How do I enable the Nvidia Geforce GTX 570?

Question

I just installed 12.04, it was running smoothly and I downloaded and installed all the recommended updates.

After checking the details pane of the System Settings window I noticed that the GTX 570 didnt show up as graphics unit.

Because of this I figured I needed to download the drivers like I would have needed to in Windows. So I did this but being a complete newbie to linux I didn't succeed in installing them. (I think)

Anyway after several tries and errors i shut down the PC and restarted it. This resulted in no signal to my screen after trying to reboot--with all the monitor outs affected.

I took out the graphics card and now it boots normally but after booting it says there is a problem with the system the graphics cant be recognized.

Here are my questions:

• What do I do? I Like linux but the arbitrary aspect of the errors that occur without any changes to the system--other than physically removing my graphics card--scare me.
• Is there A beginners guide to Ubuntu where I could start from scratch because I really want this to work?
• Now that the system is (suddenly) showing these graphic errors--so far without visible consequence despite the error message--should I reinstall the GPU and give the driver installation another try or the other way around?

I'd be very grateful for any help. Thank you in advance!

Here are the specs of the system I have built.

Asus Rock Z77 Extreme 4 Intel i7 3770k 16 Gb Corsair Ram Zotac Nvidia GTX 570 bequiet! 630W Power supply 120 GB SSD

In response to comments requesting additional information here are some more steps I took.

• I checked the Additional Drivers program prior to and post trying to install the driver manually but nothing showed up whatsoever. I don't know if there is a "corrupted"/incomplete installation in existence somewhere on the system causing this.
• I don't think I did actually install anything because of the output I received from the system (which I remember as being along the lines of "I don't know what the heck you want from me").
• The only thing that did happen once was when I double clicked on something and a loading bar popped up--but at the end it said an error occurred and could only be closed.
• I am only beginning to get used to working with a terminal.

Should i physically reinstall the GPU and give the Additional Drivers route another try? Or is a manual installation of the required drivers a better Idea?

I tried the Jockey console first wehen i had the GPU installed but it did´nt shwo anything. After rebooting the PC Wouldn´t signal the Monitor so i took the card out again and wen´t through a couple of how-to´s downloading the synaptic Package amnager and adding the x-swat repository to my system and upgrading the current and settings via the Synaptics console.

After that i figured it should be fine. So i reinstalled the GTX 570 and now it says ubuntu is running in low graphics mode an sometimes wont even take any futher input from the Keyboard not even letting me into the console. So there is virtually no way of installing the drivers (again?) with the Card installed

What to do i´m beginning to lose hope since it seems to work so easily for others. Thx for the support.

Enable the driver using "Additional Drivers" GUI:

The Nvidia driver included in the Ubuntu repositories (version 295.33) should support your graphics card according to Nvidia (see picture below). You may enable the card using "Additional Drivers", also known as jockey, by hitting Alt+ F2 typing gksudo jockey-gtk, entering your password when prompted and then enabling the Nvidia driver using the graphical interface (note that you will need to have your video card physically installed for jockey to detect it and offer the driver).

To learn more about how Ubuntu handles hardware drivers differently from Windows please see this Q&A. Also please be aware that there is a bug so that System Settings will show Unknown for your graphics card even when it is correctly installed and working--you may safely ignore this (or see this Q&A for the workaround).

(source)

If "Additional Drivers" doesn't work:

If for some reason you require the newest driver or "Additional Drivers"/jockey is not automatically detecting your card/installing your driver you can install it manually by:

1. downloading the driver from Nvidia here for 64-bit systems and here for 32-bit systems
2. following the instructions in this post from Ubuntu Forums to install the driver (please note that it is important to follow these instructions carefully as installing the drivers manually requires some special steps)

Hope this helps and welcome to Ubuntu!

Comments

[adempewolff]

Hi Silas, there is a bug (see this Q&A) so that your graphics card will not be listed in Systems Settings even if the driver is installed correctly. You can check to make sure the Nvidia driver is installed (and learn more about how Ubuntu manages hardware drivers) here. If you are still having problems please post the specific error messages/problems you are seeing.