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I am running a fresh installed 32-bit lubuntu on an old desktop machine with Nvidia GeForce FX 5500 graphics card. I have no idea if the graphics card driver is correct or not, how can I get the most out of my graphics card?

user@user-System-Name:~$ sudo lshw -c display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: NV34 [GeForce FX 5500]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm agp agp-3.0 vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=64 maxlatency=1 mingnt=5
       resources: irq:16 memory:dd000000-ddffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:c0000-dffff

I have tried to solve my issue with this answer but I am neither understanding if it fits my situation nor do I have the knowledge to install the proposed package.

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    Nvidia legacy driver 173 is not available in 17.10. The only currently supported Ubuntu release that has it is 14.04. It is supported till April 2019, and if you wish to try it, go with Xubuntu 14.04.1. Other then that, you probably can't do much more with 14 years old hardware. Dec 23, 2017 at 19:31
  • Why then XUbuntu and not Ubuntu 14.04.5 or LUbuntu 14.04.5 which the OP is using?
    – derHugo
    Dec 23, 2017 at 19:35
  • @derHugo Because Ubuntu has Unity which needs better hardware. You'd get a wallpaper with no panels and window borders, or something similar. Also, 14.04.5 has updated xorg and kernel from 16.04, and we don't want that. Dec 23, 2017 at 19:39
  • @mikewhatever Does that necessarily mean that my current driver is not driving the graphics card effectively?
    – Nae
    Dec 26, 2017 at 13:26
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    Well then, you should be happy that it runs 16.04 + Unity - very high end software for something so old. Try different distros, and you'll know what it can and can't do soon enough. Dec 26, 2017 at 16:23

1 Answer 1

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Based on mikehatever's comment:

Nvidia legacy driver 173 is not available in 17.10. The only currently supported Ubuntu release that has it is 14.04. It is supported until April 2019, and if you wish to try it, go with Xubuntu 14.04.1. Other than that, you probably can't do much more with 14 years old hardware.

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