Acer Aspire AX 1301 with Nvidia GT 220

I had a lot of trouble getting the Nvidia GT 220 graphics card driver.
After many failures, I installed the 6.15 kernel following this tutorial :
https://9to5linux.com/how-to-install-linux-kernel-6-15-on-ubuntu-25-04-and-ubuntu-24-10

It seems to be working by the Nvidia driver is now used by the system.
Verified by the order sudo lshw -c video
There you go, if it can be useful... Hoping for contributions for the use of this old compact pc.
By the way, everything works but the startup is still slow as well as the first launch of the softwares...
Is it due to the original hard drive: Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 (ST6OA31B)?

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Hi, @Troll.Ant and welcome to the Ubuntu MATE Community!

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nvidia-smi will show you text version of the driver used.

I recommend changing the spin hard drive to an ssd.

paste output of inxi -F (nicely formatted)

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Hi, pavlos,

inxi -F

System:
  Host: nonox-Aspire-X1301 Kernel: 6.15.2-061502-generic arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: MATE v: 1.26.2 Distro: Ubuntu MATE 24.04.2 LTS (Noble Numbat)
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: Acer product: Aspire X1301 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Acer model: WMCP78M serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Phoenix
    v: P01-A0 date: 08/28/2009
CPU:
  Info: dual core model: AMD Athlon II X2 215 bits: 64 type: MCP cache:
    L2: 1024 KiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 800 min/max: 800/2700 cores: 1: 800 2: 800
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GT216 [GeForce GT 220] driver: nouveau v: kernel
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau resolution: 1024x768~60Hz
  API: EGL v: 1.4,1.5 drivers: nouveau,swrast
    platforms: gbm,x11,surfaceless,device
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 3.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.2.8-1ubuntu1~24.04.1
    renderer: NVA5
Audio:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP72XE/MCP72P/MCP78U/MCP78S High Definition Audio
    driver: snd_hda_intel
  Device-2: NVIDIA GT216 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.15.2-061502-generic status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.5 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: NVIDIA MCP77 Ethernet driver: forcedeth
  IF: enp0s10 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: 00:1f:16:fc:2b:4c
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 13.06 GiB (1.4%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Hitachi model: HDT721010SLA360 size: 931.51 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 915.81 GiB used: 13.06 GiB (1.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3.82 GiB used: 8 KiB (0.0%) file: /swap.img
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.9 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 72.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 11100
Info:
  Memory: total: 4 GiB available: 3.82 GiB used: 1.44 GiB (37.6%)
  Processes: 217 Uptime: 2h 18m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.34

I'm not so sure if the Nvidia is properly installed anymore... I'm not an expert so I'm waiting for your feedback...

for nvidia-smi
nvidia-utils-xxx is not installed...
And I don't know if I must install it and Which one ?

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this line tells me nvidia is not installed, uses nouveau driver.

nvidia-smi is part of nvidia, not utils.

You have only 4GB ram, maybe you can up it.

my pc:
Device-1: NVIDIA GK107 [GeForce GT 640] driver: nvidia v: 470.256.02

Try control Panel | additional drivers, it may suggest to select the nvidia.

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I wouldn't think he would need to download the driver. It should already be included in the kernal, but I'm no expert.

Run lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display

This should tell you the driver that's in use.

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I tried everything before installing the 6.15 kernel after reading that it supported this damn nvidia GT 220. :enraged_face:

ubuntu-drivers devices gives no feedback?

The motherboard of this Acer Aspire AX 1301 allows 4GB ram maximum...
I already read change for an ssd disk... It seems like a good idea but I don't want to spend any money on this old pc...
My project was to make it a retro-gaming station. For this point, I would open another thread :face_savoring_food:

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It seems GT 220 is too old for nvidia to produce drivers so you use the nouveau driver. The pc is 15+ years old so make it a gaming pc, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5c6KZLUWTM

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sudo lshw -c video

give

 *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       produit: GT216 [GeForce GT 220]
       fabricant: NVIDIA Corporation
       identifiant matériel: 0
       information bus: pci@0000:02:00.0
       nom logique: /dev/fb0
       version: a2
       bits: 64 bits
       horloge: 33MHz
       fonctionnalités: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom fb
       configuration : depth=32 driver=nouveau latency=0 resolution=1024,768
       ressources : irq:26 mémoire:fb000000-fbffffff mémoire:d0000000-dfffffff mémoire:ee000000-efffffff portE/S:bc00(taille=128) mémoire:c0000-dffff

I had understood (badly surely) that the return of this command confirmed to me that the Nvidia GT 220 was correctly recognized :cry:

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the graphics card IS recognized but there is no nvidia driver so you use nouveau (default)

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Thanks, I will watch that...

I use the 6.15 kernel for nothing ?
Should I go back to the old version ?

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this page provides a driver for GT 220 but you have to do it manually.

GeForce 200 Series

GeForce GTX 295, GeForce GTX 285, GeForce GTX 280, GeForce GTX 275, GeForce GTX 260, GeForce GTS 250, GeForce GTS 240, GeForce GT 230, GeForce GT 240, GeForce GT 220, GeForce G210, GeForce 210, GeForce 205

If all goes well, it will show using the nvidia driver 340.108

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I searched for hours without finding : thank you ! :star_struck:
I'll follow a tutorial to compile the driver (I think that's how they say).
Can you tell me if it's better to go back to the default kernel ?

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No compile ... keep the current kernel.

Once you d/l the file, something.run the additional info says:

Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running,
as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.108.run

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Arg :cry:
These are the drivers for 32-bit.
I didn't even watch lol the installer tells me that the kernel is incompatible and that I have to disable it...

I'm in 64-bit , on this subject I wonder if the The system wouldn't work better in 32-bit...
When I got this PC back it was in Windows 64-bit so I installed ubuntu mate 64-bit...
As I'm at the beginning of my adventure if I have to reinstall in 32-bit, what do you think?
thanks a lot for your answers :star_struck:

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Maybe you need to enable i386 architecture to allow the driver to install. Others with more experience will chime in. The .run file is a shell script you can use vi or nano to see the contents.

To enable 32-bit compatibility, you need those 3 lines.

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386

then try to do the install again (sh ./nvidia.run)

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Given the age of the PC, you could always check out for a possible archive at

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