Nvidia/Ubuntu Compatiblity problems

Question

I run a multi boot machine with XP, Windows 7 and ubuntu. Occasionaly ubuntu looses its marbles and drops the resolution to 640 X 480. I spend a month or two running on windows then ubuntu finds its marbles again and mysteriously resets the resolution back to normal...really flakey.

I have recently upgraded to 12.04 from 11.10, and am experiencing annoying drop outs to the login screen when on youtube. I have noticed a few ubuntu users experiencing the same issue. I tried the solution that has helped many. Ex. upgraded nVIDIA driver to 295.53, but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Has anybody found a solution other than upgrading the nvidia driver ?

System Specs = Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT, AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ × 2

It appears to be a nvidia/ubuntu compatibility problem, because XP and windows7 are not affected

Any advice would be enormously appreciated.....Thanks

Answer 1

Install the x-swat repository to install the current nvidia driver 304.43 and that will solve the problem.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

I found these instructions somewhere in this forum but I can't find it. I'm very happy with the person that posted them.