[Drivers] Ubuntu NVIDIA driver reinstall

Please be sure you check the following before attempting any steps of this guide:

(If there is absolutely no POST screen) Check if the monitors are correctly plugged in and powered on
Using off-board video (from GPU cards)

If you are experiencing the following symptoms, a NVIDIA driver re-installation may be needed to get the X11 working properly:

Reinstalling NVIDIA drivers is a more involved procedure, and is prone to cause further driver issues if the reinstall is not needed.

Step-by-step guide:

Open up a terminal for the system:

ctrl+alt+f2 (try f1/f2/f3 if 'f2' does not work)

or

alt+(left or right arrow key)

or

SSH access (if possible)

sudo bash
stop lightdm
cd /usr/local/CUDA_INSTALL_FILES
./NVIDIA *tab*

#*tab* as it will fill in the rest of the install file name, as driver install versions change frequently
#Accept installation, and select 'yes' for everything else
nvidia-smi

#Verify all GPU's are showing

6. Reboot system

#GUI should load on its own after the re-installation

If NVIDIA fails stating kernel source does not match

Check 'uname -r' to see if the system is running the latest kernel version for the NVIDIA driver installation

If NVIDIA driver fails due to running an X server

init 3 #proceed to install NVIDIA drivers

If running cd /usr/local/CUDA_INSTALL_FILES states the directory is not found:

try 'mkdir CUDA_INSTALL_FILES'

If nouveau needs to be blacklisted:

echo "blacklist nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

echo "blacklist lbm-nouveau" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

echo "options nouveau modeset=0" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

echo "alias nouveau off" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

echo "alias lbm-nouveau off" >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

echo options nouveau modeset=0 | tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf

update-initramfs -u