Topics: How-to guide Graphics

Install NVIDIA drivers

If you have an NVIDIA GPU, you can install official NVIDIA drivers to improve desktop and gaming performance or support computing tasks.

Warning

NVIDIA drivers installed from sources outside of those listed in this guide might potentially overwrite those provided by Ubuntu and might break Secure Boot.

We recommend installing the drivers provided by Ubuntu packages rather than downloading drivers from NVIDIA. The Ubuntu packages ensure that you install libraries compatible with your Ubuntu release.

Driver management tools

We recommend using the ubuntu-drivers tool or the Additional Drivers app to manage drivers. They share the same logic. By default, these tools only install the pre-built, signed drivers, which are known to work with Secure Boot.

Refer to Build your own kernel modules using the NVIDIA DKMS package if you have a specific use case that requires the DKMS drivers.

Check driver versions

To check the version of your currently running driver:

  1. Open the Additional Drivers app.

    If you can’t find the app on your system, you can install it from the software-properties-gtk package.

  2. See which driver is selected under “NVIDIA Corporation”.

    Nouveau is usually pre-selected as the default, open-source driver.

$
cat /proc/driver/nvidia/version

If you currently have a version of the NVIDIA drivers installed that conflicts with those being installed, ubuntu-drivers will uninstall your original drivers before installing the new drivers.

Update your system and kernel

  1. Apply all updates.

    Open the Software Updater app and install all available updates.

    $
    sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

  2. After the update is complete, reboot your system.

Install the drivers for desktop and gaming use

For the generic desktop use and gaming, we package the Unified Driver Architecture (UDA) drivers. These drivers also support computing use cases such as AI and machine learning. You can also find them on the NVIDIA website.

  1. Open the Additional Drivers app.

    If you can’t find the app on your system, you can install it from the software-properties-gtk package.

  2. Under “NVIDIA Corporation”, choose your preferred driver version.

    We recommend the most recent NVIDIA driver with the “proprietary, tested” label. Avoid the “Server” drivers.

    For example, you might select Using NVIDIA driver (open kernel) metapackage from nvidia-driver-525 (proprietary, tested).

    Note

    The “open kernel” driver is a new, open-source implementation of the NVIDIA kernel driver for recent GPUs. It depends on proprietary GPU firmware and proprietary user-space libraries.

  3. Click Apply changes and enter your password.

  4. When the installation is complete, restart your system for the changes to take effect.

  1. Check the available drivers for your hardware:

    $
    sudo ubuntu-drivers list

  2. Install the drivers.

    You can rely on automatic detection, which will install the driver that is considered the best match for your hardware:

    $
    sudo ubuntu-drivers install

    Alternatively, you can specify which driver you want. You have to type the driver version (such as 535) that you saw when you used the ubuntu-drivers list command.

    Let’s assume we want to install the 535 driver:

    $
    sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:535

  3. When the installation is complete, restart your system for the changes to take effect.

Transitional packages to new driver branches

When NVIDIA stops support on a driver branch, Ubuntu will transition you to the next supported driver branch automatically if you try to install that driver branch.

See NVIDIA’s current support matrix in their documentation.

Troubleshooting