Mint 15 and/or Nvidia update

booman

booman

Grand High Exalted Mystic Emperor of Linux Gaming
Staff member
I'm using Mint 14 32-bit for several months now. Its very stable and I'm very happy with it.
I happen to check my Nvidia drivers and I'm still at 310, again they are very stable and no problems.

My "heart" tells me to just keep everything how it is because its working fine.
But, I wonder if I should try updating drivers or maybe even go for Mint 15...

Who else is using Nivdia's 319 drivers or higher?
Any problems?

Also has anyone tried using Bumblebee for your video drivers?
Bumblebee
 
I use the 319 drivers on 2 computers (core i7 and an old dual core) but I really didn't see any significant difference compared to the older drivers.
Bumblebee? Do you game on a laptop? What about performance and heat related issues?
 
I have used nvidia 319, and currently use 325. I have not experienced any problems with either drivers. In fact, I noticed a big increase in performance from 313 to 319, and no issues. I don't remember if there was a big improvement to 325, but for comparison, on 313 I had to have most settings on medium in The Witcher 2. With 319 I could run with settings on high and most special effects on with great performance. At the moment I can run it with the preset ultra setting, only without antialiasing, cinematic depth of field and ubersambling.

There was a problem for many laptop models when using the proprietary nvidia driver with the 3.10 linux kernel. Me, and many other arch users had to avoid updating the kernel through the whole 3.10 time. Nvidia have yet to nail down exactly what caused the problem. However, after the 3.11.1 kernel, I've had no issues.

I went ahead and googled, and Mint 15 use the 3.8 kernel. It was very stable for me the time I used it. Mint 15 has also been out for quite some time so I would assume they've eliminated most bugs with the release.

I can't comment on Bumblebee. My laptop do not have optimus tech. From what I understood of it, you need to use bumblebee on those laptops to make use of the nvidia card. Otherwise the laptop only used the integrated gpu.
 
Kladiator said:
I use the 319 drivers on 2 computers (core i7 and an old dual core) but I really didn't see any significant difference compared to the older drivers.
Bumblebee? Do you game on a laptop? What about performance and heat related issues?
Click to expand...

There are actually many laptops built for gaming, and cooling is not so bad in most newer models. I do use a laptop cooler, just for a little extra help with cooling, and I have not have any heat issues. I also leave it on pretty much all the time.

Personally, I just prefer the smaller space it takes. I know it may seem weird for a computer geek to have such a fondness for laptops, but I suppose I'm just weird that way.
 
I don't think it's weird at all, mine was only a technical question.:)
Apparently Bumblee now works very well, according to many posts I read on various Linux forums.
 
I didn't realize Bumblebee was meant for laptops.
I have a Chromebook, but it has an Intel HD chip.
Someone in the Mint forums recommended Bumblebee.
I don't mind installing updates the same way I usually for Nvidia.
I'll give 319 a try!
Thanks guys
 
I tried updating my Nvidia driver, but apparently only 304 is available for Precise
So how do I updated to the newest Nvidia driver now?
 
Mint 14 is based in 12.10 Ubuntu, which is Quantal. And according to the lists on that PPA, they have the newest 331.20 driver. I assume you can simply add that PPA, and install the: nvidia-graphics-driver-331 to get the newest driver.
 
I must be adding the wrong ppa because I keep getting this:
booman@Brian-Mint ~ $ sudo apt-get install nvidia-graphics-drivers-331
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package nvidia-graphics-drivers-331
Click to expand...
 
looks like it was nvidia-331
booman@Brian-Mint ~ $ sudo apt-get install nvidia-331
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
nvidia-persistenced nvidia-settings-331
The following NEW packages will be installed:
nvidia-331 nvidia-persistenced nvidia-settings-331
0 upgraded, 3 newly installed, 0 to remove and 41 not upgraded.
Need to get 53.6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 161 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/ quantal/main nvidia-331 i386 331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1 [51.6 MB]
Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/ quantal/main nvidia-settings-331 i386 331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1 [1,936 kB]
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/xorg-edgers/ppa/ubuntu/ quantal/main nvidia-persistenced i386 331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1 [20.1 kB]
Fetched 53.6 MB in 1min 22s (646 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package nvidia-331.
(Reading database ... 165926 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking nvidia-331 (from .../nvidia-331_331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package nvidia-settings-331.
Unpacking nvidia-settings-331 (from .../nvidia-settings-331_331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously unselected package nvidia-persistenced.
Unpacking nvidia-persistenced (from .../nvidia-persistenced_331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up nvidia-331 (331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1) ...
INFO:Enable nvidia-331
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/lenovo_thinkpad
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/dell_latitude
DEBUG:Parsing /usr/share/ubuntu-drivers-common/quirks/put_your_quirks_here
Loading new nvidia-331-331.20 DKMS files...
First Installation: checking all kernels...
Building only for 3.5.0-17-generic
Building for architecture i686
Building initial module for 3.5.0-17-generic
Done.

nvidia_331:
Running module version sanity check.
- Original module
- No original module exists within this kernel
- Installation
- Installing to /lib/modules/3.5.0-17-generic/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

depmod.....

DKMS: install completed.
Setting up nvidia-settings-331 (331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1) ...
Setting up nvidia-persistenced (331.20-0ubuntu1~xedgers~quantal1) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for ureadahead ...
Click to expand...
 
Maybe not
310 is still installed after a reboot
nvidia310.png
 
Just as a sanity check, you did run "sudo apt-get update" after adding the ppa?

Apart from that I am afraid I don't know too much about PPA's and apt. On the page for the PPA, among the Head packages, nvidia-graphics-drivers-331 is listed, so I simply assumed that's what you would type to install it. Hopefully someone else that's using either Ubuntu or Mint can help out here.
 
On the more informative site for this PPA at launchpad it states that this PPA should be used as a whole. I am going to assume that you should update your whole system after adding this PPA. Then reboot and see what nvidia driver you have.
 
Absolutely.
When I do the install, does it just overwrite the old Nvidia drivers or am I supposed to remove those first?
 
Actually I am now sure how it works. You may try doing a full system update, if I remember correctly that would be:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

I do think the information provided is a bit lacking. I remember Ubuntu having driver selection somewhere in system settings. Maybe adding this PPA will let you select the drivers provided by the PPA, assuming Mint have the same driver selection option.
 
The PPA worked because it downloaded, but the installation was rather transparent.
Won't the "upgrade" install Mint 16?

I'll do some more research. You would think Mint 14 could still install newer video drivers?
 
I did some checking, just to be sure. First of all, the "update" command simply updates the locally stored package index, it does not actually update any software on your system. "upgrade" compares installed versions with versions in your package index, and updates what is required. However, some googling revealed that "dist-upgrade" also resolves any changed dependencies. Meaning it may remove dependencies that are no longer needed, and it also installs dependencies that the a new version of some software may require.

Did a bit of googling and this sees helpful.

So in short, add the PPA, then run the commands

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Then after a reboot you should be set, if the information I found is correct. And if it does not work, I suppose I should stop trying to offer help for a distro I don't use myself :p
 
Awesome!
I will definitely try it!

Thanks for doing my job for me! ;)
 
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