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NVidia Linux Compatibility

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'''Nvidia has two categories of drivers. Open source drivers called Nouveau and proprietary drivers from Nvidia itself.'''  Linux distributions tend to install the open source Nouveau driver and you can choose to manually enable the proprietary drivers for better performance.  Gamers will not like nouveau.  Linux Mint comes with a Driver Manager which facilitates selecting and installing graphic drivers.  By default, you will probably notice the open-source xserver-xorg-video-nouveau driver for Nvidia cards installed prior to your intervention after a fresh system installation.  When you open the Mint Driver Manager you will likely be prompted to consider an Nvidia driver for your card.  A list of drivers and versions will be displayed.  One will should be marked as (recommended.)  On the driver list the higher the number, the more recent release driver.  If the latest driver in the list causes issues or fails to work, you can try their next best option from the list in Driver Manager. To see what video card driver is current being used by Mint (the one loaded) lshw -c video|grep configTo help determine what actual video card you have installed lshw -numeric -C display|grep product==NVidia Geforce 6150 =={{:NVidia Geforce 6150 Linux Compatibility}}==NVIDIA GeForce GT 440==On linux Mint this card has no working driver in the PPAs. as of 19.2 Tina - and since it is an older card it is doubtful there ever will be.  Again, the problem is the jerks and NVIDIA not helping out.It can be made to work by downloading directly from the NVIDIA web site.#download NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run from NVIDIA web site#blacklist nouveau and reboot#kill your current X server session by typing sudo service lightdm stop or sudo lightdm stop#chmod +x and run NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run - it will be ugly and lots of errors#clean up broken symlinks#reboot and keep fingers crossed== Recovery: Something Went Wrong ==If something went wrong after installation of NVIDIA drivers, then follow these steps to recover.1 Boot into '''recovery mode'''If you don't see Grub (recovery option) just hold "Shift" before boot and choose recovery option2 Now in the menu choose "root"3 '''Uninstall Nvidia drivers''' using commands: sudo apt-get remove nvidia* sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa4 <s>Remove xorg configuration:</s> Newer versions do not use this file.  Skip this step. sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf5 Reinstall the Mesa package for GL: ''(You can probably skip this step and the system will auto detect the working open source driver)'' sudo apt-get --reinstall install libgl1-mesa-glx6 Reboot the system== Nvidia card worked until I upgraded to newer Mint / Ubuntu Version ==After an update or upgrade, you might find you are out of luck with your particular Nvidia card.Your Nvidia graphics card may no longer be supported. If so, the open-source nouveau driver is your only option which means you can forget SteamOS or gaming with any real FPS.For example: Nvidia states Support timeframes for Unix legacy GPU releases,"The Linux 340.* legacy driver series is the last to support the G8x, G9x, and GT2xx GPUs, and motherboard chipsets based on them. Support for X.Org xserver version 1.20 was added to the 340.* legacy driver series with version 340.107, and support for Linux kernels up to Linux 5.4 was added with version 340.108. No further releases from the 340.* series are planned."'  Mint 21 uses X.Org version 1.21.1.3 (a version newer than 1.20).
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