There are a number of problems with the nVidia drivers that are contained within the 12.04 repositories (check ubuntuforums.org and do a search).
I have had two nVidia cards, neither of which worked with the standard drivers. There is a PPA that seems to work very well, and may fix your problem.
Since you are already at a console, please execute the following commands. When you execute the commands, you will need to provide your password (which will appear blank). You will also be asked to confirm the commands (after a brief display). You may press the Enter key to confirm the commands:
The following will add the repository to your source list:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
The following will update your software repository list:
sudo apt-get update
The following will add the nvidia driver from the PPA:
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
The following will update your x-windows configuration:
sudo nvidia-xconfig
The following will reboot your system:
sudo reboot
If all goes well, the new nVidia drivers will be installed and you will have the graphical desktop.
If you select Dash, then type nvidia, you will get the nvidia settings program. You may adjust the settings appropriate for your nVidia card here.
Hope this helps,
I had this problem a few days ago, removing the xorg.conf created by Nvidia seems to fix the problem. Execute the commands below after pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 on GDM screen or within GNOME.
sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old
sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Best Answer
The "Install this third-party software" option in the Ubuntu installer installs a group of frequently used media codecs, but it does not install all possible codecs, for example codecs which are rarely used. The "Install this third-party software" option in the Ubuntu installer also does not install proprietary graphics drivers such as the proprietary Nvidia graphics driver. Open source graphics drivers are built-in by default in Ubuntu.
The proprietary Nvidia graphics driver can be installed in Ubuntu using the built-in Additional Drivers utility or from the terminal with the following commands:
The
ubuntu-drivers autoinstallcommand installs drivers that are appropriate for automatic installation including their dependencies, and the Nvidia driver will also be updated automatically when an update is available.When installing a proprietary graphics driver, it is not necessary to uninstall the open source graphics driver. The two graphics drivers can be installed alongside each other allowing the open source graphics driver to be used as a fallback alternative in case there is a problem using the proprietary graphics driver.