Howto install Nvidia 8600GT

I got myself a new PC with a Nvidia 8600GT graphics and since this card is not yet supported with the Ubuntu restricted drivers I wasn’t sure how to get it working. One option is to use a little program called ENVY (which some people don’t like as they say it can do nasty things to your system if things go wrong, I don’t know, I chose not to use it). The other option is to install the latest nvidia driver manually. This guide will tell you how to do that (it should work for all new 8 series nvidia cards that are not supported by the restricted drivers manager).

I’m not an expert… This is how I got my Nvidia 8600GT working on my new installation of Ubuntu Feisty on my PC.

How to get Nvidia 8600GT working in Ubuntu Feisty

1. Download driver

Download the latest driver from nvidia and place it on your Desktop

2. Install and remove required packages

Open terminal and paste:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential gcc gcc-3.4 xserver-xorg-dev sudo apt-get –purge remove nvidia-glx nvidia-settings nvidia-kernel-common linux-restricted-modules*

sudo rm /etc/init.d/nvidia-* We had to remove everything related to nvidia that comes with default ubuntu/restricted drivers manager. A lot of people don’t do this and X will crash.

3. Backup your xorg.conf

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup

4. Run the installation script/driver

Press CTRL+ALT+F6 and log into your ubuntu account

and paste the following:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
cd Desktop
sudo sh NV (PRESS TAB TO GET THE REST)

and go through the installation. Once complete:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
CTR+ALT+F7 to get back to GUI

Now you should have a working nvidia driver with direct rendering. If you run this in terminal:

glxinfo | grep “direct rendering”

It should say Direct rendering: Yes

5. Set up your screen preferences

Run the nvidia config to set up your resolution

sudo nvidia-xconfig

After you adjust your settings in nvidia-xconfig - don’t forget to apply changes to xorg.conf, otherwise your screen settings will be lost once you restart your PC.

6. Adjust your xorg.conf (if required)

One more thing I had to do to get Compiz fusion (or Beryl) working was to open xorg.conf

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And change:

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Disable”
EndSection

to this:

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection

That sould give you all the Compiz (or Beryl) beauty.

Don’t forget you will have to reinstall your driver every time there is a kernel update or when you update to a new version of ubuntu. I expect that this card will be supported in Ubuntu Gutsy and we will be able to install the driver through the restricted drivers manager.

August 14, 2007 | Filed Under How to's, Ubuntu 

Comments

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.