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Isse Nur
Asked: 2018-06-29 03:40:33 +0800 CST

Cannot get NVIDIA graphics card to work on Ubuntu 18.04

  • 772

Laptop: Acer Predator with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Windows 10 (dual boot)
Specifications: Intel® Core i7-7700HQ NVIDIA GTX 1060 OS-Type: 64-bit

Everything is working fine so far, except that I can't switch to the NVIDIA graphics card in Ubuntu. Please help me, this is the first time that I have installed a Linux distribution on my PC.
I was following the installation tutorial from this website, I can't get it to work.

I have tried to install the NVIDIA drivers from the Ubuntu repositories and from the GPU Drivers PPA.
I have read many threads and tried to follow the suggestions. But same results, nothing is working. Below is a detailed step by step of the last commands I ran in the order they were executed.

  1. Purge everything NVIDIA:

    sudo apt purge nvidia-*

  2. Purge the PPA:

    sudo ppa-purge ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

  3. Autoremove:

    sudo apt autoremove

  4. Clean up:

    sudo apt auto-clean

  5. Blacklist Nouveau:

    Edited the file /etc/modprobe.d/disable-nouveau.conf and added these lines:

    blacklist nouveau
blacklist vga16fb
blacklist rivafb
blacklist nvidiafb
blacklist rivatv
blacklist amd76_edac
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off
options nouveau modeset=0

  6. Re-add the PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

  7. Check for recommended drivers:

    ubuntu-drivers devices

  8. Install the recommended driver from the PPA:

    sudo apt install nvidia-driver-396

  9. Reboot the system:

    sudo reboot

  10. Check which drivers are in use:

    $ lspci -k | grep -EA2 'VGA|3D'
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 591b (rev 04)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 118a
    Kernel driver in use: i915
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile] (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile]
    Kernel driver in use: nouveau

$ lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:591b] (rev 04)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:118a]
    Kernel driver in use: i915
    Kernel modules: i915
--
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile] [10de:1c20] (rev a1)
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile] [1025:118b]
    Kernel driver in use: nouveau
    Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau, nvidia_drm, nvidia

$ nvidia-smi
NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver.  
Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

$ nvidia-settings
 ERROR: NVIDIA driver is not loaded   
 ERROR: Unable to load info from any available system
drivers nvidia proprietary 18.04

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You have to disable Secure Boot on your machine, boot into BIOS and disable it in the UEFI settings.
    There won't be any security problem at all and the alongside installed Windows will boot nevertheless.

    • 9

  2. I just installed Ubuntu 18.04 and I have the same issue with NVIDIA GF 550Ti driver.

    Running lshw -c video shows UNCLAIMED driver.

    Here are the steps I followed to solve this:

    1. Disable Secure Boot.

    2. In the terminal, run the following commands:

      sudo ubuntu-drivers list 
sudo prime-select nvidia 
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-418-server 
cd Downloads 
chmod +x FILENAME.run 
sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64–410.57.run -- no-x-check 
reboot
    • -1