Aspire 5742G using an NVIDIA GT520M graphics card. ive read many blogs inc yours on this subject and for everything i do (using different methods) the result is the same ie a decreased resolution of 640×800 that cannot be changed. i am currently using ubuntu 12.10. pliz help me,
After the last nvidia-xconfig I got the following message:
WARNING: Unable to locate/open X configuration file.
New X configuration file written to ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf’
Any idea why?
Maybe because it is not there yet (no sarcasm intended)?
I am far from a linux expert; but it could well be that that is why a new X configuration file is written to ‘/etc/X11/xorg.conf’
This is my impression too – that the warning is normal because the configuration file didn’t previously exist.
Thank you so much for this! This solved my issues quickly.
My Qosmio X505-894 has Ubuntu 12.10 on it (new linux user) and im trying to have fun with it but i have a Nvidia GTX 460m on it and i keep getting
[ 908.353631] kernel panic – not syncing: fatal exception in interrupt
i followed the directions up top to a T and it is still having alot of problems… i also know that Ubuntu is not stable, i am aware.
Wiz
I did everything that this post told me to do and it all worked perfictly but everything was so big that all i could see was the center of the desk top and had to uninstall the nvidia drivers so i could use my computer can anyone please help
This worked to restore my video on my Asus EB1503, but the big question is, how to PREVENT the Ubuntu software update from reinstalling the crappy Nouveau drivers every time I try to update the OS?
Thanks, you just save me a lot of time :)
As a new user I would never find this out on my own.
I seem to have the seem problem as venik212, any solutions to this ?
I had to revert to the old setup. I also tried downloading the source from nvidia, (and following their description) but always the results are the same.
I did this on ubuntu 12.10 with nvidia geforce 8600 GT, it worked for the most part, providing linux still works, but the nvidia symbol flashes, then boots to ubuntu whenever i boot, that and skype makes it go crazy… Do i need to run the install for my drivers now? or was this supposed to do it for me?
Thank you so much! This was the bright light at the end of a long debug trail for me. It is surprising how 12.10 got shipped with these issues.
What a GREAT article. Although I read it a week too late. I have a System 76 with nvidia 560. I upgraded my nvidia driver to 310.44 from 304.xx and it was working fine until a couple of days later when a large system updater updated my system and crashed the machine so bad I couldn’t even get into a safe mode. So I finally did a liveusb install and got it up and running, then restored my home file, then it crashed again. After two more fresh installs, I finally have it up and running, but now I’m afraid to do any nvidia driver installs.
Will this ‘fix’ work on 12.10 with a nvidia 560 graphics card? As I would like to get this card back into production…
Thanks again for the GREAT tutorial!!
Hi, am facing trouble with this configuration,
I have got my screen resolution set to 640×480 and try all the previous solutions and comments, and still can’t solve the problem….
My ASUS N55S Laptop has the following VGA specs:
Nvidia Geforce GT 635M
What shall i do ?
having same problem, at least 1024×768 was something…
also screen resolution set to 640×480)C:at least 1024×768 was something thanks a lot Rick(C;
terrors for just trying to get a resolution of 1920×1080, liking Ubuntu but…
Thanks again for the GREAT tutoria
I would like to thank you too. You`re great!
And what is the most important your tutorial is up to date with ubuntu 13.04!
THANKS MAN!!!
[...] How To Install Nvidia Drivers In Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal [...]
[...] The following was the latest example I followed, http://falkvinge.net/2013/02/15/how-to-install-nvidia-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10-quantal/ [...]
I am currently on Ubuntu 12.10 and have tried and FAILED to install a graphics card to run a dual screen. I am currently running the following graphics card, Intel Mobile Series 4. The machine is a Dell. It’s also a 32 bit machine.
I have tried everything to get nvidia (or any other graphics card AMD) on this machine, but to no avail.
Everytime I follow some of the advice, unity shuts down and turns the computer into a brick – and I have to re-install Ubuntu about 10 times now from scratch.
I followed your latest tutorial on this, http://falkvinge.net/2013/02/15/how-to-install-nvidia-drivers-in-ubuntu-12-10-quantal/
Following your instructions to the letter…
This part is fine
| sudo su
| apt-get update
| apt-get install linux-headers-generic
| apt-get dist-upgrade
| reboot
The part where it goes wrong…
| sudo su
| apt-get install nvidia-current-updates
| nvidia-xconfig
| reboot
Once this has been done and I reboot, there is just a brick – no unity just login into truncated home screen with black colouring at the side.
Is there a potential conflict between Intel grpahics cards and nvidia drives. I also must strees that the method set out by your good self is for 64-bit machine, I am running a 32-bit.
Again any help would be gratefully accepted.
Thanks for the notes. Unfortunately I get a black screen after the final reboot 2 days on this now I think my laptop is going out a windows soon or windows will creep on it…. Nah I will get it working!! lol
Thanks very much for your instructions. I installed Ubuntu 12.10 alongside Windows 7 (64 bits). Problem is that when I go to “System Settings”, my graphics says: Unknown.
I thought it’s a driver problem, followed all of the instructions in this post but the problem remains. Graphics: Unknown.
Any suggestions as to what can be done about this?
Thanks
Thanks for your post… and the additional notes. I learn so much about it.
I try follow the steeps with Ubuntu 13.04 x64 (nVidia Gforce 6800XT) and FAIL … when do the last reboot steel starting and can do more.
I can’t use the console… then once again I’m reinstall. Then try the other graphic option in this post:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/285074/is-it-safe-to-install-the-nvidia-drivers-in-ubuntu-13-04
But I obtain exactly the same issue. Now I’m reinstalling and will be use nouveau drivers… because with nVidia is impossible.
Thanks!
I found the way to add 1280×1024 resolution using Nouveau. I’m add the link i can Help others:
http://samuelmartin.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/enabling-resolutions-in-ubuntu-12-04-lubuntu-12-04/