This brief tutorial will show you how to install nvidia driver the .run package downloaded from official site in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise. It’s a little different since Ubuntu turns to LightDM display manager.

  • 1. Make a backup of /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
  • 2. Download official nvidia driver from http://www.nvidia.com/page/drivers.html.

    For now, the latest is 304.22 beta

  • 3. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to navigate to tty1, enter user and password to log in. Remove installed driver if any: 
    sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia*
  • 4. Stop X with this command: 
    sudo stop lightdm
  • 5. Execute the .run file you downloaded from the official site, by default it was saved under ~/Downloads. Change file name to yours: 
    sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-304.22.run

    Accept the licence, say yes to “Install Nvidia 32-bit compatibility OpenGL libraries?” (I’m running on 64-bit) and run the nvidia-xconfig…, finally you’ll get the prompt saying the installation is ok.

  • 6. Now start X: 
    sudo start lightdm

In NVIDIA X Server Settings window, check the result!