Ubuntu Server – Do You Need to Install Nvidia Graphics Drivers?

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I have googled this question and arrived at no answer, so here I am.

If I am going to be running Ubuntu Server, (as before I was running 10.04 Desktop) is there any need to install the Nvidia drivers using, say, 'wget'? I ask this because I am unaware if the drivers only impact the GUI or do they allow for power saving features that the computer could benefit from?

Thanks and regards 🙂

Best Answer

You would have no need for nvidia drivers on a server, and the server version of the OS (so long as you are not using a graphical mode) will handle power well enough.

For your information as well, you do not install the drivers with wget, but rather with apt-get install.

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Ubuntu – How to install Nvidia drivers from source if the packages don’t work

I just finished installing the latest Nvidia drivers and here's how I did it:

Stop your Display Manager Service (I use Linux Mint 14, so my display manager is MDM - if you're running Ubuntu 12.10, then yours is LightDM): sudo service lightdm stop
If it doesn't do it automatically, press CTRL + ALT + F1 to bring up the Terminal. Login with your username and password.
Become root by entering the following command, followed by your password: sudo -i
Navigate to the folder where your drivers are: cd/home/username/Downloads
I took the liberty of looking up the latest drivers for you on the Nvidia website. Type this command to download the latest Nvidia drivers for Your GT 440: wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/310.19/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run
Run the installer: sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-310.19.run
Follow the installer. Please note that it may say that you have the nouveau driver installed. If that is the case, say yes to having the installer create a .conf file that will disable it. Reboot your machine to implement it.
Repeat steps 1-5 to successfully install your drivers.
Reboot after you're done.

Ubuntu – Trying to install Proprietory Nvidia Graphics Drivers

I installed cuda on ubuntu 12.04 as package as shown on NVIDIA website.

The graphic samples where not working saying:

hasan@ubt:~$ glxinfo | grep renderer 
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".
Xlib:  extension "GLX" missing on display ":0".

The link http://forum.ubuntuusers.de/topic/kubuntu-und-nvidia-mit-proprietaere-treiber/2/#post-5901377 helped me.

essentially:

sudo apt-get purge nvidia-319-updates nvidia-settings-319-updates nvidia-prime
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-lts-raring
sudo apt-get install nvidia-319-updates nvidia-prime
sudo reboot

Check with glxinfo | grep renderer. It showed on my Laptop:

OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GT 650M/PCIe/SSE2

The Cuda graphic demos worked!

Best Answer

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Ubuntu – How to install Nvidia drivers from source if the packages don’t work

Ubuntu – Trying to install Proprietory Nvidia Graphics Drivers

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