How to Install the Proprietary NVIDIA Driver

You need to close all running applications during the installation of the driver. Therefore if you want to be able to view these instructions while working through them you should open them on another computer or create a printout.

Prerequisites

• Download the proprietary NVIDIA driver and save it to a known location. Throughout this guide we assume you used your home directory.
• Install the kernel sources

proprietary NVIDIA driver

Install the kernel sources

Installation

• Close all your applications and save all data. Also log out if possible.
• Now press Ctrl + Alt + F2 to go to a terminal in text-mode and login.
• Now terminate X by dropping to runlevel 3 (text-mode only):

sudo init 3

• Now change to the folder where you saved the NVIDIA driver. If it's in your home directory, run:

cd ~

• Now start the installer:

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*.run

• Follow the instructions of the installer. Select to update your xorg.conf.

Otherwise you need to do so manually.

• When finished, reboot:

sudo reboot

You can tweak some settings with the nvidia-settings tools now, if you need/want to. To be able to save any such changes to your xorg.conf you need to run the nvidia-settings tool as root.