How to Install NVIDIA Drivers on Ubuntu and Linux Mint (2025 Guide)

If you are running Ubuntu or Linux Mint with an NVIDIA GPU, installing the proper proprietary driver is one of the first things you should take care of. Out of the box, most Linux distributions use the open source nouveau driver. It is good enough to get a desktop on the screen, but it does not unlock the full power of your graphics card, especially for gaming, video editing, 3D rendering, or CUDA workloads.

With the right driver in place, your system can take advantage of hardware acceleration, better performance, smoother animations, multi monitor setups, and modern technologies such as Vulkan and improved Wayland support. To see which versions are currently available for Linux, you can always check the official NVIDIA Unix driver page.

This tutorial walks through everything step by step: how to identify your GPU, how to prepare the system, and several ways to install NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. The goal is for beginners to feel comfortable, without taking away the control that more advanced users usually want.

Step 1: Identify Your NVIDIA GPU Model

Before talking about driver versions, you need to know exactly which GPU is inside your machine. That information determines which branch is supported and which package makes sense to install.

Open a terminal and run:

lspci | grep VGA

You should see a line mentioning NVIDIA, for example something like GK104 [GeForce GT 730] or a more recent RTX model. Make a note of that model name. If you are curious about how Linux discovers and lists hardware devices, you can find a deeper explanation in the Linux kernel hardware documentation.

Step 2: Prepare Your System Before Installing

A bit of preparation will save you from many common problems such as black screens, broken desktops, or conflicting drivers. Take a moment to go through these checks before installing anything.

Update your system packages

First update your package lists and upgrade installed packages so that dependencies are consistent with the current kernel:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Once the process is finished, it is a good idea to reboot if the system tells you that a new kernel or important libraries have been installed.

Check kernel compatibility

NVIDIA drivers are tightly coupled with the Linux kernel. On Ubuntu and Linux Mint, sticking with the default kernel that ships with your release is usually the safest choice. If you are using custom kernels, make sure the headers are installed so DKMS can build the NVIDIA kernel module when needed.

• Read More: How to Check Linux OS Version on Any Distro

Disable the nouveau driver

Most Ubuntu and Linux Mint installations load the open source nouveau driver automatically. To avoid conflicts, it is recommended to disable it when you move to the proprietary driver. The exact method can vary, but in general you blacklist the module and rebuild the initramfs. Canonical provides a good overview of how to manage kernel modules in the Ubuntu documentation on kernel drivers.

Backup important data

Driver installation normally does not touch your personal files, but any operation that changes core system components always carries a small risk. Having a recent backup means you can experiment more confidently.

Step 3: Choose an Installation Method

Ubuntu and Linux Mint give you several ways to install NVIDIA drivers. They all lead to the same goal, so you can pick the method that matches your experience level and how much control you want.

Method 1: Use the automatic ubuntu-drivers tool

This is the simplest and most beginner friendly approach. Ubuntu provides a helper tool that scans your hardware and suggests the best driver for it.

First, detect which drivers are available for your GPU:

ubuntu-drivers devices

The output lists your NVIDIA card and mentions several driver options, usually with one entry marked as recommended. To automatically install the recommended driver, run:

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

When the installation finishes, reboot the system:

sudo reboot

This method follows the same approach as described in the official Ubuntu documentation for NVIDIA drivers, which is a useful reference if you want to double check anything.

Method 2: Install a specific driver version with APT

If you prefer to choose the exact version yourself instead of relying on the automatic selection, you can install the driver directly with apt. Typical package names look like nvidia-driver-550 or similar, depending on your Ubuntu or Linux Mint version.

For example, to install the 550 series driver, you could run:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-550

You can inspect the available branches and their versions using the Ubuntu package index for nvidia-driver-550. That page shows which Ubuntu releases ship the package and which exact version is present in each one.

After installation, reboot again so the kernel loads the new modules and X or Wayland uses the proprietary driver.

Method 3: Use the Graphics Drivers PPA for newer releases

Sometimes the driver version in the official repositories is a bit behind what NVIDIA offers upstream. If you need a newer branch, you can use the well known Graphics Drivers PPA, which tracks fresh NVIDIA drivers for recent Ubuntu releases.

