nVidia Legacy, Compiz and Ubuntu 9.04
I’ll bet the reason you are reading this article is because you have had some trouble getting your new Ubuntu Jaunty installation working correctly with the nVidia 96.43.10 Legacy driver. This is how I got it all working on my old HP Pavilion 760c desktop with 19 inch CRT monitor, nVidia geForce MX 100/200 graphics card, 512 MB ram, 1.9 Ghz Pentium 4.
1. Install Ubuntu, log in, install all updates using the Update Manager. IMPORTANT… Don’t change any settings. Leave the screen resolution at the current default setting (even if it is difficult to work with for the next half hour). Don’t change font style or size, themes or anything else. You might see a notification that restricted drivers are available. If so, don’t worry about the drivers until after updating the system.
2. When the updates have finished installing, reboot if instructed to do so. Log in after rebooting and go to System->Administration ->Hardware Drivers.
3. Click on the button to Activate the recommended nVidia driver for your system. PROBLEM: The progress bar doesn’t show any activity while it downloads and installs the driver. Just wait for a few minutes and suddenly the progress bar will show some action during the final stages of the driver installation. PROBLEM: Jocky crashes and the progress bar disappears. DON’T close the Hardware Drivers Mgr because even without the progress bar, the installation of the driver is still in progress. It may take more than five minutes to complete. Don’t assume it failed, although it looks dead. I suggest (if Jockey crashes) opening the System Monitor while you are waiting. Look at the Network Activity chart and you’ll see that something is happening. After several minutes, when the Network activity levels off to near zero, close the System Monitor and reboot (if Jockey crashes, you won’t get any notification that the driver install is complete, so you gotta wait and guess when its over). You may or may not experience these problems during driver activation.
4. If the driver installation was successful, you’ll know it when you see the login screen at a different resolution than it was before rebooting. After login you’ll probably notice that the desktop effects have become enabled. Your patience has been rewarded.
5. Now you can set your preferred Screen Resolution (if you are not happy with the new default resolution). Normally you would use the nVidia Settings Mgr to adjust the resolution, but doing so will most likely kill Metacity (the window manager that creates the frames around the open windows).
6. The safest way to adjust screen resolution while keeping Compiz effects working in harmony with Metacity is to manually edit the xorg.conf file. I want to stress this point; Don’t use the nVidia settings Mgr or the Display Mgr to adjust the screen resolution unless you are willing to lose the window borders when using the desktop effects.
7. Before changing screen resolution by editing the xorg.conf file, first test out that the desktop effects can be disabled, then re-enabled at System->Preferences ->Appearance->Visual Effects. If it works properly, great.
8. Now disable the effects (None). Then open the xorg.conf file in your text editor as root by entering in the terminal:
gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
9. Make a backup copy of this file first by clicking on “File” in the top menu, the click “Save As” and name the file xorg.conf-goodbackup. Once the backup is saved you can continue with editing the xorg.conf file to suit your screen resolution preferences. Look for the “Screen” section of the file; it will probably look like this:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
EndSection
10. Now add the “Display” subsection to the Screen section so it looks like this:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection
11. Now change the Modes line by adding your preferred screen resolutions. The first entry will become the new system default for all users accounts AND the Login Screen. You can add or remove any resolutions you wish, assuming they are supported by your video card.
12. Save and close the file. Then reboot. Your new settings should now be active.
13. Turn on the Compiz desktop effects at System-> Preferences-> Appearance-> Visual Effects
Random wtf - Morpheus: If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain
