Install driver for GTX 1070?

Question

I want to install the latest driver for my GTX 1070 (my monitor flickers sometimes and I think this might be because I never installed a proper driver).

Since NVIDIA supports Linux driver I downloaded the latest driver for my card at https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us.

I made the file executable and stated it from terminal

sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.93.run

However, I can't install it. It shows me the folloing message:

The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue?

When I enter yes, I get the following error:

How can I fix it?

THis is the log file:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' creation time: Fri Jan 25 15:49:58 2019 installer version: 410.93

PATH: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/snap/bin

nvidia-installer command line: ./nvidia-installer

Unable to load: nvidia-installer ncurses v6 user interface

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface -> Detected 8 CPUs online; setting concurrency level to 8. -> Installing NVIDIA driver version 410.93. -> Running distribution scripts executing: '/usr/lib/nvidia/pre-install'... -> done. -> The distribution-provided pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue? (Answer: Continue installation) ERROR: The Nouveau kernel driver is currently in use by your system. This driver is incompatible with the NVIDIA driver, and must be disabled before proceeding. Please consult the NVIDIA driver README and your Linux distribution's documentation for details on how to correctly disable the Nouveau kernel driver. -> For some distributions, Nouveau can be disabled by adding a file in the modprobe configuration directory. Would you like nvidia-installer to attempt to create this modprobe file for you? (Answer: No)

I'm not sure if it matters, but I did apt-get upgrade before and haven't restarted yet.

Solution 1

First remove any nvidia packages you might have had laying around

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

Add the repository to your repo list

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers

And update

sudo apt-get update

Then enter the following

ubuntu-drivers devices

in terminal which gives the following output:

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001B81sv00001462sd00003302bc03sc00i00
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
model    : GP104 [GeForce GTX 1070]
driver   : nvidia-driver-410 - third-party free
driver   : nvidia-driver-396 - third-party free
driver   : nvidia-driver-415 - third-party free recommended
driver   : nvidia-driver-390 - third-party free
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

Now one may take the recommended driver from the list and installs it by

sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver-415

---

Credits to j-money for 80% of this answer

Solution 2

If you want to install the nvidia driver from the repos (unfortuanatley it doesn't seem to be as easy as I wanted it to be... :( )

First remove any nvidia packages you might have had laying around

sudo apt-get purge nvidia*

Add the repository to your repo list

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers

And update

sudo apt-get update

Install the latest nvidia driver

sudo apt-get install nvidia-XXX

Comments

[j-money]

Is there any particular reason you chose the nvidia installer rather than the one in ubuntu repos?

[Adam]

@j-money how to install the one in ubuntu repos? Would you recommend that over the offical nvida driver?

[j-money]

IIRC sudo apt-get install nvidia? I prefer to let whatever distro's package manager to what it does best, manage packages, for me.

[Adam]

@j-money this throws that the package nvide is not available

[j-money]

nvide != nvidia

[Adam]

@j-money yes sry typo from me. It throws that the package nvidia is not available

[j-money]

See my answer it's not as simple as I wanted it to be

[Adam]

Which number shout I replace XXX with?

[Adam]

According to nvidia.com/object/unix.html the latest version is 410.93 (which is by the way the one that I downloaded). When I replace XXX by 410 I get a prompt telling me that he cant find this package.

[Adam]

I did ubuntu-drivers devices which showed me that nvidia-driver-415 was recommended. THen I could install it with sudo apt install nvidia-diver-415.

[j-money]

Was the last comment a question? Or an update? Also I don't keep track of the latest ubuntu drivers, so I will leave that as an exercise for you

[George Liu]

To install, the command should be sudo apt-get install nvidia-driver-xxx to avoid the package not found error.