John, Have you tried the open source Nouveau drivers? They have been (mostly) working for me with Ubuntu 11.04 amd64 desktop with a nVidia Corporation G72 [GeForce 7300 LE] (rev a1). unity is working, so "effects" are working.
I had difficulty installing the Nouveau drivers, because the gui "Additional Drivers" program only listed nVidia drivers and merely installing the Nouveau drivers from synaptic or apt-get does not enable them. Here's what worked for me, mostly from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1423210: 1. Install libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental. (You need this.) I also added ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates to my repositories and updated my system. I'm not sure that this is necessary. Open the terminal and type the following commands: Code: sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf (and select the alternative provided by mesa) (Here's what I see on my machine: mikey@hatshepsut:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config gl_conf [sudo] password for mikey: There are 3 choices for the alternative gl_conf (providing /etc/ld.so.conf.d/GL.conf). Selection Path Priority Status ------------------------------------------------------------ 0 /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf 9700 auto mode * 1 /usr/lib/mesa/ld.so.conf 500 manual mode 2 /usr/lib/nvidia-173/ld.so.conf 9620 manual mode 3 /usr/lib/nvidia-current/ld.so.conf 9700 manual mode Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: ) Code: sudo ldconfig sudo update-initramfs -u sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_old and restart your computer. After running update-alternatives -- config gl_conf, the open source drivers now appear in "Additonal Drivers". they are listed as " Experimental 3D support for nVidia Cards". -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to nvidia-graphics-drivers in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/728745 Title: [nvidia, 7300, 7400] display freeze when using unity desktop _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
