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I hope somebody can help

I have installed Ubuntu 64bit 19.10. I have an old NVIDIA video card, 9300GS, I want to install the drivers in Ubuntu

I went to Additional Drivers and switched the driver from nouveau to NVIDIA (driver version 340). When I restarted, the GUI wouldn't load, it just gave an off-blank screen

I went to the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F1) and with help from the internet, i run: sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*

But GUI wouldn't load until I run: 'sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop` (running this made it switch back to the nouveau drivers, and i guess re-installed the GUI, but then I was back where I started):

I am guessing my card doesn't like v340, however, when I run ubuntu-drivers devices, its the only version it recommends.

I repeated the process for v331 (just kinda stabbing in the dark, same thing, but this time i get a blinking underscore, a forced login screen (despite having auto-login turned on), mouse freezes, I guess OS freezes because I cannot tty now (Ctrl +Alt+F1), and have to go into recovery mode to undo everything ). What is the magic sauce here? I know its possible because i had it running on Ubuntu 12.04; NVIDIA-240 gave a blank login on that machine, but I played around with installing NVIDIA-173 and running NVIDIA-204-updates and got it working. it was so long ago I don't remember what i did.

I have read other threads and they mostly resort to purging the drivers and trying again. Others refer to an older installs where workarounds no longer work due to version changes and files not being there. I really want to understand and learn how to remedy this.

Any help appreciated (not good at Linux, so be patient with me with regards to syntax and lingo, thank you!)

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  • Related answer: askubuntu.com/a/1225715/968501
    – Raffa
    Apr 22, 2020 at 0:39
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    When purging NVIDIA drivers like so sudo apt purge nvidia-* make sure to run sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall after it and before you reboot or otherwise no driver whatsoever will replace the purged one and your system might not be able to reboot into GUI again.
    – Raffa
    Apr 22, 2020 at 0:43
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    According to NVIDIA's site, the driver for your card is 304. nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/107863/en-us Which, btw, setting up the graphics-drivers PPA actually supports that driver version: launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
    – Terrance
    Apr 22, 2020 at 1:18
  • @Raffa I detailed that I have tried pretty much that whole thread in my OP. The last part comes down to randomly trying versions and seeing it if works. I mentioned I tried this but there must be an easier way to do this. Thanks for tip on "sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall", i have been reinstalling ubuntu-desktop as i detailed in my OP to get around it.
    – Ginko
    Apr 22, 2020 at 6:06
  • @terrance - im not sure what a ppa is, or what that means, i detailed in my OP that my linux lingo wasnt great. i will read up on it though if it will solve the issue. May i ask how you found 304 linking to my card on the nvidia website? i couldnt find how to access that information. If I select 9 series, i get a different version, which didnt work. thank you
    – Ginko
    Apr 22, 2020 at 6:08

2 Answers 2

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I wiped the hard drive and installed 18.04 LTS

I followed the below steps, and it worked right out of the box. I'm not sure what is up with 19.10, but it just would not install these nvidia drivers right at all. Crashed on start up and gave a login screen despite having login turned off.

Activites > Additional Drivers > Check Nvidia 340, > Apply Changes > Reboot

Done!

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    Glad it worked for you! +1 =)
    – Terrance
    Apr 24, 2020 at 15:37
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Using NVIDIA's Advanced Driver Search https://www.nvidia.com/Download/Find.aspx your card actually shows that you can use either the 340 or 304 driver. I do recommend that you use the Graphics-Drivers PPA for setting up the driver instead of downloading the driver from NVIDIA. The PPA driver is usually tested for install into Ubuntu before it is posted in the PPA.

Note: Apparently, the 304 driver no longer works. Try to go with the 340 driver but installed from the PPA.

To setup the PPA, open a terminal window by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. Make sure that any other NVIDIA driver has been removed sudo apt remove --autoremove nvidia-* or sudo apt purge nvidia-* then type in the following to setup the PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Then to install your driver

sudo apt-get install nvidia-340

Or you should be able to use the Additional Drivers of the Software and Updates, or run the ubuntu-drivers autoinstall. After the driver is installed, reboot the system so that the driver activates in the kernel.

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    The 304 driver does not work any more bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-304/… I have an old laptop with an 8300 Nvidia card and it sounds like you are experiencing the same problems I had. I had to patch and compile the drivers, but even that does not work with newer kernels. I don't know if 340 will work for you or not. More information here askubuntu.com/a/1080709/243321
    – Organic Marble
    Apr 22, 2020 at 16:54
  • @OrganicMarble That is good to know. I'll have to update the answer here. =)
    – Terrance
    Apr 22, 2020 at 16:57
  • I tried this just now but unfortunately it does not work. I added the PPA, installed sudo apt-get install nvidia-340 (nvidia-driver-340 wasnt recognized), and I get hung up on a login screen. Cannot get into terminal, have to go back into recovery mode to purge the drivers. I had this working on 12.04 32bit, i didnt really want to downgrade that far, i was hoping i could get this up and running the latest version.
    – Ginko
    Apr 23, 2020 at 7:15
  • @Ginko Try just the nvidia-340 as the name. You can also try nvidia-304 as well. I just checked the repo and those are the names of the drivers. All the newer drivers in that repo start with nvidia-driver-. You might also look into using a lighter version of Ubuntu since your hardware is getting older like Xubuntu or Lubuntu.
    – Terrance
    Apr 23, 2020 at 13:50
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    @Ginko It is possible that it is. Support for 19.10 will be ending shortly anyway. Glad it is working for you! =)
    – Terrance
    Apr 24, 2020 at 15:35

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