This answer was written because I felt a more centralized solution to several problems related to Nvidia, Intel & Ati video cards could be addressed in one place, saving readers from searching in several questions for an answer. I will try to concentrate most questions/answers I have provided over the past year here, although not all solutions will be found here so please use the Askubuntu Search option.
To simplify this I will focus on Nvidia cards only.
For ATI/AMD cards, please go to What is the correct way to install ATI Catalyst Video Drivers (fglrx)?
This information has been tested in 11.04, 11.10, 12.04, 12.10 & 13.04. They should work in many laptops and desktops.
I have divided this in several sections that try to address some concerns that we end users have when using this video cards. They will cover some of the problems related to Nvidia video cards but remember to use the SEARCH option in Askubuntu for other problems not mentioned here.
The questions are in this order:
- 1. Can I use the latest driver on an older version of Ubuntu?
- 2. Difference between video cards & drivers: Official site, Ubuntu's Default, PPA?
- 3. What PPAs are recommended when using any video card?
- 4. How to know which driver or package to install?
- 5. How to install a driver?
- 6. Difference between Proprietary Drivers?
- 7. What common bugs are solved by using the latest drivers?
- 8. How to know if my video card is supported in Ubuntu?
- 9. My video card is not installing (Installation problems)
- 10. Tuning and Tweaking by Video card
Top questions asked about video cards:
1. Can I use the latest driver on an older version of Ubuntu?
Ubuntu 11.04 / Ubuntu 11.10
In 11.04 and 11.10, the latest video cards will not work properly using the default drivers. If the video card appeared several months after the release of Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10, the default drivers will probably not have support. It might be necessary to do an upgrade/update of the system or even add a PPA that gives support for current and future video cards for this versions of Ubuntu.
For example, in the case of the GTX 560, it gained support with the Nvidia 275.xx versions. Since Ubuntu 11.04 came with support for the 270.xx series, your Nvidia card will not be detected or at least not work correctly (Not fully work). Your only solution is to use the one from the Nvidia Site (Not recommended) or to use one of the Nvidia PPAs maintained for Ubuntu (The PPAs that offer Nvidia, Ati and Intel updated packages are the x-swat and xorg-edgers PPA). This applies to 11.04. For 11.10+ it works correctly (Except in some situations provided below) since the 275.xx drivers had already appeared by then.
Ubuntu 12.04+
In Ubuntu 12.04+ there was a change in the way video drivers (And in general any proprietary driver) was used, maintained and updated. So starting with this version it is much easier to handle and solve many of the problems that we faced with older versions. You will find an updated repository that comes by default and covers most recent video cards. It also updates faster compared to past Ubuntu versions. So most likely you will not need any additional PPA unless you have the latest and greatest of the video cards (OnBoard, OnCPU or on a AGP,PCI,PCI-Ex Slot)
2. Difference between video cards & drivers: Official site, Ubuntu's Default, PPA
I recommend them in the following order according to problems found, how the "out of the box" experience feels to end users, how compatible they are and how it will feel once you have it set up:
Intel - Works out of the box. Most will work with no problems. Great for using a Video Beam. Just plug it in. The benefits relate to how fast the Intel video card is. In general you should not have any problems with them.
NVIDIA - Great Performance. It works out of the box by using Nouveau and if you follow the easy to install proprietary drivers it will run perfect. Has little problems that can be quickly solved if you happen to have some of the cards that have minor details (Which can also be solved if you update to a more recent driver version or Ubuntu version). Most cards work excellent with Unity. I have tested cards from a Geforce 4600 TI 128MB up to a 680 GTX.
ATI - Similar performance as Nvidia. Works out of the box but has a bit more issues than Nvidia. If you install the proprietary drivers you will get a good jump in performance but again, this are not generally as good as Nvidia. My curiosity lies in that ATI is more open to the open source environment than Nvidia and yet has a bit more problems with video. This has started to change and ATI has gained an overall better performance.
This applies even more to laptops. So if I had 3 laptops to choose from and they all were the same except for the video card, I would definitely choose Intel over Nvidia, and Nvidia over Ati.
In the case of 3 Desktop PCs I would choose Nvidia over Intel and Intel over Ati.
In general, Ubuntu will work without problems or at least with a minimum of tweaking. The performance gain in the past months for all 3 and the amount of fixes they have received just lets us know that there will be fewer problems for each new version of Ubuntu.
