NVIDIA Graphic driver issue

[wind crest]

Hello ! I’d like to get some help with my graphic driver. First of all I need to inform you that I am very new to Linux and this is all very unfamiliar to me, but so far i really like it !

I have issues with certains games on steam that are unplayable because the game launches, but there was nothing on screen even though I could hear some music from the game menu. After a little research, results suggested it was a common issue with « le nouveau ». I opened Linux Mint Driver manager but there is nothing here : it just looks for drivers and then tells me « No pilote is necessary on your computer », no option available or anything, That’s when I decided to try and manually update my graphic card’s driver. Wooaw. Needless to say, I was in for a ride.

So I followed both these tutorials without success :

https://www.baeldung.com/linux/nvidia-drivers-latest-install-run

https://www.malekal.com/installer-pilotes-nvidia-linux/

This is the driver i went for :

https://www.nvidia.com/fr-fr/drivers/details/153784/

It failed because in the installation process I encountered this error and that’s where I was like ok now i need some help ^^"

After consulting various threads in mint-support/linux support and checking out https://discord.com/channels/628978428019736619/1429152383018991697 which i didn’t follow the instructions yet since I am now wondering is this at all possible since my graphic card is over 10y old. I haven’t disabled secure boot yet, let me know if i should. Apparently switching to 6.8 series Kernel might help but i’m not sure what that really means like do i have to re-install a different version of LinuxMint ? Please help, i’m really confused.

What I get from inxi -Gx

  Device-1: NVIDIA GK104M [GeForce GTX 670MX] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: N/A
    arch: Kepler bus-ID: 01:00.0
  Device-2: Sunplus Innovation ASUS Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
    bus-ID: 4-1.3:4
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting,nouveau unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: swrast gpu: N/A
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: swrast platforms: active: x11,surfaceless,device
    inactive: gbm,wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 vendor: mesa v: 25.0.7-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 glx-v: 1.4
    direct-render: yes renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 20.1.2 256 bits)```

and my system specs

Also I think i now have « le nouveau » disabled (and maybe « blacklisted » as the first tutorial told me to) since it gets extremely laggy (absolutely unplayable, like moving the cursos takes half a minute) or doesn’t work at all when i try to launch games. I’d like to know what I should to correct all that and if there is a solution to maybe just make the default driver actually display the games that seem to run otherwise.

Thank you for your kind help and precious advice

[viral forum]

you need to disable secure boot

drivers will not load without that disabled

[wind crest]

I followed the steps in https://discord.com/channels/628978428019736619/1429152383018991697 but then when I type mokutil --sb i still get Secureboot enabled

[viral forum]

power off your computer, hold the BIOS key (usually f2, f8, f12 or DEL) and power it back on

then navigate to the boot section and see if you can disable secure boot

[wind crest]

Thank you, it is now disabled. But there is still no driver list or anything in the Driver Manager tool. Should i go back to trying the manual installation now that i have disabled secureboot ?

[viral forum]

well since you disabled/blacklisted the nvidia drivers you'll probably have to undo that for them to work fully

[wind crest]

Ok, and would remove the newly created "blacklist-nouveau.conf" file be enough ?

[viral forum]

it might be, i don't really have much expierence with these drivers but try it

(MAKE SURE TO MAKE A TIMESHIFT SNAPSHOT FIRST THO)

[wind crest]

I removed the file but i'm pretty sure nothing really changed, games can't run properly because too laggy and I feel like it's the cpu that is operating the graphics, not the gpu

[pseudo steppe]

You might need the older kernel 6.8 or even install older mint version. Cause thats really old gpu and might be not supported

[wind crest]

Thanks for your anwser, but how does that work ? Do I have to re-install a different version of Linux Mint or can i just try that out with a line of command ? And btw how is 6.8 older than 6.14 is it me or do i have to learn a new way of counting ? 😂

[bold wolf]

on my 11 year old computer with a GTX 1070 I run the 6.8 kernel with the 535 driver.

You can install the 6.8 kernel from the view menu in the update manager.