How to install Nvidia driver?

First of all after installation of Ubuntu 14.04 I was having problem - system freezes after few minutes of work.

I installed nvidia-current driver, it helped. I decided to install something more newer(I want to use GPU calculation with CUDA, finally).

I tried "additional drivers" 331. Didn't worked. Black screen after rebooting. I tried to install Nvidia drivers from offical site(last one, 346).

Also black screen or blank. Tried Xorg drivers - recommended 349 and 346. Same...Black screen.

I have GTX 590. I completely new to Linux, so getting lost in it. Why is it happening, whom drivers I should use and how to get it work?

Solution 1:

I had the exact same problem and I solved it like this (Actually Raphael solved) like this:

First find out which Graphic Card you are using (Exact model)

You can contact the manufacturer or lspci and search for 3D controller .
Go to Official Nvidia website and Manually find drivers for your NVIDIA products
And Select appropriate version of Linux (64bit or 32bit)
Search
Now know your driver number (ex : Version: 352.63 )(No need to download the *.run file just know the version)
Switch to your default driver in Additional Drivers:
Now in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) run this command to remove all previous installations of Nvidia Drivers:

sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia* Enter
Add this repository : sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-352 REPLACE 352 WITH YOUR LATEST DRIVER VERSION from Nvidia(don't worry about the decimals 352.xx => 352)
Reboot after the installation is complete.

This worked well for me : I am using Nvidia GeForce 820M.

Open Software & Updates app in Ubuntu and it allows to install NVIDIA driver from GUI.