I had a nice email from Jorge Castro of Canonical today, and it seems they are looking at ways for Ubuntu users to get newer Nvidia graphics drivers in an easier fashion.
Currently, if you want to get newer drivers you need to either download them directly from Nvidia, which can get messy and confusing. Or even more annoying is to find a random PPA with more up to date drivers, neither is a very nice option, and it could be made a lot easier for the end user.
They look to still be going down the route of a PPA, but it's possible that the "additional drivers" manager will have an option for the latest upstream driver, and this would enable an official PPA. I think that's a fantastic solution, to an increasingly annoying problem. Bigger games are coming to Linux, and they are starting to need specific driver versions, so this needs to be looked at.
He also spoke about bringing in some of the latest stuff from SteamOS, so that would benefit gamers too.
You can see the mailing list entry here. It's a post well worth reading, and good to see the Ubuntu guys focus on gaming some more.
I will open up the floor to you lovely knowledgeable people for your thoughts on this.
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I'm currently a Xubuntu user that uses the "random PPA" method. Honestly, it's not that much of a pain. Adding the PPA to the list of sources is a relatively pain-free process, and once that's done installation and updating is just as easy as from official sources. Still, it would be nice for there to be a more official PPA with the up to date drivers, potentially one that shows up in the Software Center, so that no googling is necessary for new users.
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Well, being a pain is a point of view, and for a less advanced user adding a PPA can be a real nuisance. Having an option to just check to get the latest = bliss.
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abelthorne Aug 11, 2015
In the drivers tool that's supplied with Ubuntu, they have *-updates versions of the graphic drivers. Isn't it supposed to be a way to have up-to-date drivers or have I been mistaken for years?
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In the drivers tool that's supplied with Ubuntu, they have *-updates versions of the graphic drivers. Isn't it supposed to be a way to have up-to-date drivers or have I been mistaken for years?
That whole thing is currently a mess, and needs better descriptions.
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Installing and updating drivers is easy if you know what to do. If you want the latest and greatest drivers from a PPA, it's usually involves a couple of lines of copy and paste into the terminal and that's it.
However, for newbies who don't know anything about the terminal, a more intuitive way would be preferable. So this might be a good idea.
However, for newbies who don't know anything about the terminal, a more intuitive way would be preferable. So this might be a good idea.
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kernel.havok Aug 11, 2015
Even though I consider myself a power user and/or developer, I'm glad to hear they're working on an official PPA -- this has been a long needed feature. From a security point of view I much prefer being on the downstream from Canonical/Nvidia rather than an Edger or System76 PPA. One less thing to go wrong on a linux desktop, IMHO.
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I've been downloading the drivers from nvidia. I don't really have a problem with that, but initially it took me some time to figure out what to do, including blacklisting nouveau and all that. Would be nice to have the current version in the official repositories.
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I download the drivers from the nvidia site and the installation has been really easy.
After a fresh install you run the installation and it auto runs a script to blacklist nouveau. You reboot and then run the install again. Now everything installs fine. I usually throw another reboot to be 100% sure.
Voila, latest nvidia drivers
After a fresh install you run the installation and it auto runs a script to blacklist nouveau. You reboot and then run the install again. Now everything installs fine. I usually throw another reboot to be 100% sure.
Voila, latest nvidia drivers
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Great news! anything that can make the process easier for people - was just thinking about this the other day actually!
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Great stuff.
I now use the edgers ppa, but I would like this to be available from the official repositories on Ubuntu.
Simplicity is the way forward.
I now use the edgers ppa, but I would like this to be available from the official repositories on Ubuntu.
Simplicity is the way forward.
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For latest software (and bugs) people typically use rolling-release distros like Arch/Manjaro..
...but I guess some people want to have their cake and eat it too :P
...but I guess some people want to have their cake and eat it too :P
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For latest software (and bugs) people typically use rolling-release distros like Arch/Manjaro..
You'd be amazed how stable Arch has been for me..
Anyway, it should be as easy as booting the OS the first time, window pops up asking which drivers to install. And don't mess things up with driver versions scrambled all over the place, people still don't know what version to install that way. just put the latest on top, with the label "latest driver" or something and put the damn driver in the repo's
Installing the driver on Arch is nothing more than "pacman -S nvidia".. done
Ubuntu especially should make this very easy to do
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I know, I'm using ManjaroFor latest software (and bugs) people typically use rolling-release distros like Arch/Manjaro..
You'd be amazed how stable Arch has been for me..
don't mess things up with driver versions scrambled all over the place, people still don't know what version to install that way. just put the latest on top, with the label "latest driver" or something and put the damn driver in the repo'sYes they should have two options: 'stable' (default) and 'most recent'. All those [-backports]-updates etc package names used to drive me nuts.
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Its about time !
It would be good if other Ubuntu/Debian based distributions did the same thing. It has been mentioned a few times in the past to blank faces.
Last edited by on 11 August 2015 at 9:30 pm UTC
It would be good if other Ubuntu/Debian based distributions did the same thing. It has been mentioned a few times in the past to blank faces.
Last edited by on 11 August 2015 at 9:30 pm UTC
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You guys should try rolling release.
After you set things up (Arch / Manjaro) you don't need to worry anymore.
And that's the main reason I may switch from Manjaro (altho I really doubt it), but I won't leave Arch-based distros.
After you set things up (Arch / Manjaro) you don't need to worry anymore.
And that's the main reason I may switch from Manjaro (altho I really doubt it), but I won't leave Arch-based distros.
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manjaro is no brainer. Just update and you have latest stable driver but if you want you can select driver version and kernel from manjaro settings manager.
Last edited by kalin on 11 August 2015 at 8:54 pm UTC
Last edited by kalin on 11 August 2015 at 8:54 pm UTC
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abelthorne Aug 11, 2015
That's true but if this was supposed to address the newer drivers updates issue, they'd rather fix this instead of trying to find even more broken solutions like adding a PPA.In the drivers tool that's supplied with Ubuntu, they have *-updates versions of the graphic drivers. Isn't it supposed to be a way to have up-to-date drivers or have I been mistaken for years?
That whole thing is currently a mess, and needs better descriptions.
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Segata Sanshiro Aug 11, 2015
Good move. They should offer two options: the drivers they support officially and then the latest Nvidia drivers. None of this nvidia-common-updates nonsense or installing PPAs and having to periodically do a search online to see if there's a new branch out and drivers need to be re-installed.
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no_information_here Aug 12, 2015
Interesting.
Reading more of the mailing list thread, I see that they are wanting something less "bleeding edge" than the xorg-edgers PPA. I have been using edgers for a while quite successfully but I think it includes more experimental packages, beyond just the nvidia drivers.
A "semi-official" driver PPA sounds like a great start!
Reading more of the mailing list thread, I see that they are wanting something less "bleeding edge" than the xorg-edgers PPA. I have been using edgers for a while quite successfully but I think it includes more experimental packages, beyond just the nvidia drivers.
A "semi-official" driver PPA sounds like a great start!
1 Likes, Who?
I don't wanna make more marketing for manjaro but three commands have installed bumblebee with nVidia drivers on my notebook over a year ago and it updates everything automatically without EVER any issues... Actually, bumblebee problems when updating ubuntu versions was what drove me away from (X)ubuntu back in 2013...
Last edited by khalismur on 12 August 2015 at 5:13 am UTC
Last edited by khalismur on 12 August 2015 at 5:13 am UTC
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