Q&A with Ubuntu contributor Mike Basinger

NVidia and the Ringtail

Question I have a desktop with an NVidia 9800GT, and I just installed Ubuntu 13.04 on it. In the past, I have had an Additional Driver program pop up and give me the option to install the driver from NVidia. This is no longer showing up under Ubuntu 13.04. How do I get a driver for NVidia that will allow me to run 3D games?

Answer In Ubuntu 12.10, the Additional Driver was changed from being a separate program to being a part of System Settings.

To install the proprietary NVidia driver, you can launch System Settings from Unity, hold the Windows/Command key, and type system settings in the box. Or, you can click on the gear icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen and go to System Settings (Figure 1).

Figure 1: System Settings dialog.

Next, click Software and Updates and choose Additional Drivers . You should get a list of available extra drivers for your system. Then, simply choose the driver you want and hit Apply Changes (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Choosing a driver.