How do I install a graphics-card driver?

[frankv]

1)go to administration, software source  and find & tick back ports
and for "Updated versions of X.org drivers, libraries, etc. for Ubuntu"
 add this PPA (see screen shot 1)
9:10-ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

OK... I got the first part of this done... for anyone else reading this, what I think joe12 meant was...
a. Go to System/Administration/Software Sources
b. Switch to the Updates tab
c. Tick the "Unsupported Updates (karmic-backports)" checkbox

Now, joe12, can you v.e.e.e.e.r.y......s.l.o.o.o.o.o.w.l.y please explain what you meant by 'and for "Updated versions of X.org drivers, libraries, etc. for Ubuntu" add this PPA (see screen shot 1) 9:10-ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates'?

I don't see "Updated versions of X.org drivers, libraries, etc. for Ubuntu" in 'Software Sources'.
I don't know what a PPA is... is '9:10-ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates' one perhaps?
There's no screenshot.

Thanks

Frank (a bear with a v.e.r.y...s.m.a.l.l brain 

[frankv]

  Googling I found https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates which told me the second part....

d. Click on the 'Other Software' tab
e. Click 'Add'
f. Paste 'ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates'
g. Click 'Add Source'

For Step 2 of joe12's instructions:
a. Click 'Close'
b. Click 'Reload' (this will popup when you click 'Close')
No reboot needed

Now for Step 3...

[joe12]

yes that right  a ppa allow's you to upload Ubuntu source packages to be built and published as an aptitude repository by Launchpad.
which mean's their help keep you pc update .

[frankv]

More progress...

Turns out that the only NVIDIA driver that works with the Riva TNT2 device is version 71.86.13. This can be downloaded from Nvidia's website.

Now that I've installed this, I can see the driver in the System/Administration/Hardware Drivers window.

One of the things the Nvidia installer does is to create a file called xorg.conf.new in the root directory. I copied this file over /etc/X11/xorg.conf

But I still don't have any resolutions above 800x600 available.

[frankv]

And finally success!!!! 

What was needed was to also add these lines

Code: [Select]

DisplaySize  325 243
HorizSync     30-70
VertRefresh    50-160
  # 1024x768 @ 85.00 Hz (GTF) hsync: 68.60 kHz; pclk: 94.39 MHz
  Modeline "1024x768_85.00"  94.39  1024 1088 1200 1376  768 769 772 807  -HSync +Vsync

into my xorg.conf file.

Surprisingly, I now also have a bunch of resolutions up to 1280x1024 and down to 320x175 to choose from.

[joe12]

good for you 

[krs205]

If you are using an Nvidia card you will need to download and install the proprietary drivers for 3D acceleration support. See http://www.ubuntulinuxguide.com/proprietarydrivers.htm If it is an AMD/ATI card it should work native with ubuntu but you could try getting the proprietary driver from ati.