The version of Nvidia's display driver in the Ubuntu repositores is 1.0-6111 which does not support some of the new video cards, like the ones based on 6600/GT GPUs. There is a newer version 1.0-6629 which supports all the new video cards, as well as providing performance improvements of up to 10% for existing GPUs, especially the 6800 series.
The new driver is available on nvidia's web site, but it comes with a proprietary built in installer, so the installation is not tracked by debian's package management system apt/dpkg. Also, if you already installed the 6111 driver from Ubuntu's repository using apt, then the nvidia installer will overwrite some of the driver and configuration files, which could mess up the 6111 driver and make it hard to restore it.
This howto explains how to get and install the new driver's debian packages, which are available from the debian unstable repository. The driver includes three parts -
(a) The X-Windows binary driver and libraries, which is contained in nvidia-glx package.
(b) The nvidia kernel module, contained in the nvidia-kernel-v.v.v.v package (which we need to create).
(c) Configuration files, contained in the nvidia-kernel-common package.
Note that (a) depends on (b) which depends on (c), so we install them in reverse order (c,b,a). The most difficult part is the nvidia kernel module (b), which must be compiled for your specific kernel version, so we will need to get the nvidia-kernel sources as well as linux kernel sources (although it's not required to compile a new kernel, it is in fact much safer and simpler, since we don't have to touch the existing kernel). We'll use the sources to create the nvidia-kernel package (which contains the nvidia kernel module) together with a matching kernel-image package (which contains the new kernel and the standard modules).
This has worked for me on a computer with a 6600GT PCI-E, and another computer with a 6800GT AGP card. Both had the standard Woody release with XFree86. In the latter case, I already had the older nvidia driver 6111 installed before installing the new version 6629, and I noticed a significant performance increase with the new driver (by running a doom 3 timedemo). So here goes the comlete list of steps:
1. Download and install the 2.6.8.1 kernel source package and a few other packages required for compilation (or use synaptic if you prefer):
$ sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.8.1 build-essential fakeroot kernel-package libglade2-dev dpatch debhelper
2. Download and install the 6629 nvidia-kernel-common and nvidia-kernel-source packages from debian unstable (click on the links to download, and use the following commands to install):
$ sudo dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-common_1.0.6629+1_all.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-source_1.0.6629+1-1_i386.deb
3. Check that you are added to the src group, by typing "groups". If you are not, do the folowing (you will need to logout and login again for this to take effect):
$ sudo addgroup `whoami` src
4. Unpack the sources (make sure to move/rename any previous directories which conflict, like /usr/src/modules/nvidia-kernel and /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.8.1)
$ cd /usr/src
$ tar jxvf linux-source-2.6.8.1.tar.bz2
$ tar zxvf nvidia-kernel-source.tar.gz
$ ln -s linux-source-2.6.8.1 linux
5. If you want to use your current kernel's configuration (which you probably do) you can copy it from /boot like this (if your current kernel version is older, it will tell you about any new kernel configuration options. You can choose the defaults by pressing enter):
$ cd /usr/src/linux
$ cp /boot/config-`uname -r` .config
$ make oldconfig
6. Configure the kernel to not include the Nvidia Riva framebuffer driver (FB_RIVA under Device Drivers->Graphics Support->Support for frame buffer devices), because it might conflict with the new nvidia driver. You can also change any other kernel option you like, then save the kernel configuration and exit. Note that this step is recommended by Nvidia in their README file which accompanies their kernel module source package, but in most cases the module will work even without performing this step:
$ cd /usr/src/linux
$ make gconfig
7. Compile the kernel and nvidia module (note you can replace "custom1" with any string to append to the version. This guarantees that your new kernel version is unique, so there are no conflicts with existing kernels):
$ cd /usr/src/linux
$ make-kpkg clean
$ fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version custom1 kernel_image modules_image
8. Install the new kernel-image and nvidia-kernel packages
$ cd /usr/src
$ sudo dpkg -i kernel-image-2.6.8.1custom1*.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i nvidia-kernel-2.6.8.1custom1*.deb
9. Download the 6629 nvidia-glx package from debian unstable (the binary driver and libs for X windows) by clicking the link. (Note that if you are currently running an older nvidia driver, then it's safer to exit from X windows before installing this package, because the installation it will replace some files used by the old driver. To exit X windows, you can press ctrl-alt-F1 to get a console, login and then kill gdm using the command "sudo killall gdm"). Now install the package:
$ sudo dpkg -i nvidia-glx_1.0.6629+1-1_i386.deb
10. Save a backup of the X server configuration file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. Now change the file t use the nvidia driver, by changing the argument string of the "Driver" line in the Section "Device" to "nvidia". Also, in the Section "Module", comment out "GLCore" and "dri" lines, and make sure there is a "glx" line there.
11. To make sure the nvidia module is loaded at boot time, add a line "nvidia" to the end of the file /etc/modules. You can do it like this (or just edit the files /etc/modules with your favorite editor):
$ sudo sh -c "echo nvidia >> /etc/modules"
12. Reboot into your new kernel.
If something goes wrong, for example if X doesn't start, then login with text console and check if the nvidia kernel module was loaded:
$ lsmod | grep nvidia
If it's not listed, it may be that modules dependencies were not updated (usually installing the nvidia-kernel package takes care of that automatically, but sometimes it doesn't...). So do it manually, and start X (next time it should boot without problem):
$ sudo depmod
$ sudo modprobe nvidia
$ startx
Also, if this doesn't work you can easily go back to your previous configuration by restoring your old XF86Config-4 file which you saved in step 10. If you were previously using the an older nvidia driver (e.g. 6111), and you want to go back to it, you also need to uninstall the nvidia-glx-1.0.6629 package, and re-install nvidia-gix-1.0.6111 package from Ubuntu's repositorues. Then boot your old kernel (the one your were using previously).
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Originally Posted by xyverz
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