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Well obviously I can do it manually, I was just wondering why aren't these drivers available through "Additional Drivers", and why are the versions available there outdated.

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2 Answers

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Packages in the X Ubuntu Updates team PPA are packed by the Ubuntu team, they are as close as you are going to get in to a updated version for your Nvidia drivers.

Upon a Ubuntu release packages are frozen in time only to be updated in case of major problems and bugs. Adding this PPA will update your drivers to the latest versions using packages packed by the Ubuntu team.

Drivers in the Additional Tool will never be updated to higher versions unless there is a very big issue with them. You need to either add the PPA or update manually.

If you already have the drivers installed in your system via the Additional Drivers tool

Add the X Ubuntu Updates team PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

Update and upgrade

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

If you did not install any drivers until now

Add the X Ubuntu Updates team PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

Update and install the drivers

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings

Remove the the X Ubuntu Updates team PPA purging the drivers from your system

Install ppa-purge

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge

Purge the X Ubuntu Updates team PPA

sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
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are these official tested releases? – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:25
They are the future non released updates made by the Ubuntu X team, that is the closest you will get. Dont forget upon release the packages are frozen in time only to be updated in case of major problems and bugs. Adding this PPA will update your drivers to the latest versions using packages packed by the Ubuntu team. – Bruno Pereira♦ Feb 15 '12 at 20:29
what is the last step for? – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:35
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I case you want to remove the drivers completely and delete the PPA from your system. – Bruno Pereira♦ Feb 15 '12 at 20:36
Oh I obviously don't need that just yet :D thanks for the answers. – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:39
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up vote 0 down vote

Try looking for a PPA. Basically anything in the repos is tested and generally all works the latest versions take time to come through. Some NVIDIA drivers are also classed as experimental so wouldn't be suitable for a novice end user who might stumble across them in additional drivers to install. So a good way of getting the latest and greatest is by seeing if someone has made a PPA by googling. If not you're back to manual sorry!

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well yes, sounds fair enough. What if I use the ones available from the "Additional Drivers"? Will the performance be notably worse? – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:18
not generally unless new features have been added check the NVIDIA website for that info. In some cases especially if they've been tested by the Ubuntu developers performance may actually be improved over untested ones – Andy Feb 15 '12 at 20:20
And 1 last thing, there are 2 drivers available. The first is "NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version current) [recommended]" and the second is "NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (post-release updates) (version current-updates)". Which one should I use? – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:21
I don't think it really matters if you're going for stability i'd go for the recommended one. Check out the descriptions of each they will tell you the difference, if they don't then install either I wouldn't think it matters too much as they're both from the Ubuntu repos – Andy Feb 15 '12 at 20:28
I'll follow the other answer, though thanks for clarification :) – Shahe Tajiryan Feb 15 '12 at 20:36

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