There are several points I wish to address here. As I mentioned before, there are at least 3 ways to install a driver. You can either download the driver from the Official site, use the one that comes with Ubuntu by default (Either open source or proprietary) or add a PPA and use the one that comes with it (There are more ways but I will not cover compiling drivers).
For Intel you either use the drivers that come with Ubuntu (Which can be updated every time you update the system) or add a PPA that will offer the latest version of the Intel Drivers. This can solve issues when using Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge or any other newer or older Intel graphics cards. More about installing the PPA later.
For Nvidia and Ati/AMD, you have 3 options, you can either use the driver that comes from the Official site, use the one that comes in a PPA or use the one that comes by default with Ubuntu (In the form of the Open Source one or the Proprietary one).
The differences can be summed in the following points:
-- Official Site --
- Offers the latest driver
- Installation is through the terminal
- When an update appears you have to manually download the new package
- It has more issues than any other method (Specially for Nvidia)
- It is the 2nd recommended way for Ati/AMD and the last one for Nvidia
- Drivers for Ati/AMD are much better than the ones that come by default
-- PPA Repositories --
- Offers the latest driver hours/days after it's official release
- Installation is either through terminal or GUI
- If you have a previously installed driver it will update the package automatically
- When an update appears you will be notified to update using the Update Manager
- It is more stable and tested than the official ones
- It has less issues than using any other method (Less issues for all video cards)
- It is the 1st recommended way for Ati/AMD and Nvidia. Intel drivers that come by default are excellent.
-- Default Ubuntu Drivers --
- For every new release the drivers get better and better (Specially for Intel)
- Gets updated less frequently than a PPA
- In most cases the drivers will work out of the box (Nouveau for Nvidia)
- Not up to date when compared with the official site or a PPA
- More stable for Intel
- Development is going well for all video cards.
- It is by far, more tested in Ubuntu than any other way (PPA or Official)
- Easier to update
3. What PPAs are recommended when using any video card?
The best PPAs for video cards in Ubuntu are:
Ubuntu X Swat - It offers a more updated version of the video card drivers in general and takes normally between 2 to 10 days for a new version to arrive once it appears on the official site. It is more tested and stable than the Xorg-Edgers version.
Xorg Edgers - The name implies that it is bleeding edge but don't let that fool you. Since 12.04 it has progressively become more and more stable. When using 12.10 (Or even the 13.04 Beta) for cases like Intel and Nvidia, the video card runs much better and offers better performance. It updates more quickly than X-Swat with a time frame between 1 to 5 days (The last versions have all come out on the same day as the official one).
To install any of this simply run the add-apt-repository command in the terminal as shown:
X-Swat
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
This would add the x-swat PPA to your system.
sudo apt-get update
This would update the system and make sure your system knows of the packages provided by the added PPA.
sudo apt-get upgrade
This would update the system taking into consideration any packages the PPA offers.
Xorg Edgers
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
This would add the Xorg Edgers PPA to your system.
sudo apt-get update
This would update the system and make sure your system knows of the packages provided by the added PPA.
sudo apt-get upgrade
This would update the system taking into consideration any packages the PPA offers.
NOTE - Never install both, they might/will give you problems since both try to install similar packages. Either choose X-Swat of Xorg-Edgers, BUT NOT BOTH.
4. How to know which driver or package to install?
Depending on how many video cards you have and if they are integrated or not, the installation method and packages to install will change.
COMPUTERS WITH A SINGLE VIDEO CARD
Nvidia right now has several package versions for different generations of Nvidia cards:
Nvidia 1xx - For older Nvidia Cards ranging from Geforce MX up to the 9xxx series.
Nvidia 2xx - For older Nvidia Cards ranging from Geforce MX up to the 9xxx series.
Nvidia 3xx - For newer ones. Goes from the Geforce 6xxx series up to the latest ones. Note, for the Geforce 600 series, you actually need the 313 or 319 series because of better support, HDMI enhancements and more. I recommend the 319.
If you are using an older Ubuntu version you might see Nvidia package version like 185.xx, 275.xx and others. With the latest Ubuntu versions, this gets a bit of cleaning up and simplifies the amount of packages.
