Upgrading graphics drivers in Ubuntu 11.04 - the Natty Narwhal

[Droid]

I've been installing the above on my Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 and all is well for the most part. The only downer is the graphics driver. It has the Geforce 4 420 go chip on board as far as I know, but it is only running a basic get-you-going driver. The main issue is graphics break up (like a split screen) when I restart the lappy and the only way to get it back is to shut it down and reboot. None of of the openGL screensavers work either, so I know it's a driver issue.

Firstly how do I update the driver? Secondly where do I look to check system hardware like the Windows Device Manager?

I've tried the Ubuntu Software Centre and the Synaptics Package Manager, but none seem to cater for what I need.

Any ideas please?
TIA

[mackerel]

From memory, if it detects you have an nvidia device it prompts you in the top-right bit of the screen if you want to use the restricted driver. That is the one provided by nvidia as opposed to the generic one, with dire warnings of close sourced-ness and they can't fix anything wrong with it. Having said that, I haven't used a recent version much so they may have changed it.

[Mortlake]

basically what mackerel says is true - go into system settings (red background with gear and diagonal spanner) then select additional drivers , if it has detected an nVidia card you should get at least one proprietary driver listed, just select and activate.

[Droid]

There is a "highly experimental" 3D acceleration driver listed there, so I'll activate it and keep me fingers crossed . Thanks guys. I'll let you know how it goes.

/edit. Sorry, no good. Screen still breaks on restarting and the GL screensaver's still not working . Oh well was worth a try. Guess the lappy's just not up to it...Thanks anyway guys.

[sujo1]

Here is a link for nivia drivers for linux, if you can get online.http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_archive.html Hope this helps.

[Droid]

Thanks Sujo. I'll see if I can use one of these

[sujo1]

How did that work out for you?

[Droid]

Still no joy. I'm thinking of just keeping the driver that works for now and possibly changing flavour from Ubuntu to something lighter that won't won't stress the P4 CPu as much. Any suggestions for a different penguin flavour?

[sujo1]

I understand that Mint 12 is easy to use and is also not so hardware intensive. I will download a copy and give it a try; then let you know for sure. My comps are medium sized quads so will try and see the drain per core. I do use nividia drivers so that may be of help. 1 question have you tried running the driver thru the MS emulator program?