One of the reasons I am installing Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) beta is to examine the state of NVIDIA restricted driver. I am pretty sure this is of great interests to many people (like me) who have bought into NVIDIA camp in the past, when their Linux driver was (arguably) the best available.
Unfortunately, recent rapid changes in Ubuntu, specifically the Xorg update from version 7.2 in Gutsy, to 7.3 in Hardy, and now to 7.4 in Intrepid, has left many of us in frustrations.
I am not putting any blame on anyone; I am simply stating the situation as it is. I am muddling through the configurations for Intrepid, to find the best solutions. Hopefully, in this and future posts, I can write about workable configurations and keep my NVIDIA graphics in business. Of course, all of us Ubuntu/Linux users should eventually jumped to Intel or ATI camp, when it is time to get a new system.
Hardware
For completeness, here is the information on my graphics hardware.
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C51PV [GeForce 6150] (rev a2)
Single screen set-up
I started off with the simplest single screen set-up. Getting NVIDIA restricted driver to work for single screen is a few clicks and a reboot.
After completing a fresh Ubuntu Intrepid install, the default driver is the open source “nv” driver. For some folks, this driver is completely fine. However, the nv driver is strictly 2D only. You won’t get any 3D hardware support, and that means no cool guy Compiz Fusion desktop.
In addition, I initially got an incorrect screen resolution. My monitor’s preferred resolution is 1680×1050; however, the nv driver gave me 1280×1024.
Enabling NVIDIA restricted driver
On first boot, you should get a pop-up message in the notification area. This message will informed you that you can install the restricted driver. Click on the icon to launch the “Hardware Drivers” dialogbox.
Alternatively, if you missed the pop-up message, go to:
Top Panel Menu > System > Administration > Hardware Drivers
Select an NVIDIA driver to install. I chose v177 because it said “recommended” (doh!). After clicking the “Activate” button, the driver will be downloaded and installed.
Once it’s done, reboot and you are done. My monitor’s preferred resolution of 1680×1050 is detected and automatically enabled.
Dual screens set-up
I did not mentioned this earlier, but the Intrepid LiveCD initially failed to load to a usable desktop. I have two displays attached to my PC: a 1680×1050 LCD monitor to the DVI port, and a 1280×768 LCD TV to the VGA port. In this configuration, the LiveCD booted to a blank/black LCD monitor and a corrupted LCD TV (see photo below).
The solution is to unplug the LCD TV and install with single LCD monitor attached to the DVI port. Subsequently, once Ubuntu is installed, you could work towards enabling the second display. At the time of writing this post, I am muddling through the various dual screens set-up. Previously, enabling NVIDIA dual screens in Hardy was moderately complicated; now with Intrepid, it could well be impossible to get it just right. But I haven’t give up yet!
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