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driver troubles with linux

mentalcrisis00

Senior member
Hey all

I just install ubuntu on my dell vostro 1500, I thought I'd try it out. My vostro runs a nvidia 8600m gt for video but I can't find a driver that works under ubuntu, I also can't get sound to work. I see the forceware and sound chipset drivers under the restricted driver section but to enable them I have to have the drivers downloaded which I can't find. Am I just out of luck or is there a place where I can get reliable drivers? I already tried laptopvideo2go but they don't have linux drivers.

Any ideas? or should I just reinstall windows xp? 🙂 Also linux gives me a strange error when I try to enable my dell bluetooth mouse. "obex://00:07:61:4e:aa:f2]" is not a valid location Please check the spelling and try again.

Linux experts please step up to aid but a humble windows user😛
 
I only see linux drivers for the 8700M on Nvidia's website, Nvidia is just as lazy as ATI these days when it comes to linux drivers.

Edit - Nvidia Linux 64bit drivers Nvidia linux 32 bit drivers

The 8600M GS and GT are listed as supported products, so I'd go with those.

Ubuntu Nvidia driver installation guide

However, if there are devices showing up in the restricted driver manager, Ubuntu already has the drivers for them and you can enable them through there. The drivers Ubuntu has may be out of date though.

Not sure about the blue tooth mouse though. I'd check your spelling like it says, make sure you spelled the path right.

 
ya I actually downloaded the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run and typed the sh text in the command terminal but it said that it was a format that ubuntu couldn't read... Also I tried to enable the drivers but it told me that they couldn't be found and needed to be downloaded.
 
Originally posted by: mentalcrisis00
ya I actually downloaded the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run and typed the sh text in the command terminal but it said that it was a format that ubuntu couldn't read... Also I tried to enable the drivers but it told me that they couldn't be found and needed to be downloaded.

The Nvidia drivers need to be installed with root privileges and without an X server running.
 
Actually the X server can be running, you just need to make sure it's restarted after you do the install so that the new config and glx libraries are used.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Actually the X server can be running, you just need to make sure it's restarted after you do the install so that the new config and glx libraries are used.

How? Every time I've tried, it kicks out an error telling me that there is an X server running?
 
How? Every time I've tried, it kicks out an error telling me that there is an X server running?

I stick to the Debian packages so it's been quite a while since I've run it but if that's true then their installer is stupider than I remember. Using their installer should be a very last resort because it messes with files in /usr and doesn't inform the package manager so the next time you install/upgrade package that updates those files it'll overwrite the nVidia ones and cause you lots of grief. The Debian/Ubuntu packages work around this by using diverts that tell the package manager "I renamed this file here so that I could install a different version of it here.".
 
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