Ubuntu Lucid(10.04) originally ships with 2.6.32 kernel. But on my T420 thinkpad, the wireless card is not recognized and graphics card is not functional well. Then I switched to 2.6.38 backport kernel, and installed bumblebee package to utilize the Nvidia Optimus Technology. Now the 3.0.0-16 backport kernel is out, it contains the fix for “rework ASPM disable code”, and it should do a better job in power saving even using the discrete Nvidia card. Moreover, it’s the new LTS kernel, so I decided to update to the 3.0 kernel. Please follow the steps if you are interested:
1. Add X-Updates PPA
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# sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates # sudo apt-get update # sudo apt-get install nvidia-current |
These commands install official nvidia driver. Currently, it’s the 295.20 version.
2. Enable Nvidia Driver
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# sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf |
This will let you to choose opengl engines. Select nvidia over mesa. This will also enable nvidia Xorg drivers, blacklist nouveau driver and add nvidia-xconfig into /usr/bin. You may find warnings like:
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update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/lib32/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 because associated file /usr/lib32/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so.1 (of link group gl_conf) doesn't exist. update-alternatives: warning: skip creation of /usr/lib32/libvdpau_nvidia.so because associated file /usr/lib32/nvidia-current/vdpau/libvdpau_nvidia.so (of link group gl_conf) doesn't exist. |
Just ignore them, seems to be safe.
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# sudo nvidia-xconfig |
This will generate new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for your Nvidia card. If you cannot find the command, the original location is: /usr/lib/nvidia-current/bin/nvidia-xconfig
3. Fix ld Bindings
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# echo "/usr/lib/nvidia-current/tls" | sudo tee -a /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL.conf > /dev/null |
This just add an ld path into /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL.conf, otherwise, glx module cannot be loaded correctly. Here’s the /etc/log/Xorg.0.log segments:
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(II) LoadModule: "glx" (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so dlopen: libnvidia-tls.so.295.20: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory (EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/extra-modules/libglx.so (II) UnloadModule: "glx" (EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7) |
Now, update ld runtime bindings and reboot.
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# sudo ldconfig # sudo reboot |
4. Verify
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# sudo apt-get install mesa-utils # glxinfo | grep -i opengl |
If your installation is successful, the output looks like:
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OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation OpenGL renderer string: NVS 4200M/PCIe/SSE2 OpenGL version string: 4.2.0 NVIDIA 295.20 OpenGL shading language version string: 4.20 NVIDIA via Cg compiler OpenGL extensions: |
After installing the driver, hedgewars shows 120fps. While it used to show 4fps. It’s a great improvement. 🙂
