[Newbies] How to Install Nvidia .run Legacy Driver on Deepin?
Tofloor
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FairyKid64
deepin
2022-04-12 13:00
Author

Hello everyone. I am new to Deepin Linux, but I like it so far. I have just been having a really hard time installing the proper Nvidia drivers for my Sony Vaio VGN-FZ340E laptop. From running the inxi -G command, I am told that I have a GeForce 8400M GT graphics card installed. So, according to Nvidia's website (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/legacy-gpu/), I need the 340.xx driver. I was able to find the driver also on their website (https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/156163/en-us).

However, when I try to install the driver following these instructions (https://bbs.deepin.org/en/post/151191?offset=1&limit=20#reback_title), it doesn't work. It just errors out and says the instalation was unsucessful. Are these instructions outdated? What do I need to do to get this driver installed? The default Nvidia drivers from instalation are barely functional, only allowing me to choose a low resolution of 1024x768 even though my screen is 1080p. Also, whenever I wake the computer from sleep mode, it freezes. The open source drivers are even worse as they cause the computer to just freeze randomly when running normally.

Thank you in advance for your help. I hope I can get this working and don't have to look for another Linux distro. Deepin Linux does seem pretty cool otherwise.

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wormho1e
deepin
2022-04-12 13:46
#1

hi,ya. considering you are fresh in deepin, I guess the version you have is 20.5. Great, that goes smooth .What I would say is installing closed driver, that means, you'd better (or must) choose closed nvidia driver during the installation. BTW, I have same problems like you several days ago, resonablily, i'm rookie. Actually, we can just solve this issue precisely by run: sudo apt install nvidia-settings nvidia-smi in terminal if you have done what I said before.

Then run nvidia-smi in terminal to ensure things goes well, if output works we succed in install nvidia driver. Furthermore, consider display combination (nvidia+Intel), a slight APP: dde-dock-switch_graphics_card will give you a great help when you want to switch display strategy manually.

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神末shenmo
deepin
Spark-App
Q&A Team
2022-04-12 17:37
#2

I don't think you need to install a newer version of Nvidia driver before you install the legacy one.

I have a Chinese install guide. Well I don't really trust google translate.


Hey. You don't have to install the driver manually. It's right in the deepin reposity

sudo apt install nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver

I think that would work.

However I didn't tried this because I'm using 510 version of driver

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神末shenmo
deepin
Spark-App
Q&A Team
2022-04-12 17:38
#3

Also there is a convenient application that can detect the most recommended driver for you

sudo apt install nvidia-detect

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FairyKid64
deepin
2022-04-12 21:13
#4
神末shenmo

I don't think you need to install a newer version of Nvidia driver before you install the legacy one.

I have a Chinese install guide. Well I don't really trust google translate.


Hey. You don't have to install the driver manually. It's right in the deepin reposity

sudo apt install nvidia-legacy-340xx-driver

I think that would work.

However I didn't tried this because I'm using 510 version of driver

Thank you 神末shenmo for your help! I followed your instructions, and I think everything went well. However, when I rebooted, it appears nothing has changed. It seems like it's still using the original Nvidia drivers that came with Deepin when I first installed it. How do I switch drivers? Is it possible to just get rid of the original Nvidia drivers so it always chooses the 340.xx drivers I just installed?

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神末shenmo
deepin
Spark-App
Q&A Team
2022-04-12 21:19
#5
FairyKid64

Thank you 神末shenmo for your help! I followed your instructions, and I think everything went well. However, when I rebooted, it appears nothing has changed. It seems like it's still using the original Nvidia drivers that came with Deepin when I first installed it. How do I switch drivers? Is it possible to just get rid of the original Nvidia drivers so it always chooses the 340.xx drivers I just installed?

https://github.com/zty199/dde-dock-switch_graphics_card

This is a dde-dock plugin developed by @忘记、过去。Install it and switch tp Nvidia mode.

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FairyKid64
deepin
2022-04-13 11:08
#6
神末shenmo

https://github.com/zty199/dde-dock-switch_graphics_card

This is a dde-dock plugin developed by @忘记、过去。Install it and switch tp Nvidia mode.

Thank you again for your help. I wasn't sure about the github program, so what I ended up doing was reinstallling Deepin Linux without the closed source Nvidia drivers, and then once I was in to the OS, I installed the legacy drivers again, and rebooted. Now I can't even get to the log in screen. It just shows a blinking cursor under the "fsckd-cancel-msg:Press Ctrl+C to cancel all filesystem checks in progress" message. If I wait long enough, it takes me to another page of text saying things like "Laptop Mode Tools", "Bluetooth Support", "Network", etc... When I press enter on this screen, it takes me back to the previous screen with the blinking cursor. So, the computer is not frozen, but it is not loading the login screen. Any thoughts as to what I can do?

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神末shenmo
deepin
Spark-App
Q&A Team
2022-04-13 16:54
#7
FairyKid64

Thank you again for your help. I wasn't sure about the github program, so what I ended up doing was reinstallling Deepin Linux without the closed source Nvidia drivers, and then once I was in to the OS, I installed the legacy drivers again, and rebooted. Now I can't even get to the log in screen. It just shows a blinking cursor under the "fsckd-cancel-msg:Press Ctrl+C to cancel all filesystem checks in progress" message. If I wait long enough, it takes me to another page of text saying things like "Laptop Mode Tools", "Bluetooth Support", "Network", etc... When I press enter on this screen, it takes me back to the previous screen with the blinking cursor. So, the computer is not frozen, but it is not loading the login screen. Any thoughts as to what I can do?

I'm afraid I can't help you this time... I don't know what happened either.

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FairyKid64
deepin
2022-04-14 05:20
#8
神末shenmo

I'm afraid I can't help you this time... I don't know what happened either.

Okay, thank you anyways. If you think of anything so I can get to the log in screen with the new drivers, that would be great. You're a very nice person and thank you for your help.

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