Extremely long boot after installing Nvidia drivers

There are three main ways (and probably a lot more than three ways total) to install nvidia drivers.

1. binary driver (with apt install, my favorite way)
2. the "Additional Drivers" app (great, pretty reliable, just not the best selection of drivers, sometimes way out of date)
3. Nvidia-distributed latest compiles in .run format

you'd think the files installed and the result would be the same but it's not.

Nvidia's very own .run file is pretty dubious if you ask me. I used to think it would be the most bleeding edge but it turns out it pales in comparison to the apt method in terms of performance. sure the driver version is the latest but perhaps it's windows-only code edits and of no particular benefit to how it runs on linux.

I'd recommend uninstalling your current nvidia driver :

• if you did it via the .run in a sessionless console mode (ctl-alt-F6) then repeat the procedure and run the (admin) command as if you were going to install it but add the --uninstall flag at the end of you install/sh command.
• if you did it via the "Additional Driver" app then open that up again and simply tick the X.org driver apply and restart.

you can install via the binary method in this way :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa 
sudo apt-get update 
ubuntu-drivers devices  
sudo apt-get install nvidia-(your version number)