Questions[drivers](ubuntu)

I use Ubuntu 14.04 on a laptop, usually with an external usb mouse and keyboard and screen connected. Sometimes, however, I unplug all of them and move the laptop and keep using it with the builtin keyboard and screen and touchpad.

At random times it happens that the touchpad stops working (but if I plug the usb mouse, the usb mouse does work). Though this happens very rarely, when it does it's a great annoyance, as I'm forced to reboot if I need the touchpad to work again.

Is there some workaround that I can try, such as killing some process that would automatically restart, or some command that would cause the touchpad driver to restart or refresh or something? Anything that may "wake up" the touchpad without having to reboot?

I have a Nvidia Ge force Ge6150 SE graphics card. I am running ubuntu 12.04. When I try to install the .run file it fails. It shows the message like this:

I tried to install it after uninstalling the old driver.still same message. Here is the log file:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Mon Jun 11 05:46:17 2012
installer version: 295.53

PATH: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

nvidia-installer command line:
    ./nvidia-installer

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> The file '/tmp/.X0-lock' exists and appears to contain the process ID '1062' of a >runnning X server.
ERROR: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before installing.  For >further details, please see the section INSTALLING THE NVIDIA DRIVER in the README >available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.
ERROR: Installation has failed.  Please see the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' >for details.  You may find suggestions on fixing installation problems in the README >available on the Linux driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

but no such file is shown in the process manager.

The reason I'm asking is that none of the games I've installed through software center that require 3D accelartion like TORCS for instance will run. When I try to run then, nothing happens. I have a Dell Inspiron N5110 with a nVidia GeForce GT 525M.

I tried the following which I were some suggestions for people with similar problems:

lspci -v

Which gave me:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0df5 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Dell Device 04ca
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
    Memory at f5000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
    Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
    I/O ports at e000 [size=128]
    Expansion ROM at f6000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia
    Kernel modules: nvidia_current, nvidia_current_updates, nvidia, nouveau, nvidiafb

I also tried:

egrep -i " connected|card detect|primary dev" /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Which gave me:

[    20.873] (II) intel(0): Output LVDS1 connected

And:

nvidia-smi -a

Which gave:

NVIDIA: could not open the device file /dev/nvidiactl (No such file or directory).
Nvidia-smi has failed because it couldn't communicate with NVIDIA driver. Make sure that latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running.

I don't really understand what all this means.

I just ordered the Nvidia GTX card. I have a dilemma, though. Should I keep using the driver which is available in "additional drivers" in Ubuntu, or should I install the driver from the Nvidia site?

So which driver is the best for me?

I would like to try a different video display driver, but I'm not sure which one I'm currently using.

What's the simple way to see what driver my system is using currently?