Ubuntu 12.04 and Nvidia woes

Question

So I know this has been posted a few times, I have searched and tried options but I cannot for the life of me figure out how to install my video card drivers.

Where I stand now: Fresh install of 12.04 with default nouveau drivers What I have: GF nvidia 8500GT (amd) / 2x 23 inch monitors. one is rotated landscape*

using nouveau i get weird issues like screen breaks. I have tried installing the additional drivers before, it just makes my system hang at boot. I have also disabled the nouveau driver. This got me into unity, but i could not see my 2nd monitor. Displays said i had 1 single monitor with a huge resolution.

I then tried to set my monitor with nvidia-config, this worked however i cant rotate in twinview. I tried to setup xinemama and that just broke everything, it was saying i had 4 monitors and 2 devices. just all kinds of bad.

So what im looking for is, which driver should i be using? I see people using nouveau, Nvidia (Additional Drivers), Nvidia (From their site), X-Swat Drivers, and Bumblebee.

I think once i figure out exactly which solution is best for me, i can better understand how to install and setup my drivers.

Solution

I my experience, with a number of different Nvidia graphic cards, using the up-to-date drivers from the Ubuntu-X (X-Swat) team is the best solution. It is one of the first things I do when installing Ubuntu on a system that has a Nvidia graphics card.

Install in terminal:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current

After installing the drivers be sure to reboot!

Comments

[remlabm]

I have tried that, want able to get back to unity, though i may have messed up the procedure somewhere. You dont have to blacklist nouveau before you install x-swat?

[loklaan]

When installing nvidia-current from x-swats ppa, you shouldn't need to configure the chosen driver that your system uses. Get back to me if you choose to do it this way. :)