COMPUTERS WITH A SLI SETUP
Now if you have 2 or more video cards in SLI mode you can do the following:
For NVidia cards, when creating the Xorg.conf add the following to the line:
sudo nvidia-xconfig --sli=On
COMPUTERS WITH A TWO VIDEO CARDS IN HYBRID MODE
In case you have for example, a laptop that has 2 video cards integrated. One Intel and the other Nvidia, using the methods provided by the other settings is not recommended. At least for any video drive lower than 319.17 (Which is the version that comes with Hybrid support). You would need to follow the install procedure for Bumblebee (Optimus) packages which were made for Hybrid scenarios like this, where the user has 2 video cards from 2 different companies and where one video card is typically used for lower power usage and the other for gaming.
Lastly, Ubuntu has a neat way of recommending which driver to use depending on your video card and drivers available (This is why I also recommend adding the PPAs first). Simply type:
ubuntu-drivers devices
It should show you a list of driver packages available for your hardware, including but not limited to the video card. If you wish to see which driver is recommended for your video card then simply type the following:
ubuntu-drivers devices | grep recommended
For example, in my case, since I have an Nvidia 560 ti I got the following:
cyrex@cyrex:~$ ubuntu-drivers devices
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
model : GF114 [GeForce GTX 560 Ti]
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001200sv000019DAsd00002227bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
driver : nvidia-313 - third-party free
driver : nvidia-313-updates - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-310-updates - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-310 - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin
driver : nvidia-304 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-304-updates - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-319 - third-party free recommended
cyrex@cyrex:~$ ubuntu-drivers devices|grep recommended
driver : nvidia-319 - third-party free recommended
This way I know I need to install the nvidia-319 package.
5. How to install a driver?
The method used will be depend on how many video cards you have and which type of video cards you are using. The following are some of the ways of installing an Nvidia video card:
NVIDIA (Old Drivers that need the headers)
For Nvidia, many times you need to first install the header files of the kernel version you are using at that moment for the driver to install correctly. So you would first need to execute the following line:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
And then install the package related to the driver (nvidia* for Nvidia cardss). In other cases you might need to go a little further and install the sources and specific header files, for example:
sudo apt-get install linux-source linux-headers-3.5.0-16-generic
which installs the linux-source package and the specific header file assuming you have in this case the 3.5.0-16-generic kernel version.
To check which version you have at any given time type uname -r which should give you the specific kernel version in use.
NVIDIA
For Nvidia, it depends on the video card and package needed for it, if the video card is old then most likely you will end up running an Nvidia 1xx driver, like the following line:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-173
(Again, assuming you added the PPA)
or one of the following:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-304
sudo apt-get install nvidia-graphics-drivers-304
If you have one of the latest Nvidia cards (For example an Nvidia 2xx Series and above), then it is recommended to install the latest package which at this moment is:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-313
If you have an Nvidia Geforce 600 Series card or Titan, I highly recommend using the 319 series:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-319
Of course, the newer the version, the more fixes it brings and issues it solves related to graphics corruption, HDMI support, thermal support and more on the latest Nvidia cards. If you are having VGA/HDMI issues where it works in one mode and not in the other, then go with the nvidia-313 or newer to solve this issue. Specially when using TVs.
Note that Fan Control and any other Nvidia features that are not found on the nvidia-settings app, are not Ubuntu related, but Nvidia related. I would recommend, asking the Nvidia developers in the official Nvidia forum about features you may want to include (Fan Control, Overclocking features, etc...)
HYBRID (Intel/Nvidia)
The exception for both here is when you have 2 video cards (Like a laptop with an Intel video card and an Nvidia card). In this cases I would suggest the following links:
NOTE: Before doing the following remember to first remove any installed Nvidia Packages:
sudo apt-get purge nvidia*
sudo nvidia-uninstall
For Bumblebee (NVIDIA Optimus) you can use the following PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee
6. Difference between Proprietary Drivers?
This is more of an Nvidia question, but as I mentioned in Difference between Additional Drivers (Nvidia) there is some information that you should know:
In general there are 3 options:
The Open Source Nouveau which runs by default if no other Proprietary driver is installed.
The Proprietary driver (Tested)
The Proprietary driver (Experimental)
Depending if "you feel lucky punk!" you can go with Nouveau which works well in most cases but it is not recommended if you want to start testing out Windows Games with Wine or Ubuntu games that use extensive OpenGL (Specially now that Steam is available in Ubuntu).
Then you have the Tested Proprietary drivers. This will work stable and give you considerable more FPS for your card than Nouveau.
Lastly you have the Experimental Proprietary drivers. This will work good in most cases (Using them right now and they work perfectly). This drivers bring a considerably higher performance. You should feel the change when playing L4D2 or see it with unity on how fast Dash and other Compiz features react.
