Ubuntu – How to install Nvidia GT 840M graphics driver in Ubuntu 14.04

I had a very similar problem and spent several days trying to get my card working.

I have an ASUS X550LN which has an Intel Graphics Driver on the CPU and a dedicated NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 840M.

First, installing the nvidia-340 drivers would cause Unity and Gnome to fail when launching. I could drop to a shell Ctrl + Alt + F1 and remove the driver sudo apt-get remove nvidia* to get things back to running solely on the Intel Graphics Driver.

After some research, I discovered that having both these interfaces made the system an NVIDIA Optimus (which is actually good just not well supported on Linux yet). Luckily, there is a project called Bumblebee which will help. More info here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee

Here is what finally worked for me:

1. Install bumbleebee

   • Add bumblebee repository: add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
   • Update repository information: apt-get update
   • Install packages: apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia virtualgl linux-headers-generic
   • Reboot

For me, at this point bumblebee was installed but the nvidia-304 package was installed as this is what is installed with nvidia-current. Looking online I found that I needed Driver 337+. At the time of writing this, the best driver for me was nvidia-340. This however is not in the default repo so you will need to add another one.

2. Install correct nvidia driver

   • Add xorg-edgers repository: add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
   • Update repository information: apt-get update
   • Install nvidia-xxx drivers (for 840m it was nvidia-340): apt-get install nvidia-xxx

For me I got an error message the first time I ran apt-get install nvidia-xxx. However, simply running it again worked fine. I'm not 100% sure what happened.

3. Configure bumblebee to use latest driver

   • Using your favorite text editor open /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
   • Find the line starting with Driver and change it to Driver=nvidia
   • Find the line starting with KernelDriver and change it to KernelDriver=nvidia-xxx
   • Find the line starting with LibraryPath and change it to LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-xxx:/usr/lib32/nvidia-xxx
   • Find the line starting with XorgModulePath and change it to XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-xxx/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules

Basically, replace all of the nvidia bits with the nvidia driver you installed in step 2.

4. Reboot

After rebooting, hopefully you are able to access Unity, Gnome, or whatever display manager you're using.

5. Test that everything is working
   • First test without using NVIDIA card: glxspheres
   • Second test with NVIDIA card: optirun glxspheres

I hope this works for the next person!

I was having the same problem, this worked for me after a lot of struggle and research, restart ubuntu and at login screen press ctrl+alt+F1 and login using your account this will take you to a terminal First, remove all the nvidia packages by:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-*
sudo reboot

Again press ctrl+alt+F1 at login screen Then, Install nvidia packages by:

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

Next, time you boot you will get a black screen instead of login most probably if not you are done. If you get a black screen, press ctrl+alt+F1 again and do the following:

cd /etc/X11

check whether there's a file of xorg.conf by:

ls | grep xorg.conf

It should be xorg.conf and not xorg.conf.* If not present do the following:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Now edit the file as follows:

sudo nano xorg.conf

Under the Section Device, Identifier intel change Driver from "intel" to "modesetting" i.e: from

Driver "intel"

to

Driver "modesetting"

Now save the file and exit nano and do the following.

sudo chattr +i xorg.conf
sudo reboot

I hope this solves your problem, if there are any queries let my know. Thank You!

These links helped in the answers:

1. Idea of changing driver to modesetting from intel

2.Modern way to install nvidia drivers