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Every time I download an update for 14.04, I am unable to start Steam. I get an error to the effect of "OpenGL is not using direct rendering".

Up until now, my way around it is to ignore the notifications and just wait for a new proprietary driver for my GTX 970. Once a stable driver is released, I download the Ubuntu update, then manually install the new driver and everything works fine.

(Thankfully, manually installing the proprietary drivers is a snap ever since 346.47. Thank you NVidia!)

Is there another way to do this? Can I just uncheck the OpenGL portions and/or something else when I download the 14.04 updates or will that cause other problems? As of now, I am only doing 14.04 updates every couple of months.

Thanks.

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  • To the close voters: Mate 15.04 is an official Ubuntu version now, so 14.04 is "tolerated"...
    – Fabby
    Jun 2, 2015 at 7:54
  • Since you've been manually installing the Nvidia driver, you need to redo it after every kernel update.
    – mikewhatever
    Jun 6, 2015 at 3:03
  • I know. It's in the answer that I posted below. Not every update will do that however. The last one I installed didn't. Best to try to launch Steam first to see if the reinstall is necessary.
    – Ben Doidge
    Jun 7, 2015 at 19:59

2 Answers 2

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I reinstalled the driver because it was the most expedient way to go about it. The name, "nvidia-346" seems to refer to the names that the repositories give to the drivers. The repositories don't work for the latest proprietary drivers. I'm not sure whether I could enter "NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.72.run" rather than "nvidia-346".

For future reference for anyone who happens to read this, the easiest way to install the latest driver is to download it from the Nvidia site. From there, you hit Ctrl+Alt+F1. Log in, then enter "sudo service lightdm stop". Then "cd ~/Downloads" (or wherever else you put the file). Next the commands are as follows: "sudo chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux--(version, in my case 346.72).run && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux--(version).run". From there it's basically "yes, yes, yes". The uninstall command is "sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-(version).run --uninstall". It worked for me to say "yes" when it asked me to restore the previous xorg configuration and continue to uninstall normally. Next, I entered the same install sequence of commands that I had originally entered and I was good to go. (Apologies for my lack of knowledge of the appropriate ways to post this stuff. This answer is by an idiot, for idiots :) To summarize: Do the update, uninstall the driver, then proceed with the normal installation commands for said driver. Steam will work, everything will be updated, and life will be good. Cheers.

Edit: For some reason, the asterisk isn't appearing in parts of my final post. The name of the file I downloaded is "NVIDIA-Linux-(asterisk)-346.72.run".

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  • Actually, adding the xorg-edgers PPA is the easiest way of installing the latest nvidia drivers... See here
    – Fabby
    Jun 2, 2015 at 7:56
  • So I've heard, but things have changed in three years. I've tried ppas on two distros and 64 and 32 bit (if that matters), and it's always given me several drivers but never the latest. This is both when I've gone from Cntrl+Alt+T or Ctrl+Alt+F1. And I believe it told me to blacklist nouveau or something. There was some other hitch but I don't remember what it was. With every new stable release, using the method I used has become easier. Five commands. There was one gcc+ package that I had to find for the 32 bit. I got that on the first google. I think that post is outdated at this point.
    – Ben Doidge
    Jun 2, 2015 at 16:33
  • I'm still using it and the xorg-edgers guys keep it pretty well updated, so IMHO, the answer is still valid... (And I don't have to go and look for newer versions all the time!) ;-)
    – Fabby
    Jun 2, 2015 at 17:37
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I think it because of new kernel is coming with updates and some nvidia kernel modules are missing. Try to reconfigure nvidia driver after update, for example

sudo dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-346

Where "nvidia-346" name of driver package. If it not help just try to reinstall your current driver via "sudo dpkg -i nvidia-346.deb" (from folder with driver package if you downloaded it from external resource) or "sudo apt-get install nvidia-346"

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  • Thank you. I will give it a try on the next update. I just got the latest driver and was able to do the update and driver installation without incident. I had to install the driver manually since all repositories will not install the latest successfully in my experience.
    – Ben Doidge
    May 17, 2015 at 23:05

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