Install Nvidia Drivers on Linux Mint¶

The only annoying aspect of installing Nvidia’s latest proprietary drivers is that it must be done after each system update; should the Mint Display Manager (mdm) render the UI differently than usual, it is a good sign the proprietary drivers have been wiped out and needs to be reinstalled.

To query which Nvidia GPU you are using, run

lspci | grep VGA

Easy Installation of Limited OS-support Drivers¶

sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
sudo reboot

To revert, run:

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia*

Manual Installation of Proprietary Drivers¶

Remove existing Nvidia drivers:
```
sudo apt-get --purge remove nvidia*
```
Blacklist all the existing drivers to avoid conflicting with Nvidia’s drivers through appending the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:
```
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist nouveau
blacklist rivafb
blacklist rivatv
blacklist vga16fb
```
Update the system to reflect the blacklist. If this step is skipped, then the next step may yield a black screen.
```
sudo update-initramfs -u
```
Reboot the machine, and then press Crtl + Alt + F1 to enter text-based login.
Stop the graphical display manager.
```
sudo killall mdm
```
If the next step complains about gcc-version-check failed, relink /usr/bin/gcc to the correct version.
Install/uninstall the driver; should DKMS keep failing, it is a good sign that older drivers should be used. Note that building the DKMS requires a C/C++ compiler.
```
sudo bash NVIDIA-<platform>-<architecture>-<version>.run [--uninstall]
sudo reboot
```

CoolBits¶

nvidia-xconfig --cool-bits=n

n = 1 unlocks Clock Frequencies.
n = 2 attempts to initialize SLI.
n = 4 unlocks GPU Fan Speed.
n = 8 unlocks Performance Level Editing.
n = 12 = 8 + 4 activates n = 4 and n = 8.