Graphic drivers on Linux

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Revision as of 11:19, 27 September 2025 by AngeUshiromiya (talk | contribs) (Update drivers installation instructions)
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This page needs work, for the following reason(s): This page is heavily outdated.


To play games on Linux, you'll need to use the right graphics drivers. Linux hardware detection should just work but there are notable exceptions.

Gettings drivers

Don't download drivers from official websites. Even if it's the recommended way by some hardware vendors like AMD, that's not how it works on Linux. Most distributions should correctly detect and use appropriate open source drivers for your hardware by default (except for Nvidia). Follow your distribution official instructions to install graphics drivers if you aren't sure.

Linux Mint

Go to the "Driver Manager" from the launch menu, in the "Administration" tab to list available drivers[1]. Select the driver and click on "Apply Changes" to install them and reboot.

Ubuntu

Open the "Software & Updates", go to the "Additional Drivers" tab, select the driver and click on "Apply Changes" to install them. If you prefer to use a terminal emulator, you can run sudo ubuntu-drivers install (it will choose the driver version automatically) and reboot your PC. If you want to install a specific version, run sudo ubuntu-drivers list then sudo ubuntu-drivers install nvidia:535 for example[2].

Arch Linux

For Nvidia hardware, install the driver you need depending on your card and kernel[3]. Enable multilib[4] to install 32-bit libraries required by 32-bit games, update all your packages with sudo pacman -Syu, install Nvidia 32-bit support[5] and reboot. If you want to use Archinstall to set up your system, there's a menu to install graphics drivers from different vendors[6].

See also

  • Mesa Project - Official site of the Mesa project, the overarching project for open source OpenGL drivers (including Intel, AMD and unofficial NVIDIA) on Linux.
  • X.org Wiki - Wiki for the X.org project (X server, drivers and various parts of the graphics stack)
  • Freedesktop.org Wiki - Information on graphics drivers and desktop standards on Linux
  • Wayland Wiki - Information on Wayland, the successor to the X server
  1. ↑ https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/drivers.html
  2. ↑ https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/how-to/graphics/install-nvidia-drivers/index.html
  3. ↑ https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA#Installation
  4. ↑ https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Official_repositories#Enabling_multilib
  5. ↑ https://www.gamingonlinux.com/guides/view/how-to-install-update-and-see-what-graphics-driver-you-have-on-linux-and-steamos/
  6. ↑ https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall/blob/master/archinstall/lib/hardware.py#L58
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