Install Nvidia 331.17 Beta Driver via PPA in Ubuntu & Linux Mint

Nvidia has released the Beta driver 331.17 for Linux with bug fixes and new NVIDIA Unified Memory kernel module which provides support for the new Unified Memory feature in an upcoming CUDA release.

What’s New in Nvidia 331.17:

Fixed a bug that prevented configuration files containing application profiles from being loaded when directories were present in the application profile configuration search path.
Deferred initialization of libselinux in the NVIDIA OpenGL driver, in order to avoid a problem where libselinux might not be ready when the NVIDIA libGL shared library is first loaded.
Added nvidia-uvm.ko, the NVIDIA Unified Memory kernel module, to the NVIDIA Linux driver package. This kernel module provides support for the new Unified Memory feature in an upcoming CUDA release.

How to install Nvidia 331.17

For Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Ubuntu 12.10 and Linux Mint users, you can easily install this driver from Xorg edge PPA.

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run commands below one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nvidia-331

For other Linux distributions, such as Fedora, OpenSUSE, etc. You can download and install it from the official installer. Here are the links from Nvidia website:

Nvidia 331.17 For 32 bit Linux

Nvidia 331.17 for 64 bit Linux

For Ubuntu and its derivatives, follow the steps below to install this driver provided by Nvidia:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to command console. Login with your username and password.

2. Stop the graphics session in order to start the installation.

For default Unity’s display manager:

sudo service lightdm stop

For Gnome:

sudo service gdm stop

For Linux Mint mdm:

sudo service mdm stop

3. Give permission to execute the downloaded installer.

chmod +x ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.17.run

4. Start the installer and follow on screen prompts:

sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.17.run

Ji m

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

3 responses to Install Nvidia 331.17 Beta Driver via PPA in Ubuntu & Linux Mint

Marcelo October 28, 2013 at 1:16 pm

Hey thanks for the tutorial, but before making any change i need to get this clear.
I have an nvidia 540 with optimus in my laptop and so far only works with bumblebee otherwise my S.O is broken.

If i follow the steps in this guide i wont have any problem??

Hopufully you can help me.
- Panda October 28, 2013 at 1:34 pm
  I’m not sure if this will work properly in your case. But Bumblebee said it supports both Nvidia proprietary driver and Nouveau on its project homepage.
  
  If you intend to install this driver:
  
  1. Remove previous installed Nvidia proprietary driver if any.
  
  2. If for some reason the new drivers do not work properly, remove it depends on what method you install this driver:
  
  For PPA method:
  
  sudo apt-get remove nvidia-331; sudo apt-get autoremove
  
  For official installer:
  
  sudo sh ~/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-*-331.17.run --uninstall
  
  Then re-install the previous driver.
anna October 31, 2013 at 5:15 pm

i cant install nvidia-cuda-toolkit after installation of nvidia-331. it wants to have nvidia-304 as it was before. Ubuntu 13.04 64bit.. Need cuda for gpu renders.