How to install drivers for NVIDIA GT210?

Question

I've spent several hours on making my videocard work after upgrading Ubuntu to 12.04. Nothing worked.

The latest attempts were:

1. Installing the 'official' driver (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/340.32/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-340.32.run), but then the installation procedure complained about installed nouveau driver. I have tried to remove/uninstall this driver by:

   • putting nouveau on the modprobe blacklist (see: How do I disable the "Nouveau Kernel Driver"?) and
   • by deleting the package: apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-nouveau. It didn't help; the installation procedure still detected a nouveau driver

2. I added the xorg-edges PPA:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
   

then I installed the nvidia-graphics-drivers-340 (see http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/xorg-edgers) by this:

    $ sudo apt-get install nvidia-graphics-driver-340
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree       
    Reading state information... Done
    E: Unable to locate package nvidia-graphics-driver-340

How can I fix this?

Solution

I was having the same problem, and I fixed it by running the following commands in the terminal:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia* ## remove the previously installed proprietary driver
sudo reboot
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-340

That worked for me. Let me know how it goes for you.

Comments

[Takkat]

The GT210 is well supported by the default nvidia-current proprietary driver as it is offered from your system settings. What made you believe you need newer drivers? Please remove the xorg-edgers ppa before you continue to install/upgrade anything.

[WillemJ]

Immediately when starting up the first time as 12.04 xbmc program couldn't start and gave an error message about missing OpenGL driver. Then I decided to install/upgrade the drivers. Okay, I will remove the xorg-edgers ppa, but what then?

[Takkat]

You should get an answer here: askubuntu.com/questions/301648/… - in case you had not messed up your installation too much simply installing nvidia-current should work (at least it did on my systems with a GT210, on 12.04 , and running xbmc Frodo).

[WillemJ]

I followed up the directions, but failed when installing nvidia-current-updates sudo apt-get install nvidia-current-updates Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package nvidia-current-updates

[David Foerster]

Did you run apt-get update between the addition of the PPA and apt-get install?

[d a i s y]

Posted answer [here][1] . This may helpful to others. [1]: askubuntu.com/questions/613745/…

[d a i s y]

Posted answer [here][1] . This may helpful to others. [1]: askubuntu.com/questions/613745/…

[Thomas Ward]

This is not really a constructive answer - why do they have to upgrade? There's no reason to have them upgrade, really.

[Brask]

Because it has the latest drivers and an updated kernel

[Thomas Ward]

which if they have a system old enough will actually do more harm than good - my guess is they are using an old system that has an old card, therefore upgrading may actually harm the situation rather than make it better. I suggest you realize that the impact of nuking an installation and installing the latest can cause headaches if they need older hardware that is no longer supported by the proprietary drivers in later releases.

[Brask]

That is why kernels include older hardware support.

[Thomas Ward]

not all of them, and in 15.04 yuo see older hardware being phased out OF the kernels. This is why it's a bad recommendation - I have an 8 year old computer running Lubuntu that can't be upgraded past 14.04 because the graphics drivers (fglrx) don't support the hardware anymore. 14.04 it does. 15.04 it doesn't.

[Ernie]

I second this, it solved the wacky video driver issues I was having with (of all things) sub-menus and meta tags.

[Masoud Darzi]

tanks , it worked for me