Installing NVIDIA drivers in Linux Mint 17.3 on Acer Aspire E5-573G
Discussion
As it seems, my laptop has an hybrid system composed of an Intel integrated GPU and a NVIDIA discrete GPU. NVIDIA's Optimus technology is supposed to leverage the use of both depending on processing power demands and power requirements, but the support with GNU/Linux is not completely ok.
Several choices exist to make this work:
- Official NVIDIA support: Non-realtime switching of both GPUs, though the package nvidia-prime.
- BIOS switching: non-supported on my laptop.
- Nouveau PRIME: switch between both GPUs using the Nouveau open source drivers .
- Bumblebee
Some resources on how to install NVIDIA stuff:
- NVIDIA
- Install and configure nvidia optimus with bumblebee in debian
- Using the NVIDIA Driver with Optimus Laptops
- NVIDIA Optimus on Linux
- AskUbuntu: how to install nvidia drivers with bumblebee
- UbuntuForums: Nvidia Optimus + CUDA + bumblebee + 14.04
- AskUbuntu: How can I get nVidia CUDA or OpenCL working on a laptop with nVidia discrete card/Intel Integrated Graphics?
- Ubuntu 14.04: optimus + CUDA
Things I've already tried:
Before you proceed with the following please consider removing other nvidia drivers that might conflict.
For the latest proprietary Nvidia driver the following commands may be issued :
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-current nvidia-settings
For Nvidia Optimus technology (Nvidia+Intel) and the benefit of Bumblebee features the following must be issued :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia
sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee $USER
A final tip is to remember using optirun command in prefix of the 3D software command
optirun somegame-or-command
You can also test 3D with the following commands
glxspheres
optirun glxspheres
Alternative way
- Find out which is your suitable driver: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx
- Download it