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I installed Ubuntu 14.04 on my new PC, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to install the nvidia drivers i need for my graphics card. I've tried going to searching for my driver in the additional driver section but nothing comes up and I don't know were to go from here.

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In just the past few months there have been some changes to how drivers are handled. In some cases, graphics cards that are handled by native Ubuntu drivers don't appear to the user, but are still active. Only go out of your way to install extra drivers if you are sure your graphics card is not performing as expected.

Here's another tip. If you install STEAM (from your Ubuntu Software Center) it may recommend and direct you to particular drivers for your card which you were not introduced to previously. I suspect that this is an added feature of STEAM to help ensure their games will perform well on your system.

One last thought. You mentioned NEW PC. Depending on how recently your nvidia card/chipset was released, it is possible Linux drivers are not yet available for it. Or you may find them but only at this nvidia page.

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  • The Graphics card itself is pretty old its a GTX 650. I was able to go to the nvidia website and i was able to get the appropriate drivers for linux. Do you know how I could get it to find my driver? Jan 3, 2015 at 0:51
  • I get the impression you are new to Ubuntu. Drivers are not installed by coaxing the operating system to look in a certain place and find them, the way windows has always been. In Ubuntu, and all versions of Linux I've ever used, there's a procedure and that procedure is usually spelled out in detailed instructions that were probably included inside a text file which came in the compressed file you have already downloaded. If you give me the name of the file you downloaded I will see if I can download it and read the instructions for you.
    – gyropyge
    Jan 3, 2015 at 1:16
  • CORRECTION!!!! Using the model number and that nvidia page I found the file in question and downloaded it. The file I downloaded was named "NVIDIA-Linux-x86-340.65.run" I attempted to open it thinking perhaps .run was simply a compression format I had never heard of. Instead it RAN and tried to install that driver on my system directly. Ouch. Fortunately I was able to cancel it. Please try doing exactly what I did and see if it installs properly.
    – gyropyge
    Jan 3, 2015 at 1:21
  • I will try that and I really appreciate your help. Jan 3, 2015 at 1:53
  • When i run the file i get this error message. There was a problem opening the file “/home/matt/Desktop/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.65.run”.The file you opened has some invalid characters. If you continue editing this file you could corrupt this document. You can also choose another character encoding and try again. Jan 3, 2015 at 3:32

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