How can I update my NVIDIA driver?

I recently installed the opensource game 0AD. Everything went fine, but when I run it I get the error

"You are using 260.19.* series NVIDIA drivers, which may crash the game. Please upgrade to 260.19.21 or later."

How do I go about updating this driver? I downloaded the 260.19.21 driver here. Its a .bin file.


Solution 1:

Newer NVIDIA drivers are available in the X Updates PPA:

  • https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates

You want to add ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates to your software sources to upgrade them, you can follow these instructions here:

  • What are PPAs and how do I use them?

Solution 2:

If you want to install the binary that comes directly from Nvidia, I can tell you how I have accomplished this in the past.

  1. Switch to TTY CTRL-ALT-F1

  2. Find the PID for gdm-binary (e.g., ps ax | grep 'gdm-binary')

  3. Kill associated PID for gdm-binary (e.g., sudo kill -9 1136)

With X shutdown, you are ready to install the binary from Nvidia. Please use the appropriate name for the binary you are attempting to install. The following example is using the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run binary downloaded from Nvidia:

`sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-270.41.19.run`

Now it is a matter of following the prompts presented when running the binary. Generally speaking, I do not allow the binary to monkey with my xorg.conf. Once the Nvidia driver has been installed, I tend to like to shutdown the system rather than to reboot.

halt or shutdown now

Upon booting the system, if all has to gone to plan, the new Nvidia driver should functional. Hope this helps.