Most modern Linux Desktop systems such as Ubuntu come with an Nvidia driver pre-installed in the Nouveau open-source graphics device driver for Nvidia video cards. For the most part, this is acceptable; however, if you are using your Linux system for graphical design or gaming, you may get better drivers.
Historically, the Nouveau proprietary drivers are slower than Nvidia’s, which lacks the latest graphics card hardware’s latest features, software technology, and support. In most situations, upgrading your Nvidia Drivers using the following guide is more beneficial than not doing it. In some cases, you may see some substantial improvements overall.
In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Nvidia Graphic Drivers for the series 470.xx / 465.xx / 460.xx / 390.xx and 340.xx from the Nvidia Proprietary Repository, giving you the latest in software available.
Table of Contents
Prerequisites
- Recommended OS: Ubuntu 20.04 or higher.
- User account: A user account with sudo or root access.
Updating Operating System
Update your Ubuntu 20.04 operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgradeRoot or Sudo Access
By default, the account created with Ubuntu was giving sudo status, but if you need to give additional accounts sudo/root access you must either have access to the root password to use the su command or visit our tutorial on How to Add a User to Sudoers on Ubuntu.
Option 1. Install NVIDIA Drivers using Terminal
The first option to install NVIDIA drivers for your Ubuntu 20.04 operating system is to use the command line. Advanced users prefer using command-based commands, but the beginner can quickly achieve this also with the following:
Open your terminal “CTRL+ALT+T“ and find out information on your graphics card firstly.
ubuntu-drivers devicesExample output:
ubuntu-drivers devices
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:03:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001F82sv00001458sd00004028bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650]
driver : nvidia-driver-450-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-418-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460 - distro non-free recommended
driver : nvidia-driver-465 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460-server - distro non-free
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtinFrom the example output, you can see our operating system module is “TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650]“, and the recommended Nvidia driver is “Nvidia-driver-460“. Remember, this is just an example. Everyone will have different Nivida graphic cards. Look for the recommended option if there is one.
Next, we will install the “nvidia-driver-460“ driver package. This can be done in two ways.
First, if you are happy with the recommended version, use this command:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstallSecond, specify it below if you want to install the driver package directly or choose another version.
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-460Once installed, you will need to reboot your Ubuntu operating system, enter the following command:
rebootAfter you log back into your system, you can view the status of the graphic card with the “nvidia-smi” command.
nvidia-smiExample output:
~$ nvidia-smi
Sun Jun 27 23:01:34 2021
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 460.80 Driver Version: 460.80 CUDA Version: 11.2 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0 GeForce GTX 1650 Off | 00000000:03:00.0 On | N/A |
| 56% 30C P8 N/A / 75W | 403MiB / 3903MiB | 5% Default |
| | | N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=============================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 1627 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 182MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 1772 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 35MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 3782 G …lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx 8MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 35908 G …lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx 8MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 81318 G /usr/lib/firefox/firefox 161MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Option 2. Install NVIDIA Drivers Using GUI
The second solution in installing your Nvidia Drivers is to use the GUI method. This is recommended for beginners in Linux especially.
Firstly, go to your application menu and open up “Additional Drivers“ as per the below example.
Next, the “Software & Updates” window will appear, where you can see all the available drivers for your Nvidia graphics card to install. Note, some users will see different list sizes depending on the age and popularity of the graphics card.
The next step is to select the Nvidia diver you want to install and click the “Apply Changes” button.
Note, the installation will take 2 to 3 minutes, depending on your system and its resources.
Once installed, reboot your Ubuntu 20.04 operating system.
rebootThat’s it. You have installed Nvidia Drivers using the GUI method. A handy tip is to view the settings and information of your graphic card, which can be done in your terminal, invoking the following command.
sudo nvidia-settings
Optional. Install Nvidia Bleeding Edge PPA Beta Drivers
Suppose you require the latest Nvidia packages because your graphics card is a new module. You cannot find driver support in the existing default repositories from Ubuntu; add the following Nvidia PPA.
sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppaNote, these drivers are classed as unstable. Install at your own risk. Make sure to back up everything first.
