Install proprietary NVIDIA driver on Kali Linux – NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver

Step 6: Confirming your installation

At this point you should be able to login to your system in Graphical User Mode (GUI). In case you can’t, follow the troubleshooting section at the bottom of this article. As always, we need to check if everything went as expected.

Step 6.a: Check GLX Module

First check if system is using glx module.

glxinfo | grep -i "direct rendering"

It should output “direct rendering: Yes”

If you do not have glxinfo then first install mesa-utils package then again issue above command and check output

aptitude install mesa-utils

Step 6.b: Check NVIDIA Driver Module

Check if NVIDIA module loaded.

lsmod | grep nvidia

If it produces output like nvidia 9442880 28 or something similar (numbers could be different at your system) then NVIDIA module is loaded.

Step 6.c: Check for Open source NVIDIA Driver nouveau module

Just to be sure Open source NVIDIA Driver nouveau module NOT loaded, issue following command

lsmod | grep nouveau

It should NOT produce any output. If it produces output then something is wrong.

Step 6.d: Confirm if open source NVIDIA Driver nouveau was blacklisted

I like this new NVIDIA Driver. It blacklists Open source NVIDIA Driver nouveau by default. That means less work for us to do. You can confirm it by checking files in the following directory:

cat /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
cat /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-blacklists-nouveau.conf
cat /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-kernel-common.conf

 

Troubleshooting

You might get a black screen after installing NVIDIA Driver. Following are your options to fix it:

Troubleshooting Step A: Fixing black screen with a cursor problem

Simply press CTRL + ALT + F1 and login. Type the following

nvidia-xconfig
reboot

You should now be able to log in using the GDM3 GUI.

Troubleshooting Step B: Delete xorg.conf file

Press CTRL + ALT + F1 and login. Type the following

rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf
reboot

After reboot, you should be able to log in using the GDM3 GUI.

Troubleshooting Step C: remove NVIDIA Driver

Press CTRL + ALT + F1 and login. Type the following

apt-get remove nvidia-kernel-dkms
reboot

After reboot, you should be able to log in using the GDM3 GUI.

Conclusion

This concludes my general instructions on how to install proprietary NVIDIA driver on Kali Linux – NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver. NVIDIA Optimus users should be able to follow the same instructions, however, as I said before, feel free to share your side of story on how your installation went and correct my guide if required. I am open for discussion and will try to reply back to your comments the earliest possible. For those curious minds, try installing nvidia-settings and see how that goes. NVIDIA Settings will remove NVIDIA Driver but I did manage to make it work with some tinkering. I will try to write another guide on that (NVIDIA Settings presents you with a GUI X Config Window and you can see GPU Temperature and more info)… The proprietary “NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver” provides optimized hardware acceleration of OpenGL applications via a direct-rendering X server, in shoty your NVIDIA Driver give you better display and 3D rendering then you’re all done. You can now play 3D Games. Let me know if you want any specific Linux supported games on Kali and I can write up an article on that. But if you want to run applications that uses NVIDIA Kernel Module CUDA, Pyrit and Cpyrit for GPU processing then you will also need to install CUDA drivers, replace offical Pyrit and install Cpyrit. Find out if your Graphics Card supports CUDA in the following page from NVIDIA

• CUDA GPUs

Mine does,

• GeForce 210.

Next guide will show you how to Install NVIDIA Kernel Module CUDA and Pyrit in Kali Linux – CUDA, pyrit and cpyrit.   Thanks for reading. If this guide helped you to install NVIDIA Driver, please share this article and follow us in Facebook/Twitter.