Nvidia drivers installed, but not used

Okay, I found out of it.

I did a full apt-get purge nvidia* and apt-get dist-upgrade etc. But the thing that fixed it was actually to set the alternative correct. I guess this would've worked from the start. So here's how:

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x86_64-linux-gnu_gl_conf

  Selection    Path                                       Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/lib/nvidia-310/ld.so.conf              9702      auto mode
  1            /usr/lib/nvidia-310/ld.so.conf              9702      manual mode
* 2            /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf   500       manual mode

As you see, for me, this setting was wrongly set. So I used 0 instead, and lo' and behold. Lots more nvidia- utilities in the PATH.

If you're not on 64-bit, then use i386 instead of x86_64.

Install latest nvidia drivers

sudo apt-get install nvidia-313-updates

Generate /etc/X11/xorg.conf by executing

sudo nvidia-xconfig

Then execute

sudo software-properties-gtk which will show you a window like this

Select the latest driver from that list and then do

sudo reboot