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Nvidia released a new beta driver for Linux on April to support the new Geforce 9 series. Even though it’s a beta version, I’m totally satisfied with it.

To install, download the driver from Nvidia. http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_173.08.html

There are several things that needs to be done before installing the new driver.

Uninstall linux-restricted-modules-common packages:

$ sudo apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules-common

Or, you can also disable it from /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common:

$ sudo nano /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common

Edit the DISABLE_MODULES = “” to DISABLE MODULES = “nv nvidia_new”

Now we’re ready for the new driver installation. However, in order to install it, we need to quit from x server by stopping GDM:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Xserver will quit and you’ll be brought into a command line interface. Enter your username and password, change the directory to the folder you’ve downloaded the driver and install:

$ sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.08-pkg1.run

Read the prompted messages carefully. After the installation is finished, start GDM:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

If everything works well, there will be an NVIDIA splash screen before the login window. This indicates that the driver has been successfully installed. Additionally, you can also install Compiz Advanced Settings Manager to configure your desktop effects:

$ sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

EDITED:

Here are some screenshots of Compiz in action.