Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Install Lubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) with nvidia drivers and keep Windows 8 on the side

Long time no blog... quite busy both at work and with my little one ;-)
Barely have time to play around with my laptop...

So here is the deal :

1) Install Lubuntu 13.04 following one of my previous posts (why starting with 13.04 ? Because the alternate installer for 13.10 is crashing during software installation :-( - at least for me)

2) When you have 13.04 fresh, just perform a :

sudo do-release-upgrade and follow instructions

3) Then (don't install nvidia-prime yet or it will mess up everything unless you're on unflavored Ubuntu) :

sudo apt-get install nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319

4) For your records, here is the original thread on launchpad regarding the nvidia-prime issue :



and install it using :

sudo dpkg -i nvidia-prime_0.4.2~ubuntu13.10.1_all.deb

5) Reboot and enjoy nvidia power ;-)

6) Also, if you ever lost your Windows 8 entry in grub on the way, here is the magic recipe :

sudo vi /etc/default/grub and add GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true at the end

7) Search for the magic String !
This command :

sudo grub-probe --target=fs_uuid /boot/efi/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

will output a String like XXXX-XXXX, copy it and then create a custom menu entry for Windows 8 with sudo vi /etc/grub.d/40_custom like this :

menuentry "Microsoft Windows_8" {
search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root XXXX-XXXX
chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

8) Run sudo update-grub2 so that the menu entries gets regenerated

9) Reboot and enjoy !



6 comments:

  1. Hello! I am about to install Xubuntu following your posts.. but there is no alternate installer for 13.10 or 13.04.
    Is installing 12.10 and updating the only way to get xubuntu functional and updated on this laptop?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dario,
    To the best of my knowledge this is you best - not to say unique - option.
    Please don't hesitate to give feedback of your experience installing Xubuntu.
    Sebastien

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello,
    Thank's for this nice Blog. I'm sure you help a lot of People.

    I tried to setup the nvidia Patch and configure - it fails -.- could you please post your configfile? Mabey this will help me.

    Thank's max

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Max,

    Thanks for your feedback. Which step exactly is causing you issues ? Step 4 ?
    Since the original issue regarding nvidia-prime seems to have been fixed by now, you can skip it and simply install nvidia-prime using :

    sudo apt-get install nvidia-prime

    If you still have issues please provide the exact step, the file you're looking for and I will post it for you.

    Sebastien

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi Sebastien,

    Thank you for you Feedback. Your steps work fine. But if I change the xorg.conf, xserver dont start, but the logfile is empty. I think its just an error in thr xorg.conf. I hope, you will post yours to merge it if mine

    ReplyDelete
  6. Here is my xorg.conf if it can help. Sorry for the delay :

    # Warning: This file is autogenerated by nvidia-prime. All changes to this file will be lost.

    Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout"
    Screen 0 "nvidia"
    Inactive "intel"
    EndSection

    Section "Device"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Driver "nvidia"
    BusID "1:0:0"
    EndSection

    Section "Screen"
    Identifier "nvidia"
    Device "nvidia"
    # Uncomment this line if your computer has no display devices connected to
    # the NVIDIA GPU. Leave it commented if you have display devices
    # connected to the NVIDIA GPU that you would like to use.
    Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"
    EndSection

    Section "Device"
    Identifier "intel"
    Driver "modesetting"
    EndSection

    Section "Screen"
    Identifier "intel"
    Device "intel"
    EndSection

    ReplyDelete