Installing Nvidia driver Ubuntu 10.04 Satellite Pro 6100

Yes I did it I got Ubuntu 10.04 up and running on my old Toshiba
Satellite Pro. I have OpenOffice running (and am writing this article
with it) I can print to the shared printer attached to my wifes
computer, I can scan documents into my computer life is good. Now to
make my video work really nice.

I noticed that I had no video driver installed so I was viewing
everything with default settings. This was all good and fine except I
wasn't using the capabilities of the built in Nvidia4 420 Go 3D video
card. This of course I had to change. But doing this was much harder
than I had expected. I will explain the steps I took to install and
make it work.

I had to search the Internet for pieces of what I needed, then do a
bit of trial and error to get it installed and working. I ran into all
sorts of stoppers like blank screens, no Xorg.conf file after loading
Nvidia driver. and the

computer not letting me edit Xorg.conf file I later created. There was
no step by step instructions until now.

1. 
   At the top Menu select System
   
   
   1. 
      Then select Administration
      
   2. 
      Then select Hardware drivers (The computer will now scan for
      drivers)
      

2. 
   The Computer will find an Nvidia driver
   
   
   1. 
      Select Activate (The driver will not be activated until a
      reboot has happened)
      
3. 
   At the top Menu select Applications
   
   
   1. 
      Select Accessories
      
   2. 
      Select Terminal and type in the following in sequence.
      
      
      • 
        sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg -phigh (then hit the
        Enter key)
        
      • 
        sudo nvidia-xconfig (then hit the Enter key)
        
      • 
        gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf (then hit the Enter key)
        You will need to enter your system password. This will open up a text
        editor and allow you to edit the Xorg.conf file.
        
   3. 
      Look for the Screen section and add these two lines:
      
      
      • 
        Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP" (add this right under
        Section "Screen")
        
      • Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" (add this under
        DefaultDepth 24)
        
        
      • Example Before:
        
        Section "Screen"
                Identifier "Screen0"
                Device "Device0"
                Monitor "Monitor0"
                DefaultDepth 24
            SubSection "Display"
                    Depth 24
                    Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
            EndSubSection
        EndSection
        
        
        
      • 
        Example after:
        
        Section "Screen"
                Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP"
                identifier "Screen0"
                Device "Device0"
                Monitor "Monitor0"
                DefaultDepth 24
                Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
           SubSection "Display"
                   Depth 24
                   Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
           EndSubSection
        EndSection
        
        d. Select File
        e. Select Save
        f. Reboot Computer
        
        
        

You should now be able to boot into Unbuntu 10.04 and have the
Nvidia video driver working on your Satellite Pro 6100. Of course this
will probably work on many other laptops so this information should
help others with similar issues.