Nvidia driver for GeForce GTX 660

Question

I am having troubles installing the Nvidia driver on my new installation of Ubuntu Gnome Remix (12.10, at first). I would be very grateful if I could receive some help from a kind soul out there.

I have tried the following so far:

1. Setting nvidia-current and nvidia-current-updates from the GUI

2. Setting nvidia-current after downloading sources:

   sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*
   sudo apt-get install linux-source 
   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic 
   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates 
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
   

3. Trying the same with this line instead:

   sudo apt-add-repository ppa:noobslab/nvidia-quantal
   

After the three tries I updated to 13.04 and tried all the same again.

The result is for all cases:

The machine boots into what looks like an old version of Gnome, the screen resolution is very low. when I try to open the nvidia settings I get an error. typing this after installation:

sudo nvidia-xconfig 

does not help.

• I have a ASUS GeForce GTX 660 2GB PhysX CUDA
• The system works, but laggs, when I use the nouveau driver.

I will be forever gratefull if someone can help me out, I have tried for a good 7 hours to fix the problem now.

Solution

I finally found a solution.

for anyone who faces a similar problem, this is what I did in the end (and what I think was what solved it :)):

sudo apt-get install build-essential linux-source
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r`
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe nvidia_current
sudo gdm restart

now the system works like a charm.

Comments

[Admin]

Okay, try rebooting after you do "sudo nvidia-xconfig" then go into your software sources or update settings and go to your additional drivers tab. There should be a list of drivers, including the nouveau one and the nvidia one. Try to use the nvidia-experiental version 310 one from there.

[Vegard]

I have now tried to re-install 12.10 and done everything all over, but I have still not found a solution.

[Admin]

Try downloading the 310 driver .deb from here and see if it works: packages.ubuntu.com/precise-updates/amd64/…

[Vegard]

Hi again, I downloaded the deb and installed it, and to my surprise, the result was not the same. I thought it was the same to use the experimental "apt-get install" and to run the deb, but apparently, its not. But sadly, it did not solve the problem. After I installed and restarted gdm it entered the "simple" version of Gnome, but with normal resolution. I then tried the "nvidia-xconfig", but when I now restarted it was back into the same result as the other tries. Low res, "simple" gnome, no options. I tried installing nvidia-settings again, but that did not work.

[jtatria]

in ubuntu 12.04 i don't have gdm command.. what is it?

[Vegard]

gdm is GNOME Display Manager. the restart is to make the changes take effect. if you use standard 12.04 you can restart with this command: "sudo service lightdm restart" as normal ubuntu uses the lightdm