Next, type in the terminal command to bring up recommendations on your graphics card.
ubuntu-drivers devicesYou will get a new output compared to before with stable:
~$ ubuntu-drivers devices
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:03:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001F82sv00001458sd00004028bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : TU117 [GeForce GTX 1650]
driver : nvidia-driver-465 - third-party non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-418-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-450-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460 - third-party non-free recommended
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtinAs you can see, we now have a third-party recommended driver. To install, follow the command options again.
First, if you are happy with the recommended version, use this command:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstallSecond, specify it below if you want to install the driver package directly or choose another version.
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-460With the new experimental/beta drivers, you will be updating quite a few supporting packages.
Example output:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… Done
Reading state information… Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
dctrl-tools dkms libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460
libnvidia-encode-460 libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460
libnvidia-ifr1-460 nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-dkms-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460
nvidia-kernel-source-460 nvidia-utils-460 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
Suggested packages:
debtags menu
Recommended packages:
libnvidia-compute-460:i386 libnvidia-decode-460:i386 libnvidia-encode-460:i386
libnvidia-ifr1-460:i386 libnvidia-fbc1-460:i386 libnvidia-gl-460:i386
The following packages will be REMOVED:
linux-modules-nvidia-460-5.11.0-18-generic linux-modules-nvidia-460-5.11.0-22-generic
linux-modules-nvidia-460-generic-hwe-20.04
The following NEW packages will be installed:
dctrl-tools dkms nvidia-dkms-460
The following packages will be upgraded:
libnvidia-cfg1-460 libnvidia-compute-460 libnvidia-decode-460 libnvidia-encode-460
libnvidia-extra-460 libnvidia-fbc1-460 libnvidia-gl-460 libnvidia-ifr1-460
nvidia-compute-utils-460 nvidia-driver-460 nvidia-kernel-common-460
nvidia-kernel-source-460 nvidia-utils-460 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-460
14 to upgrade, 3 to newly install, 3 to remove and 3 not to upgrade.
Need to get 131 MB of archives.
After this operation, 106 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Type “Y,” then press the “ENTER KEY” to proceed and complete the installation. Remember to reboot your system as before.
rebootInstall latest 470 series Nvidia Drivers
You can also install the latest 470 series that supports the latest Nvidia graphics cards; below is another example.
Run the command “ubuntu-drivers devices.”
ubuntu-drivers devicesExample output:
== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.1/0000:26:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001E89sv00001458sd00003FC1bc03sc00i00
vendor : NVIDIA Corporation
model : TU104 [GeForce RTX 2060]
driver : nvidia-driver-450-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-460 - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470-server - distro non-free
driver : nvidia-driver-470 - third-party non-free recommended
driver : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtinThe Nvidia Driver 470 Third Party (Nvidia) is recommended. To install this driver for the absolute latest driver package, run the following command:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-470 -yNow reboot your Ubuntu system.
rebootNow confirm using the “nvidia-smi” command the Nvidia driver version installed:
nvidia-smiExample output:
Sat Oct 2 21:13:34 2021
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 470.74 Driver Version: 470.74 CUDA Version: 11.4 |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M| Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap| Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA GeForce ... Off | 00000000:26:00.0 On | N/A |
| 0% 50C P5 13W / 170W | 608MiB / 5926MiB | 10% Default |
| | | N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes: |
| GPU GI CI PID Type Process name GPU Memory |
| ID ID Usage |
|=============================================================================|
| 0 N/A N/A 3018 G /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg 336MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 3515 G /usr/bin/gnome-shell 97MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 7823 G ...AAAAAAAAA= --shared-files 21MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 92314 G ...AAAAAAAAA= --shared-files 33MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 763859 G ...lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx 67MiB |
| 0 N/A N/A 764117 G ...AAAAAAAAA= --shared-files 47MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+Congratulations, you have installed Nvidia Drivers for Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa.
Comments and Conclusion
In the guide, you learned how to install the latest stable or beta drivers on your Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. Further information on Nvidia Drivers for Ubuntu can be found by visiting the Ubuntu troubleshooting section.
