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I have an acer with a Gforce graphics card. I installed ubuntu 11.10 and it was working properly until I installed Nvidia drivers via additional drivers, I hit "nvidia-xconfig" in terminal and then reboot.

At startup lightdm fails to start. I changed /etc/X11/xorg.conf file back to default and reboot. It works properly, but with the default Ubuntu driver.

I want to reconfigure Nvidia and use it. Can anyone tell me what should I do?

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  • does it have nvidia optimus enabled (duel graphics card) ?
    – Web-E
    Apr 9, 2012 at 7:39
  • yes, it has duel graphics card
    – dariush
    Apr 9, 2012 at 19:10

1 Answer 1

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That was a mistake to install nvidia drivers on a optimus enabled system.It won't work. First you need to uninstall existing nvidia driver.

  1. Uninstall nvidia, run following in terminal

    sudo nvidia-uninstall

  2. Reinstall the Mesa package for GL:

    sudo apt-get --reinstall install libgl1-mesa-glx

  3. When done, reboot with:

    sudo reboot

To turnoff nvidia graphics card and use it only when required install The Bumblebee:

Add the Stable Bumblebee Releases PPA and install Bumblebee using the proprietary NVIDIA driver:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia

If you have 32-bit applications like Wine, and run 11.10 Oneiric or later, you will need extra libraries:

sudo apt-get install virtualgl-libs:i386

Allow yourself to use Bumblebee by adding yourself to the 'bumblebee' group. (replace $USER by your username)

sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER

Reboot or re-login to apply the group changes

If you'd like to run a program on the nvidia card now, use the optirun program:

optirun firefox &

To test whether it is working, install mesa-utilities by executing sudo apt-get install mesa-utils

  • Run glxgears, wait for sometimes, you will get frame rate every 5 second and it will be like 50-60 fps. It means it is using intel card.

  • run optirun glxgears and see the framerates. It will be much higher indicating nvidia card is working.

  • Also you can run webgl tests with browsers.

Read more from bumblebee wiki

Linked Question:

Is a NVIDIA GeForce with Optimus Technology supported by Ubuntu?

How well will Nvidia Optimus cards be supported in 12.04?

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  • Tnx , I do that. But, how can I see that a program runs on the nvidia card?
    – dariush
    Apr 10, 2012 at 9:11
  • I love you man!! I couldn't resolve this issue since... 10 years at least. :DD Ok not so much but really. I install linux. I can see my nvidia driver. I install updates and it disappears. :S Couldn't get it back EVER. I STILL can't see the driver but I noticed that it uses it. Stuff like video isn't tearing any more. Desktop looks cleaner.. I LOVE YOU!! THANKS!!!!!
    – Hannibal
    Apr 10, 2012 at 20:10
  • @dariush answer updated.
    – Web-E
    Apr 11, 2012 at 4:07

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