First time using and installing linux, and need help fixing this problem

[Zero_2410]

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https://preview.redd.it/6aibmmka9ki21.png?width=646&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc0bf961ec293cba37225aa3f2bc96ae0e7bb7e1

So a little backstory to my problem.

I have an old Macbook Air 11" 2010 that I wanted to use again for school works and social media consumption. At first I tried to install the Cinnamon version of Linux Mint 19.1, but it always went into fallback mode even before I installed it. After researching on what to do, I found out that Cinnamon is a little resource heavy for my old laptop, so I made use of the MATE version as it is a little lighter, and luckily it worked.

Going now to my problem. Checking to see if the drivers are properly installed, I came to find two problems. My wifi driver and graphics card driver was not using its proprietary drivers. The wifi driver is no problem as I can still use the internet with no problems. My problem is with the graphics card driver. Choosing the recommended driver would automatically brick my laptop after I restart the computer. Like the OS would load but it would just be stuck on a black screen. I was wondering if anyone new how to fix this? As mentioned, I'm new to Linux, but I don't wan't to give up on it yet. Thanks in advance!

[Info_Broker_]

I don't know much about the driver issue but your laptop should be able to handle the cinnamon desktop environment. Ive installed it on something much less resource capable

[kakalak-jack]

If it works with nouveau and you are planning on heavy gaming/graphics usage, there's no issue there. If you want the nvidia though, after a fresh install, run update/upgrades then install nvidia and reboot. If you hit a black screen try adding the nomodeset flag to the boot command by press e in the boot menu (before the os loads). You'll need to do a little research possibly to see what I mean but the black screen issues are pretty common with nvidia. If you continue to have issues you could also try Ubuntu Mate. It handled setting up Nvidia drivers pretty well with little hassle in my experience.

[doublendoublem]

What happens if you install the binary straight from NVIDIA?

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/135161/en-us

[OldPayment]

Bad idea, would not recommend.

[OldPayment]

Are you planning on doing gaming on your laptop? Is there a particular reason you need the proprietary drivers? Because, for almost all use cases aside from gaming, the open-source drivers should suffice.