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Linux users get bad case of Envy
THOSE FOLKS RUNNING Ubuntu or Debian flavours of Linux might be happy to know that there's a new programme available to automate the process of installing Nvidia and ATI drivers.
Envy (from the Italian for the word, 'invidia', natch) might not be brand spanking new but it's certainly the first we've heard of it. Rather than forcing newbie Ubuntu users to grapple with direct downloads and command line installation, Envy automagically detects the graphics hardware in your system, fetches the correct driver from the net and installs it - seamlessly.
It is also designed to make multi-monitor configuration a cinch, something that neither graphics company has really been able to nail so far.
Like so many of the greatest programmes in the world, Envy is written in Python. Is there anything that language can't do?
You can check out Envy here, as well as a glowing testimony from PC World, whatever that is, here.
Tags: Nvidia
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Is there any program or distro that will recognize my nVidia integrated audio???
Neither the Gutsy Restricted mode drivers nor Envy work on my Dell C640 laptop.
The older version of Envy worked with Breezy but the wireless card didn't. Win some, loose some I guess.
Hey P4man the one thing that this allows is to install drivers that are newer than what is in the respositories of ubuntu. When I was using Feisty it support the 100.X versions of the driver when the "from the package manager" installed the 9755 which is fine but sometimes there are good reason why you would use the newer version. Oh yeah btw I'm talking about the nvidia drivers here. With ATI I just follow the unofficial wiki that DAMMIT says to use to install the driver... copy past into console and well a bit of reading between the lines but if you have more than two brain cells to rub together you will figure it out... it is pretty fool proof for someone who is "a little experienced" with computers, and not someone you can plug their male slots into the femal slots ;).

As a gamer that uses wine to play games in linux as well as using native games there is always a little bit of a glitch/performance tweaking that happens and I am glad to have such a useful tool as envy.

Roger there is no difference between this and the restricted drivers on ubuntu repository except for the pain in the arse there is in getting nvidia drivers going manually. 

Ian I didn't have the problems you speak of with the upgrade of feisty to gusty other than 3rd party repositories, which I just killed everything that hasn't followed the latest version... the only 3rd party I use are medibuntu, bleeding edge wine, and mupen64 which is version independent but is glitchy no matter what version I've used.
Envy is nothing new, it's been existing for a while...

It is a very good script though, it helped me to install the required nvidia drivers for my hardware when using Feisty (or was that with Edgy? I'm lost in time...), after a few tutorials were unadapted for my problem...

But with a more recent release like Gutsy, installing with such a script is probably not necessary (and maybe even dangerous for the system) since the restricted drivers manager does the job very well. Using Envy without disabling it could cause issues.
If you've been put off by the command line configuration of nVidia and ATi graphics in Ubuntu, why didn't you try another Linux? Suse, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, and others don't have this. They've long had nice GUI configurations, that once the nVidia or ATi package has been installed, one just opened the control panel and made the necessary adjustments, restarted the graphics server (X server) and everything worked.

I get tickled at reading about people complaining about how Ubuntu is so command line and configuration file editing heavy, when there are lots of alternatives that aren't. It's as if people think Ubuntu is state-of-the-art in Linux, but it's not. It's very old school in many areas, configuration being one of them.
Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) at least happily installs and updates the nVidia driver out of the box. I write this from a shiny new quad-core with a nVidia 8600 GT and very lovely it is.
Programs; it's programs, programs, programs, damn it!

NOT programmes :P

Although I stil install using the actual Nvidia package (which is very simple to use, btw) I recently tried using Envy while installing Ubuntu. The only problem was the author has not yet updated Envy to include the drivers that support the 8800GT (G92) video cards.
Indeed ,you don't need this on Ubuntu,
but you get an old driver with "the restricted manager"
I prefer to have the latest ,and prefer to do it by hand......./ati....run,works just as well as envy or any other.
Btw is this news?
Seems to be trendy these days,spreading old news,mmmm?
I have installed this, after hearing it also from other people.

It's just brilliant!!!
Finaly somebody that fixed this rubbish VGA driver installation.

THANK YOU!!!!
Mandriva 2008 powerpack installs ATI proprietary
driver and catalyst.
I do not have a nvidia card, but believe that works 
too.
Why is this different from the Ubuntu restricted drivers installation?
That and automatix both have a bad reputation for raping your system when you wish to upgrade to the next final version... (e.g Feisty to Gutsy)

I'd suggest it was used with caution. (and yes its old news :P )
Envy has been around for a long time, and it used to be fantastic for "terminal unsavvy" Linux noobs users like me,.. but the latest Ubuntu's now do the same thing already out of the box

Feisty and Gutsy have a one click install for nVidia and ATI drivers built-in (through the restricted driver manager). Users are strongly recommended to use that, rather than Envy.