How I fixed my Display resolution by installing NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Last night I installed Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux on my desktop PC by completely whipping out Windows 7 OS. So after proper Linux installation the first problem I faced was low resolution display which was totally annoying me given that I have a NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 TI graphics card installed in the machine. My monitor’s resolution is 1368×768 but Ubuntu defaulted it to 960×540. So I searched over Google and found some solutions and started applying all until I got my result. Now I’m writing all the methods that worked for me to fix this problem.

I assume that you’ve updated the system after OS installation. If not then write this commands in the terminal. Use CTRL + ALT + T to open Ubuntu Terminal.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

So first we need to detect the model of Nvidia graphic card and the recommended driver. To detect it execute this:

$ ubuntu-drivers devices

The result will be like this —

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0 ==
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00001380sv00001043sd000084BEbc03sc00i00
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
model    : GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
manual_install: True
driver   : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-driver-390 - distro non-free recommended
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

So the above output say that I’ve NVIDIA Geforce GTX 750 Ti graphic card installed and the recommended drive to install is nvidia-390 .

Now run this command in the Ubuntu Terminal to install nvidia driver automatically —

$ sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

or Alternatively install desired driver selectively —

$ sudo apt install nvidia-390

After completing the installation, reboot system.

Ps. This above method didn’t work for me. But I put it here thinking that it may work for someone else judging by it’s the easiest way out there.But I did everything manually. All the steps are mentioned below.

Manual Installation steps:

First lets download the desired Nvidia Driver from their official website. I already know my desired driver, it’s NVIDIA-390. Save the file into your home directory or Downloads directory. Mine was in Download directory. To move to download directory from home directory just use this command in your terminal —

$ cd Downloads/

Then type ls command in terminal —

$ ls

And you’ll see your Nvidia driver in the terminal.

Now let’s install the driver. To do so write these commands and execute —

$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install build-essential libc6:i386

These commands will require your system password.

Cool! We’re not almost but halfway done. Now you need to disable your Nouveau Kernel Driver. In the terminal, enter the following commands —

$ sudo bash -c "echo blacklist nouveau > /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf"
$ sudo bash -c "echo options nouveau modeset=0 >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf"

After executing, now let’s confirm the content of new modprobe config file —

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf

and it will return this result —

blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0

Then you need to update the kernel initramfs.

$ sudo update-initramfs -u

Once done, Reboot the system.

$ sudo reboot

After rebooting what happend with me that I got super panicked. Don’t get panicked because it’s normal. Let me explain what happened. We just disabled Nouveau Kernal Display Server, so currently no UI to work with. But now we’ll stop this current display server so that we can install Nvidia driver. Just try hitting CTRL + ALT + F1 to F12 . Mine worked at F2. You’ll see a login panel, enter your username and password to open a new TTY1 session. After login, enter this commands to proceed —

$ sudo telinit 3

Cool!!! Now we’re almost done. Now it’s time to install the Nvidia Driver. To start the installation, first navigate to the Downloads directory or wherever your Nvidia driver is currently on. Remember you’ll need root access to install this driver. First execute this command —

$ sudo su

This command will give you the root access. Now execute this —

$ bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.77.run

Now you need to —

1. Accept License
2. The distribution-provide pre-install script failed! Are you sure you want to continue? -> CONTINUE INSTALLATION
3. Install all NVIDIA's 32-bit compatibility libraries? -> YES
4. Would you like to run the nvidia-xconfig utility? -> YES

BINGO!!! The Nvidia driver is now installed. Reboot your system. After reboot you should be able to start NVIDIA X Server Settings app from the Activities menu.

Now from that app you’ll be able to change your display resolution.

I hope this fixed your problem too.

Thanks,

Dibakar Sutra Dhar

#happyProgramming