Depending on which one you want, you can go with Open Source Nouveau, Proprietary Tested one or the Experimental one. Note only that either of the Proprietary drivers is recommended for the latest Nvidia cards (Series 6000 and above). Nouveau is more general in that regards but will not offer powerful 3D performance.
7. What common bugs are solved by using the latest drivers?
Common bugs shared by all video cards are:
- Missing Unity launcher
- Missing Unity panels
- Desktop does not appear (Black screen)
- Top/Bottom of the screen are cut out
- Video looks cut into pieces
- Higher Resolutions are not usable (Not found)
- Video shows with VGA but not with HDMI (And Vice Versa)
- Suspend not working on Laptop when closing Lid
- Fan speed makes a lot of noise or is always at full speed
- Heat Problems (Specially Nvidia & Ati)
If you happen to have any of this, or similar in some aspects, it is generally a good idea to add one of the PPAs and update your video drivers to the latest they can manage. In almost all cases, the problem is solved after updating and rebooting. For this cases I also recommend using the Xorg Edgers PPA. Of course you also need to know which package to install. If you have an Nvidia Riva TNT, for the love of god, do not install the latest Nvidia 313 package. In that case you would need the oldest one, the nvidia-173 for example.
With the above mentioned, I also invite you to take a look at some of the questions related to video cards:
Which ATI/AMD, or Intel, or NVIDIA Graphics for Unity?
What is the correct way to install ATI Catalyst Video Drivers (fglrx)?
How to correctly enable Desktop Cube in Unity 3D?
Enable HDMI audio for an Nvidia card
How do I enable desktop visual effects?
NVIDIA drivers not working after upgrade. Why can I only see terminal?
Desktop does not show when I installed nvidia drivers!
Black screen on latest Nvidia/Ati Cards when starting LightDM/Ubuntu
HDMI/VGA connection cuts borders of screen or creates blurry text
/etc/X11/xorg.conf doesn't exist?
Now some pointers I want to mention:
For NVIDIA Cards, it also helps to create the xorg.conf file using the nvidia-xconfig command line. Just go in the terminal to type the following and then reboot:
sudo nvidia-xconfig
Reinstalling the driver solves several issues. For example, if you are using the nvidia-313 driver package, then do the following to reinstall it:
sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-313
Reinstalling Xorg also helps in other cases:
Remove existing xorg using the following command
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg
Install xorg using the following command
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg
Reconfigure xorg using the following command
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
After this it is recommended to reinstall the video driver if you are using Nvidia or Ati as mentioned above.
8. How to know if my video card is supported in Ubuntu?
Here are a couple of hints to know if your video card is supported in Ubuntu:
If the video card existed BEFORE the release of the Ubuntu version you are using, it has a 99% change it will be supported.
If the video card appeared less than 6 months AFTER the release of the Ubuntu version you are using and you kept that Ubuntu version updated, then you have a pretty good chance it will be supported.
If you added one of the PPAs I mentioned above then you have a 99.99% chance that it will be supported.
Checking the Nvidia/Ati/Intel site for support might yield a quicker answer, but in almost 100% of all cases, your video card will be support either by the open source driver or by the proprietary driver. In most cases, it will be the proprietary driver.
Using the latest Ubuntu version will also improve your chances of having your latest video card supported.
In general, I make it a rule of thumb that if you have the latest video card or almost one of the latest video cards, you will need the latest drivers (Nvidia and Ati mostly). So always install the latest drivers through the PPA or the Software Sources that come with Ubuntu (Jockey in older versions of Additional Drivers).
NOTE - Ubuntu might show in the Graphics option in "About This Computer" the value Unknown. If this is happening, please install the mesa-utils package.
9. My video card is not installing correctly (Installation problems)
Most installation problems related to Ati or Nvidia can be solved by following the steps provided in Can not install Nvidia driver but in short I can summarize that in the following steps assuming you have one of the following issues:
- Installed the official Nvidia drivers and have a problem updating or removing them
- Screen looks wrong/corrupted
- Unity does not load of fails to load
- Can not access the GUI environment in no way
If you have installed the official Nvidia Drivers, follow all steps below after having started Ubuntu in Recovery Mode. If not, skip to step 2:
If you installed the Nvidia driver from the Nvidia site or the Ati driver from the official AMD site, then type the following on the terminal (In this example assume you have the Ubuntu 64Bit with the 304.51 version of Nvidia):
sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.51.run --unistall
If you have install any nvidia package like nvidia-current or nvidia-current-updates remove them. Same goes with Ati drivers. sudo apt-get remove nvidia-current for example.
