As we all know, Ubuntu Additional drivers provides third party hardware drivers, such as nVidia, ATI, Broadcom etc. It does the job very well and i couldn’t find any issues with it. Now there is another alternative solution called Device Driver Manager (DDM) which is developed by Linux Mint team and it’s included from Linux Mint 15 and higher.
Linux Mint DDM relies on the same Ubuntu backend and works the same way as software-properties-gtk. It is an independent application, separate from “Software Sources” and which you can launch straight from the menu. The drivers are listed by package name, and their version are clearly stated. Devices from popular brands (nVidia, ATI, Broadcom, Samsung…) are illustrated with an icon.
Install Linux Mint DDM On Ubuntu 13.04 and Higher
Download the latest version from here.
Or you download and install it directly from Terminal with commands:
$ wget http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/main/d/ddm/ddm_0.5.4_all.deb $ sudo dpkg -i ddm_0.5.4_all.deb
Install DDM using PPA
Add Driver Manager PPA with command:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:noobslab/mint
Update package list with command:
$ sudo apt-get update
And install it as shown below.
$ sudo apt-get install mintdrivers
Launch DDM
Open it up either from Menu or Dash.
Initially it will scan all your devices for any driver installation or driver updates.
This is how Device Driver Manager looks on my Ubuntu 13.04 desktop.
Since my system doesn’t has any property drivers, it shows nothing along with my integrated devices.
Have a good day!
