Steam incorrectly detects my graphics driver. (Ubuntu 12.04)

[aksnv88]

A long time ago, I compiled a custom kernel (3.7.9) and downloaded and installed NVidia's 310.32 driver. I only recently downloaded Steam for Linux. Steam correctly detects my kernel but it does not detect the NVidia driver. The NVidia driver is properly installed and works fine. Here is what NVidia's X Server settings are reporting:

X Server Information
Operating System: Linux-x86_64
NVIDIA Driver Version: 310.32
...

GPU 0 - (GeForce GTX 560M)
Graphics Processor: GeForce GTX 560M
CUDA Cores: 192
VBIOS Version: 70.26.29.00.0f
Total Memory: 2048 MB
Total Dedicated Memory: 2047 MB
Used Dedicated Memory: 188 MB (9%)
Memory Interface: 128-bit

Bus Type: PCI Express x16 Gen2
Bus ID: PCI:1:0:0
PCI Device ID: 0x1251
PCI Vendor ID: 0x10de
...

Here is what Steam is reporting:

Video Card:
    Driver:  VMware, Inc. Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 0x300)

    Driver Version:  2.1 Mesa 8.0.4
    Desktop Color Depth: 24 bits per pixel
    Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
    VendorID:  0x10de
    DeviceID:  0x1251
    Number of Monitors:  1
    Number of Logical Video Cards:  1
    Primary Display Resolution:  1920 x 1080
    Desktop Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Primary Display Size: 13.54" x 7.64"  (15.51" diag)
                                            34.4cm x 19.4cm  (39.4cm diag)
    Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
    Primary VRAM Not Detected
    Supported MSAA Modes:  2x 4x 8x 16x 

Is this a bug in Steam or is there some way to configure Steam to detect the correct driver? Or am I doing something wrong?

[aksnv88]

I've been randomly looking through different parts of my Steam directory. I found this file that I believe may have something to do with this problem:

~/.steam/steam/ubuntu12_32/driverhelper.py

Unfortunately, I do not know much about Python. The script mentions Jockey quite a bit. IIRC, Jockey is what Ubuntu used to install proprietary drivers. I didn't install my NVidia driver through Jockey though; I downloaded the installation scripts from NVidia's site. I remember having to patch the script because the driver script checked for older versions of the Linux Kernel, but I doubt this makes a difference.

According to my package manager, the only Jockey related package installed is jockey-common. I do not know how Jockey works, but perhaps it's data needs to be updated somehow. I'll look more into this tomorrow.

Any ideas/suggestions would be great.

[aksnv88]

Update: I tried using the command:

jockey-text -l

And it is not finding my driver. I am guessing it is because I downloaded the driver from NVidia's website.

The odd thing is, now that I think about it, I could have sworn that Steam correctly detected my graphics driver a while ago because I remember it would recommend switching to the experimental driver that Jockey has.

I'll give this another day or so to see if anyone has any ideas. After that, I'll try to do a bug report and see if I get any better luck with that.