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I had a nice email from Jorge Castro of Canonical today, and it seems they are looking at ways for Ubuntu users to get newer Nvidia graphics drivers in an easier fashion.

Currently, if you want to get newer drivers you need to either download them directly from Nvidia, which can get messy and confusing. Or even more annoying is to find a random PPA with more up to date drivers, neither is a very nice option, and it could be made a lot easier for the end user.

They look to still be going down the route of a PPA, but it's possible that the "additional drivers" manager will have an option for the latest upstream driver, and this would enable an official PPA. I think that's a fantastic solution, to an increasingly annoying problem. Bigger games are coming to Linux, and they are starting to need specific driver versions, so this needs to be looked at.

He also spoke about bringing in some of the latest stuff from SteamOS, so that would benefit gamers too.

You can see the mailing list entry here. It's a post well worth reading, and good to see the Ubuntu guys focus on gaming some more.

I will open up the floor to you lovely knowledgeable people for your thoughts on this.

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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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Keyrock Aug 11, 2015
I'm currently a Xubuntu user that uses the "random PPA" method. Honestly, it's not that much of a pain. Adding the PPA to the list of sources is a relatively pain-free process, and once that's done installation and updating is just as easy as from official sources. Still, it would be nice for there to be a more official PPA with the up to date drivers, potentially one that shows up in the Software Center, so that no googling is necessary for new users.
Liam Dawe Aug 11, 2015
Well, being a pain is a point of view, and for a less advanced user adding a PPA can be a real nuisance. Having an option to just check to get the latest = bliss.
abelthorne Aug 11, 2015
In the drivers tool that's supplied with Ubuntu, they have *-updates versions of the graphic drivers. Isn't it supposed to be a way to have up-to-date drivers or have I been mistaken for years?
Liam Dawe Aug 11, 2015
Quoting: abelthorneIn the drivers tool that's supplied with Ubuntu, they have *-updates versions of the graphic drivers. Isn't it supposed to be a way to have up-to-date drivers or have I been mistaken for years?

That whole thing is currently a mess, and needs better descriptions.
peterp771 Aug 11, 2015
Installing and updating drivers is easy if you know what to do. If you want the latest and greatest drivers from a PPA, it's usually involves a couple of lines of copy and paste into the terminal and that's it.

However, for newbies who don't know anything about the terminal, a more intuitive way would be preferable. So this might be a good idea.
kernel.havok Aug 11, 2015
Even though I consider myself a power user and/or developer, I'm glad to hear they're working on an official PPA -- this has been a long needed feature. From a security point of view I much prefer being on the downstream from Canonical/Nvidia rather than an Edger or System76 PPA. One less thing to go wrong on a linux desktop, IMHO.
ricki42 Aug 11, 2015
I've been downloading the drivers from nvidia. I don't really have a problem with that, but initially it took me some time to figure out what to do, including blacklisting nouveau and all that. Would be nice to have the current version in the official repositories.
ky0 Aug 11, 2015
I download the drivers from the nvidia site and the installation has been really easy.
After a fresh install you run the installation and it auto runs a script to blacklist nouveau. You reboot and then run the install again. Now everything installs fine. I usually throw another reboot to be 100% sure.

Voila, latest nvidia drivers
Slackdog Aug 11, 2015
Great news! anything that can make the process easier for people - was just thinking about this the other day actually!
OZSeaford Aug 11, 2015
Great stuff.

I now use the edgers ppa, but I would like this to be available from the official repositories on Ubuntu.

Simplicity is the way forward.
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