ANY change you did to blacklist the Nvidia/Ati driver for instance or changes to any other files related to the Nvidia/Ati drivers should be reversed. This is just in case you went ahead and started editing like crazy (Which happens I know ^^).
Delete or backup/move the xorg.conf file. You will not need this file right now.
After doing all the steps above then Reboot the PC and make sure it loads with Nouveau and not with any Nvidia drivers for Nvidia cases or with ati drivers and not with fglrx for Ati/AMD cases..
If right now you KNOW you are running Unity with the Nouveau driver (Or Ati open source driver) or if you just happened to get a video error, or it just fails to correctly load LightDM, do not worry, all 3 options will end the same way. When rebooting, in the GRUB menu, select the "Recovery Mode". After the recovery mode shows you the recover options, choose the root option or the Failsafe X option. In this modes and after all previous steps have been done, install the nvidia/ati driver using the PPA I mentioned above. Always try to install the latest driver if you have a recent video card: sudo apt-get install nvidia-313 for Nvidia cards or sudo apt-get install fglrx for the latest Ati/AMD Cards. Remember there should not be anything installed before doing this in regards to Nvidia/Ati drivers (Except obviously the Nouveau drivers).
Now reboot and all should work.
NOTE - In Step 6, if it looks as though the PC is stuck loading just press CTRL+ALT+F1 to go to the TTY1 terminal and do step 6 from there.
Tuning and Tweaking my video card
For Nvidia Video Cards follow this steps:
In the terminal type: sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Find the device section and add the following line:
Option "Coolbits" "4"
it should look something like this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Device0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
Option "Coolbits" "4"
EndSection
Now save and reboot. You should now see (Depending on your video card model) a new option about Fan Speed like this:
A brief explanation of CoolBits:
CoolBits enables various unsupported features, such as support for GPU clock manipulation in the NV-CONTROL X extension. This option accepts a bit mask of features to enable. Which means a value of 0, 1, 2 or 4.
CoolBits = 1 - When "1" (Bit 0) is set in the "Coolbits" option value, the nvidia-settings utility will contain a page labeled "Clock Frequencies" through which clock settings can be manipulated. "Coolbits" is only available on GeForce FX and Above.
CoolBits = 2 - When "2" (Bit 1) is set in the "Coolbits" option value, the NVIDIA driver will attempt to initialize SLI when using GPUs with different amounts of video memory.
CoolBits = 4 - When "4" (Bit 2) is set in the "Coolbits" option value, the nvidia-settings Thermal Monitor page will allow configuration of GPU fan speed, on graphics boards with programmable fan capability.
The default for this option is 0 (unsupported features are disabled).
This option can also be activated by issuing the following command when creating the Xorg.conf file or updating it:
nvidia-xconfig --cool-bits=4
WARNING: this may cause system damage and void warranties.
I also want to add that the information for Proprietary drivers are typically saved in the home folder. For example the information saved by nvidia-settings is stored in ~/.nvidia-settings-rc which you can access by typing the following:
nano ~/.nvidia-settings-rc
I mention this because other users also wonder, if the xorg.conf is not used, then how is the settings for Ati or Nvidia working. The reason behind this is that X can now automatically detect and configure many aspects of what xorg.conf had before for many input/output devices, including Video cards. This did not completely happen automatically before, but since around 2010, X can handle many options and detect them without any problems or the need to configure a file for them.
Note that, many of this are still present but divided into more specific files in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/
Now, there are some cases, like specific Nvidia or Ati Models that need the xorg.conf to work correctly because of some variables they need that X detected incorrectly or are needed for the Nvidia/Ati card to work. The automatic detection is very good but still needs some work to cover, for example, the latest video cards.
For example, some video cards do not show the Unity Launcher or top panel unless xorg.conf is present. In other cases, users that want to tweak their video card, may need the Coolbits option which is added to xorg.conf. This are the reasons why nvidia-xconfig exists. To provide an additional level of support in case X does not detect or offer all the options for the video card.
Another trick is to run update-pciids so it updates the PCI Id List. On very rare cases, the ID is not found or detected incorrectly for the video card (Actually any PCI device) so this will help solve any problem related to it.
