Ubuntu

nvidia 7300LE driver

Asked by bulletprooflama

Today I installed ubuntu Hardy Heron, and despite having read up on this for weeks, I'm feeling like a total n00b.

So like every other impressionable kid, I first thing I wanted was the ubuntu visual effects. Unfortunately I couldn't enable this. An error came up when I tried.

I figured maybe it was because I had the open-source drivers for my GPU, which is a nvidia 7300LE. I downloaded the latest drivers, 169.12, for linux from the nvidia site. Now this file is sitting on the desktop, but I don't know what to do with it. Any help greatly appreciated.

My system:

Dell inspiron E520

2.5 GB RAM
Pentium D 2.8 GHz
nvidia 7300LE

PS: Is there any difference between the built-in visual effects and compiz fusion. If yes, what? Thanks.

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#1

there is no difference between the built-in visual effects and compiz fusion, they are the same thing

to install your drivers you will first need to activate the 'restricted drivers' repository so ubuntu can download them,
goto System > Administration > Software Sources. and check the "Proprietary Drivers for Devices (Restricted)" box.

you should then be promted to reload your software sources (or something like that). once that is done you 'should' get an alert telling you that there are restricted drivers for you to install, you can then goto the restricted drivers manager and it will handle everything for you.

you can then restart and when you boot up you should be able to enable your desktop effects

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#2

sorry i forgot to mention, the restricted drivers manager lives here: System --> Administration --> Hardware Drivers

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bulletprooflama (bulletproof-lama) said : 		#3

Thanks. I got the nice wobble effects now. Would it be possible to install compiz fusion plugins directly in ubuntu or would I need to install compiz fusion first? And is there any simple way to install compiz fusion. The whole process looks pretty daunting.

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#4

ubuntu uses compiz fusion :) don't worry about it, you can install ccsm (sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager , make sure you have the universe repository enabled in software sources) to be able to configure your plugins and such.

you might want to also make sure that you have the 'extra' plugins installed, the package is called compiz-fusion-plugins-extra (sudo apt-get install compiz-fusion-plugins-extra )