Add the PPA and refresh your package list:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update

Then you can either:

• Use ubuntu-drivers devices again and let it pick from the newer drivers available through the PPA.
• Install a specific version such as nvidia-driver-555 or another series that fits your GPU.

A practical walkthrough of these methods on a modern release can be found in guides like this example on installing NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 24.04, which uses similar steps with screenshots.

Method 4: Install the driver manually from NVIDIA's .run file

For advanced users, there is also the option of downloading the driver installer directly from NVIDIA as a .run file. This is usually only necessary if you need a very specific driver version that is not yet available in your distribution or the PPA.

You can start by going to the official NVIDIA driver download page and selecting your GPU model and Linux as the operating system. After downloading the installer, switch to a virtual console or exit your graphical session, then run:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-XXXXXX.run

Follow the on screen prompts. When the installer finishes, reboot your system. Keep in mind that this method bypasses your distribution's package management, so updates and uninstall steps are more manual. It is powerful, but better suited to users who are already comfortable troubleshooting Linux graphics issues.

Step 4: Recommended Driver Series in 2025

NVIDIA regularly updates its Linux drivers, and the branches move forward over time. According to the NVIDIA Unix drivers list, the latest production branch for Linux x86_64 in late 2025 is in the 580 series, with legacy support still provided via the 470 series for older GPUs.

On the Ubuntu side, the 550 series driver is widely available for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and newer releases through the standard repositories and receives security and stability updates there. You can verify this in the nvidia-driver-550 package entry for Ubuntu, which shows it as a restricted package maintained by the Ubuntu core developers.

In practice, for most users on Ubuntu or Linux Mint in 2025:

• The 550 series from the official repositories is a very solid default choice.
• Newer series like 555 or 560 from the Graphics Drivers PPA can be useful if you need improved Wayland support or fixes for very new GPUs.
• Older cards that are no longer supported by the current branches should stick to the legacy 470 series driver.

The simplest way to avoid guessing is still to let ubuntu-drivers devices recommend a driver, since it takes both your hardware and your distribution version into account.

Step 5: Verify That the NVIDIA Driver Is Working

After you install the driver and reboot, you should confirm that everything loaded correctly.

Check with nvidia-smi

Open a terminal and run:

nvidia-smi

If the driver is active, you will see a table that includes your GPU name, driver version, CUDA version, and a list of running processes that use the GPU. If you get an error saying that it cannot communicate with the NVIDIA driver, then something went wrong and you may still be using the nouveau driver or no driver at all.

Check loaded kernel modules

You can also confirm that the NVIDIA kernel modules are loaded with:

lsmod | grep nvidia

You should see entries like nvidia, nvidia_drm and nvidia_modeset. If nothing appears, the proprietary modules are not loaded, and you will need to revisit the previous steps to see where the installation failed.

Hybrid graphics and PRIME

On laptops that use both integrated graphics (such as Intel or AMD) and NVIDIA, Ubuntu and Linux Mint rely on PRIME to switch between them. Once the driver is installed, you can use tools like the NVIDIA X Server Settings panel or distribution specific utilities to choose performance mode or power saving mode, depending on your workload.

Conclusion

Installing NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu and Linux Mint has become much more approachable than it used to be. As long as you take a few minutes for preparation, let the system detect your GPU, and choose a suitable installation method, you can usually get a stable and high performance setup without too much drama.

For most users, the automatic ubuntu-drivers autoinstall method combined with the standard Ubuntu repositories is more than enough. Intermediate and advanced users may prefer APT, the Graphics Drivers PPA, or the manual .run installer when they need more control. 

Whatever path you choose, verifying the installation with nvidia-smi and checking the loaded kernel modules will give you confidence that everything is working as intended.

Once the driver is in place, you can start focusing on what the GPU is meant for: playing games, rendering videos, running machine learning workloads, or simply enjoying a much smoother Linux desktop on Ubuntu or Linux Mint.