Installing Nvidia proprietary driver 343 on Ubuntu (Unity)/Linux Mint (Cinnamon) x64
 

Hey guys. So I just went out and bought a Sager 8268-s (clevo p150sm-a) With an i7 4910mq and a Nvidia 980m gt. As I am a computer tech by trade, every time i see Windows i get horrible PTSD so i decided to try Linux instead. After many hours of trying to get a dual boot working finally got Linux Mint 17 Cinnamon installed on my computer, but when I went to install the Nvidia driver it landed me in fallback mode which I could not escape. So then I tried Ubuntu 14.04 LTS thinking maybe Mint was incompatible with the driver and the same thing happened.

So here is my method:

(sorry i don't know how to make a code box :/ )

First I log in to get root access:

$ su

Then I Update the xorg:

$ sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

Then update my system:

$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then i go into Virtual terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and disable the display manager:

$ sudo service mdm (or lightdm for Ubuntu) stop

Then i install the drivers which i have done multiple ways:

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

or

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-343 nvidia-settings

or by downloading the driver from Nvidia (first designating the file as executable)

$ sudo sh nvidia.run && sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

Then after install, I create the config file:

$ sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then I reboot. After I get the low res mode in Ubuntu or fallback mode in Mint and Driver manager doesn't detect any proprietary drivers and I have to reinstall to get the OS working again. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

In Ubuntu 14.04, there is an option under System Settings, Software and Updates, Additional drivers. Just open that and let it run and you should see several options for drivers and then select an option to install. Should be something similar in Mint but I don't use Cinnamon.

No dice. It just says no additional drivers available.

I actually have a similar setup at home. I haven't really solved it yet, but maybe this can point you in the right direction. The 980m is actually integrated with intel's onboard graphics. You'll need to use bumblebee to successfully install the drivers.

For me either the drivers for bumblebee aren't compatible or I haven't found a way to config the system to accepting those drivers. Bumblebee hasn't been updated for sometime now.

Hopefully this helps you somewhat.. I'm stumbled atm

I have used the Linux Mint driver management successfully to install nvidia drivers a couple of times already.
Some thoughts:

If it says no drivers available maybe (and I am only guessing) that's because you already installed stuff on your own.
Can you get rid of all the nvidia stuff you installed manually, get x running again with nouveau and try the driver management again?
Note you might also have to get rid of the xorg configuration files that the nvidia installer created, blacklist nvidia kernel modules and remove nouveau kernel modules from the black list to get back to the previous state.

Worst case, if you have not put too much effort in the current install already, consider doing a clean reinstall and trying the driver management from there. If you are reluctant to wipe your current install, you could also create another partition and install another copy there just for testing purposes.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...9&t=190901&e=0

I've made a post that similar to this issue.

Click the pound symbol in the toolbar above the text box where you write your post.
It'll create code tags between which you can write the code like shown in the attached screenshot.

Going to the Additional Drivers option in Ubuntu/Mint, it always says that in the window. Waiting, sometimes for several minutes, it will eventually come up with some options so I'm not sure if you didn't wait long enough or your graphic hardware might be too new to have drivers or it might be some other problem.,

Perhaps have a look on NVIDIA's website and see whether your hardware is supported by the drivers in Ubuntu/Mint. It may be that you need to install using the binary installer from NVIDIA instead -- that is a little fiddly but once you get used to it it's not too bad.

I don't think you need bumblebee for Optimus based systems anymore. The nVidia linux driver has had a (mostly) working Optimus support for almost two years.

I don't know I can agree to that - I really think it depends on the hardware. I own a Laptop with an nvidia card and I never managed to install the drivers manually while the Mint installer did it without any problems.
I am not claiming to be an expert, but I typically manage to get things working if I try hard enough. This is one of the (very) few things I gave up on.

It is quite possible that, for whatever reason, you found a difficult combination of distribution and hardware. I do recall that the Ubuntu way of handling drivers makes it a little more tricky to do it manually as the automation gets in the way. However, it should really be as simple as stopping X, installing the relevant kernel headers and make tools, uninstaling and blacklisting nouveau if required, running the .run as root and rebooting.

I tried that on crunchbang which is basically debian. The nvidia installer went through smoothly, all the kernel module stuff was no problem. But I never managed to get X running after that. I fiddeled around with xorg config options for a day or so and finally gave up. The only reason I wanted to get the nvidia drivers working to begin with was the hdmi port, which does not work under nouveau.
So I tried it under a Mint install on another partition, found that the quality wasn't any better on the hdmi output compared to the vga output and left it at that. If there is no benefit in using the driver from a feature stand point I figured I might as well stick with the open source solution, which feels cleaner anyways...

I guess we are getting a bit off topic. Long story short, the point I was trying to make is that if you are using Mint / Ubuntu the most trouble-free approach probably is the gui tool provided with the distro...

Just to be clear, the driver installed using the GUI tool is the proprietary driver and not the free one. I've not used the free driver for a long time because when I last did some programs wouldn't even run under it and OpenGL performance was pathetic. There has also been the on and off possibility of things like having the fan at 100 always and similar with the free drivers.
Of course using the disatribution's own tools is almost always easier when installing anything. But, and it's a big but, as I mentioned in a previous post: sometimes the packaged driver is too old for the hardware. I've had that problem myself, hence my experience in installing using the binary direct from NVIDIA.
I mention all this because, as far as I am aware, the 9xx series cards are a new release so they may not be supported by older drivers. If I'm wrong on that that's fair enough.

My card is a GeForce GT 650M, so not exactly bleeding edge hardware. (The laptop is from 2012) Anyway, it runs flawlessly with nouveau, except for the hdmi part. I have to say through that I am not running any applications that are demanding on graphics. So I am not a good reference in that respect.
Which by the way is also the reason why this was the last pc I purchased with an nvidia graphics card. Intel graphics -> much less trouble...