In order for me to use the official binary drivers, version 169.12, from NVidia with my GeForce 8800GT on Ubuntu Gutsy, I had to do some research. Alberto Milone’s envy tool makes the whole thing almost idiot-proof.
Text-based install
After completing a fresh install of Gutsy via alternate CD, boot into the “recovery mode” option from GRUB. You will be dumped into a BASH shell.
apt-get update && wget http://albertomilone.com/ubuntu/nvidia/scripts/legacy/envy_0.9.10-0ubuntu10_all.deb
gdebi -n envy_0.9.10-0ubuntu10_all.deb
envy -t
At this point it will probably install a few required packages via apt-get and then give you a menu. Here we want option 1, “Install the NVidia driver”. It theoretically will install all required development packages, download the driver from nvidia.com, and build and install it for you. It may fail saying it was missing a bunch of required packages, but if you install them by hand it will complete successfully.
apt-get install <packages>
GUI-based write-up to follow.