Linux Mint 7 How to install driver

matthewprince · 17 Jun 2009 at 20:06

Hi,

Just installed Linux Mint 7 and want toinstall my graphics driver. Found the link which is http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/linux_display_ia32_185.18.14_uk.html

I go to the bottom of the page and click download and it doesnt download a file?

How do i install it? Im new to linux

matt

Sash · 17 Jun 2009 at 20:08

You should be able to find it in your Synaptics application I think.

matthewprince · 17 Jun 2009 at 20:12

just looked and it isnt. only one is xserver-xorg-video-nv which says it adds support for geforce cards and it says its already installed

vidda · 17 Jun 2009 at 21:35

Download it and remember where you've saved it. Open a terminal and type init 3, this will bring you down into a text only environment.

Go into the directory you downloaded, for example if you downloaded it to the desktop: cd /home/username/Desktop

Type ./nvidia-driver-number.bin (you might need to chmod 755 this file)

This will bring up a screen and guide you through the steps, you don't want to go onto the internet to search for kernel stuff just let it compile itself.

p.s. You will need to install kernel-headers and/or kernel-devel for this to install.
p.p.s. There might be restricted drivers or something in the synaptics app, but I've never used linux mint

Minto · 18 Jun 2009 at 01:47

Mint should already have installed the appropriate driver for you as far as I know.

Bob Wya Jnr · 19 Jun 2009 at 10:09

matthewprince said:
Hi,

Just installed Linux Mint 7 and want toinstall my graphics driver. Found the link which is http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/linux_display_ia32_185.18.14_uk.html

I go to the bottom of the page and click download and it doesnt download a file?

How do i install it? Im new to linux

matt

Hi Matt,

The easiest way to install the latest proprietary Nvidia driver is using the "Envy" package. You can search for this in the Synaptic Package manager. There is only a working GUI front-end for KDE (so installing this on the Gnome desktop will bring a lot of extra KDE guff) but the text front end is practically the same and is pretty idiot proof.

To use the text (core) version just type:

Code:

envyng -t

at the command prompt and enter your (sudo) password.

The script will pull down the latest Nvidia driver version numbers for you to choose which one to install. It usually works great - except in situations like Jaunty + ATI <19xx series cards - where ATI have dropped support for these cards in newer drivers and Jaunty needs the newer drivers to support the X-Server version it ships with (ekk catch-22 or what

).

Bob

Minto · 19 Jun 2009 at 12:44

unless you are pretty comfortable with linux I wouldn't recommend using envy, or any other method for that matter, to install graphics drivers, as it will only cause problems when you come to upgrade.
As long as the default proprietary (restricted) ones are working, and there isn't a specific bug that you experience that is explicitly resolved by the latest drivers, then I'd stick with the default ones from the restricted extras.