I performed a clean install of 14.04LTS 64bit on a brand new Intel 730 SSD. The install went OK, but I was not aware that the Ubuntu Devs decided to install (without any warning) the open source Nouveau video driver instead of the proprietary Nvidia driver (as they have in past LTS releases). Once I realized this, I went to the Software Updates "Additional Drivers" tab to install the Nvidia 331.xx driver for my PNY 750Ti card. The driver search came back totally empty -- no Nvidia drivers listed at all! No message explaining what was going on either, just an empty box. I tried changing the mirror from the main Ubuntu US mirror to the Columbia University, NYC mirror and got the same result. I also tried to install the Nvidia driver via Synaptic Package Manager and on a reboot I could not login because no LighDM login screen appeared. I gave up and went back to 12.04.4 LTS.
I hope the Ubuntu Devs have a good explanation for this new and unwelcome behavior. Is there an way to install 14.04LTS/64 and get the Nvidia driver installed from the beginning? If so, how?