I got myself a new PC with a Nvidia 8600GT graphics and since this card is not yet supported with the Ubuntu restricted drivers I wasn't sure how to get it working. One option is to use a little program called ENVY (which some people don't like as they say it can do nasty things to your system if things go wrong, I don't know, I chose not to use it). The other option is to install the latest nvidia driver manually. This guide will tell you how to do that (it should work for all new 8 series nvidia cards that are not supported by the restricted drivers manager).

If this guide doesn't work for you I would suggest you try ENVY and see if it solves the issue.

All this problems are solved in Ubuntu 7.10 where the Restricted Drives Manages works without poblems with Nvidia 8600GT. Is this guide is useless as its very easy. I sujjest that if you have Nvidia 8600GT you use the latest release i.e 7.10.

Good luck.

I'm not an expert, just another Ubuntu user (Obor on ubuntuforums.org)... This is how I got my Nvidia 8600GT working on my new installation of Ubuntu Feisty on my new PC, Intel C2D E6750, 2GB RAM.

Note for noobs: Text highlighted in grey is to be run in command line (e.g. terminal), one line at the time.

How to get Nvidia 8600GT working in Ubuntu Feisty

1. Download driver

Download the latest driver from http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html and place it on your Desktop

2. Install and remove required packages

Open terminal and paste:

sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia-glx nvidia-settings nvidia-kernel-common linux-restricted-modules*

We had to remove everything related to nvidia that comes with default ubuntu/restricted drivers manager. A lot of people don't do this and X will crash or complain about version mismatch.

Alternatively, if you would like to keep the restricted modules, you could leave out the "linux-restricted-modules*" from the command above (i.e. not remove the package) and instead:
disable the nvidia drivers by editing the file
gksudo gedit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common
and modifying the DISABLED_MODULES line to:
DISABLED_MODULES="nv nvidia_new"
More information on this is here.

3. Backup your xorg.conf

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup

4. Run the installation script/driver

Press CTRL+ALT+F6 and log into your ubuntu account
(Note: This will change your screen into a black/white command line screen)

and execute the following:
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop
cd Desktop
sudo sh NV (PRESS TAB TO GET THE REST)

and go through the installation. Once complete:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
CTR+ALT+F7 to get back to GUI

Now you should have a working nvidia driver with direct rendering. If you run this in terminal:

glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

It should say Direct rendering: Yes

5. Set up your screen preferences

Run the nvidia config to set up your resolution
Press ALT+F2 and type:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

This will open a new window. After you adjust your settings in nvidia-xconfig - don't forget to apply changes to xorg.conf, otherwise your screen settings will be lost once you restart your PC.

6. Adjust your xorg.conf (if required)

One more thing I had to do to get Compiz fusion (or Beryl) working was to open xorg.conf (This step shouldn't be necessary if you set everything properly in the step above.)

And change:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

to this:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

That sould give you all the Compiz (or Beryl) beauty.

Don't forget you will have to reinstall your driver every time there is a kernel update or when you update to a new version of ubuntu. I expect that this card will be supported in Ubuntu Gutsy and we will be able to install the driver through the restricted drivers manager.

More info on Ubuntu Document Storage. (link is dead ATM, anyone knows whats up whith Ubuntu Document Storage?)

If you have any suggestions on how to improve this tutorial please let me know using the contact form linked on the top of the page.

Discuss here.

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