How to Install NVIDIA 346.35 Stable Driver in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: February 25, 2015

Nvidia 346.35

NVIDIA 346.35, the first stable release of the 346.xx series driver, has been released with new features, improvements, and numerous bug fixes.

Instead of NVIDIA 340.xx series, the new driver becomes the Latest Long Lived Branch version of NVIDIA Linux drivers.

The 346.35 driver brings:

  • new GPUs support: GeForce 800A, GeForce 800M, GeForce GTX 970M, GeForce GTX 980M.
  • support for X.Org xserver ABI 19 (xorg-server 1.17)
  • support for decoding VP8 video streams using the NVCUVID API on GPUs with VP8 hardware decode support.
  • new EGL extensions support: EGL_EXT_device_base, EGL_EXT_platform_device, EGL_EXT_output_base
  • support for NVENC on GeForce GPUs.
  • the ability to increase the operating voltage on certain GeForce GPUs in the GeForce GTX 400 series and later. Voltage adjustments are done at the user’s own risk.
  • accelerated support for r8g8b8a8, r8g8b8x8, b8g8r8a8 and b8g8r8x8 RENDER formats.
  • support in nvidia-settings for a GTK+ 3 user interface on x86 and x86_64.
  • added the nvidia-settings option –use-gtk2 to force the use of the GTK+ 2 UI library

There are also numerous fixes and improvements, see the release highlight.

How to Install NVIDIA 346.35 in Ubuntu:

Before the xorg-edgers PPA updates for this driver, you can download & install the official NVIDIA package by following below steps:

1. Select download the official installer from links below:

32-bit Linux | 64-bit Linux | 32-bit ARM Linux

32-bit or 64-bit? Check your OS type by going to top-right corner shutdown menu (gear button) and clicking ‘About This Computer’

2. To be able to install the new driver, you have to remove the previous driver by running below command in a terminal window (Open terminal from the Dash or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard):

sudo apt-get remove nvidia* && sudo apt-get autoremove

3. You should also blacklist the open source nouveau driver by running below command to edit the config file:

gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

Add below lines to the end and click save.

blacklist nouveau
blacklist lbm-nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
alias nouveau off
alias lbm-nouveau off

4. You can also disable the Kernel Nouveau by running below commands one by one:

echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf

sudo update-initramfs -u

5. Finally reboot your computer and when you’re at the login prompt press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (or F2 ~ F6) to switch to command console. Login with your username and password.

6. When you’re at the black & white text console, the graphics session is still there and you can switch back by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7. You have to kill the graphics session by running below command:

sudo stop lightdm

Replace lightdm with gdm, mdm, or kdm for GNOME, Linux Mint, or KUbuntu.

7. At last give permission to the downloaded package and run it:

cd ~/Downloads && chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run

Follow the on screen prompts and when everything’s done reboot your computer. In next boot after log in, run sudo nvidia-xconfig to save your new nvidia configuration.

(Optional) To remove the driver, re-do step 5 & 6 and run:

cd ~/Downloads && sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-*-346.35.run --uninstall

Also undo the step 3 & 4 by removing the

cd /etc/modprobe.d/ && sudo rm blacklist-nouveau.conf nouveau-kms.conf && sudo update-initramfs -u

Good luck!

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16 responses to How to Install NVIDIA 346.35 Stable Driver in Ubuntu 14.04

  1. I first tried to install the drivers using the PPA on my Ubuntu 14.04 64bit following the instructions here: http://www.binarytides.com/install-nvidia-drivers-ubuntu-14-04/
    The installation didn’t work – I could not find the driver in the “Additional Drivers”, even after restart.

    I then decided to install the drivers manually following your instructions.
    I stopped lightdm using “sudo service lightdm stop” and not “lightdm stop” (following http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/119333/nvidia-driver-upgrade-failed ). The “lightdm stop” caused strange restart and created a strange effect: I saw both the command console (ctrl+alt+F1) and the login-password input hovers on top and when I typed on my keyboard, the command was typed in the console and the password-box together… really weird… and I also got the “You appear to be running an X server” problem.

    I also ignored the warning message about the pre-install scripts not working (just pressed yes on everything).

  2. Also – “sudo update-initramfs -u” instead of “update-initramfs -u”…

  3. Hello jim. I did exactly as you mentioned in the post and successfully installed nvidia 346.35 drivers on Ubuntu 14.04. But after installation i was not able to see my unity desktop after login. Only my wallpaper shows up. Then I uninstalled the nvidia drivers using your method. But still i m not able to see my desktop after login. Please help

    • Also undo the step 3 & 4 by removing the

      cd /etc/modprobe.d/ && sudo rm blacklist-nouveau.conf nouveau-kms.conf
  4. the step for killing the gui
    “sudo lightdm stop” is not working

    instead use “sudo stop lightdm” this will work

  5. It seems that 346.35 don’t work correctly on my GTX 850M. When I switch to nvidia through prime-select and reboot, the screen went black. Has anybody succeeded?

  6. I have got “Error in check sums 211xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx” . why?

  7. Hey,

    I installed the way you have mentioned. Now the resolution is corrupted and also, the login screen does keeps repeating prompts if i use GUI way. When i switch to command prompt, it allows me to login with the same password. This is very very weired! Can’t understand what’s going on. Do you have any idea?

  8. I intended to install 346.59 for my GTX960 on ubuntu14.04, and this guide works perfectly for me. THX!

  9. I installed 352.30 on Ubuntu 14 64 with a GTX460 GPU, and it it worked for me! Thank you!!!

  10. In step 2 you remove all nvidia packages but in step 7 you use nvidia-xconfig which is not available any more as result of step 2.

  11. are 3 and 4 alternative steps or both should be executed?

  12. Thanks Jim ;(

    Ubuntu restarted after I entering password and prompts login again. Can’t login in X.

    Uninstalling driver does not help.

  13. I had been trying many posts about installing GTX 960m driver in Ubuntu 14.04 with no success and this one had the worst effect :( After following all steps and after passing grub , login did not appear and i could not even switch to commmand console. I could only see a blackscreen showing sometimes a cursor (it appeared and dissapeared like being in a loop, trying and failing to do something over and over again). Had to reinstall Ubuntu :( then , I tried again with the fresh image and the same happened :(