Using older NVIDIA drivers on Linux

Time needed: 20 minutes

1. Open a Terminal window

   You can find the standard ‘Terminal’ app in your app launcher.

2. Install the NVIDIA-Legacy PPA

   Ubuntu volunteer kelebek333 took it upon themselves to modify the NVIDIA drivers to function on newer kernels. They built a PPA so you can install the drivers in a ‘healthy’ way for your Linux installation.
   
   Type the following line in the Terminal, hit ‘Enter’ and give an affirmative response to any questions you may receive.
   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kelebek333/nvidia-legacy
   
   Note: There is always a little bit of risk with installing a PPA, or “Personal Package Archive”. Anyone can upload programs to the internet and make a PPA available. If the maintainer(s) make updates to the PPA, the Software Update program of your distribution can retrieve them.

3. Update your package manager’s cache

   Type the following in the Terminal and hit ‘Enter’:
   sudo apt-get update

4. Determine the NVIDIA driver version you need

   Visit the NVIDIA legacy drivers listing to determine the driver version number (e.g. 340.xx) you need to install. Only the major version number (“340” in the example here) matters.

5. Install the driver for your GPU

   If you need NVIDIA driver 340, you would type the following in your Terminal and hit ‘Enter’:
   sudo apt install nvidia-340 xorg-modulepath-fix
   
   And of course: if you need a different version number, all you need to change is the number, the rest of the line always stays the same. So for version 470 you would enter:
   sudo apt install nvidia-470 xorg-modulepath-fix
   
   Follow the on-screen process. Answer affirmatively if asked if you’d like to continue installing. If any errors appear on-screen during the process: make a picture or note of the error but don’t worry — it is likely not a large issue.

6. Restart the computer

   You may use the ‘Restart’ option, or fully shut down the computer and turn it on again.
   During startup you may see some strange patterns, as if your graphics card has broken. This should resolve itself once the computer gets to the desktop.
   
   Refer to the bottom of this article in case you run into trouble here and get garbled output or no output at all.

7. Verify that your computer is now running on the GPU driver

   Open a Terminal window and type:
   sudo lshw -c video
   This prints information about video-related hardware to your Terminal.
   
   Check two things:
   a) Your video output hardware should not say (UNCLAIMED) next to its name.
   b) Look for a line that starts with configuration:. This should contain driver=nvidia.
   
   If option A resulted in you spotting a line that does say UNCLAIMED, you may have to pull a UEFI shenanigan to get this to work.
   If option B resulted in you not finding driver=nvidia, the driver is not active. Check if you have installed the correct driver number for your hardware.
   But: if option A and B both had a valid result, congrats! You did it!

8. Have a look at nvidia-settings

   This is not super necessary but will give you ultimate proof that the driver is active. If it is, you will be able to see information about your GPU and make some changes to settings.
   
   Type sudo nvidia-settings in the Terminal and hit Enter.
   If you only see very limited options for the app itself and nothing related to your GPU on the left, the driver is not functioning properly. But if you see options like below, then it’s all good!