Nvidia drivers on Ubuntu 16.04, GeForce GT 730M

Question

It's been 3 weeks since I updated Ubuntu from 14.04 to 16.04, and I still can't use my graphic card normally. I remembered too late that I installed manually my drivers during the setup of my previous version. My upgrading wiped that custom install.

I can't use a second screen (it's not detected), and I can't play. I'm rewriting my question today to document all this and save time for somebody else. As far as I know, it may be just impossible for now to make my graphic card work with Ubuntu 16.

Context

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T440P, lspci | grep VGA returns this:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GK208M [GeForce GT 730M] (rev a1)

sudo lshw -c video returns this:

  *-display UNCLAIMED     
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GK208M [GeForce GT 730M]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f0000000-f0ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:3000(size=128) memory:f1000000-f107ffff
  *-display UNCLAIMED
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 06
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:f1400000-f17fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:4000(size=64)

I have two graphic cards, but installing nvidia-prime don't do anything to the problem.

The problem

When I install Nvidia plugin (from the Nvidia website), I can't connect to my computer.

At first I was using lightdm, and I was stuck in this login loop. Then I switched to my usual gdm, and now I can't even try to login, I get a weird unstable tty terminal, which I have to keep awake with regular Ctrl + Alt + F1 (or F3 ???).

The way out is to type sudo apt-get purge nvidia* and reboot. And then I'm back to the first point, with a working computer but with only one screen. I'm a web developper and this is surprisingly annoying.

Perspectives

Not much. The driver I downloaded is NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-367.35.run and it was out on the 2016.7.15. My main strategy now is to wait for the next version.

I also used the graphics-drivers ppa way suggested by Stormlord, same result.

I tried everything from this post, and I don't know, maybe I should try randomly other versions of the official plugin.

The *-display UNCLAIMED part of the return of sudo lshw -c video is another thing to clarify. Seems like something that need a working plugin to be solved.

I will not downgrade to 14.04. Everything else is working well, I keep working on my computer and I need it to continue.

Edit 23/8/16 I just tried the plugin nvidia-370, from the additional plugins app. Same result.

Solution

Your driver exists in the graphics-drivers ppa. You can add the ppa to your system and install the driver.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Then look for the package with the correct version (367.35) and install it. It should be something like nvidia-367.35or nvidia-367.

Comments

[Ruff9]

I just did re-tried it, and I got stuck into the login loop again.

[Stormlord]

I guess you have also disabled secure boot, right?

[KyungHoon Kim]

sudo apt-get install nvidia-384 will well work.