so can I get it to work on 20.04 without hwe?

@DaviSN As you can see from the printouts I included in the answer, I have the 340 driver working on 20.04 with the GA kernel.

how can i revert to the ga kernel?

Have you tried the 470 driver? The recent release (in the standard repos) claims to support the gt 730. Not sure what compiler/kernel would be needed for that.

@DaviSN 1) Don't use the answer button to post comments. 2) In an 20.04 install, do an apt policy linux-generic, if that shows 5.4.0-172-generic then install linux-generic and the packages that it pulls in. Then boot into that kernel using the grub menu and uninstall the hwe kernel and its related packages.

@ubfan1 when I go to "additional drivers" it does not offer up a 470 driver, only 340 and 390. Are you asking about a 22.04 install? I have 20.04 right now.

A 20.04 VM offers the 470 packages, version 470.239.06, the one listed on: nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/218852/en-us which claims gt 730 support. Since it's a VM, the ubuntu-drivers or Software&Updates does not show them (since Nvidia hardware not seen), but you might be able to load them manually.

@ubfan1 perhaps one needs the HWE kernel series for that driver. I see the packages in the repos, but since "additional drivers" does not offer it up for my current configuration, I doubt it would work. If I can find some time tomorrow I'll clonezilla my system, try installing the hwe kernel, and see if it's offered up and will install.

@ubfan1 You got me curious so I installed the HWE kernel and the 470 driver. It installed ok, so I was pretty happy...but when I rebooted, a black screen came up before the login screen with the text "The Nvidia GeForce GT 730 GPU in this system is supported through the 390 legacy driver...The 470 driver will ignore this GPU" and it came up using nouveau. So it's pretty clear that driver doesn't support the GT 730 - it told me so!

done, I installed ubuntu 20.04 right now on my machine. I just need to know how to disable the hwe kernel now, to see if the driver works or not

You can boot into the GA kernel using the grub screen at powerup. If it works for you, I would then delete the linux-generic-hwe-20.04 package and all its buddies.

where it is located at the grub screen? I did not see anything related to this

Do you know how to boot into different kernels using the grub screen? I am asking so I know how detailed to be.

which are the commands to delete the hwe packages in the terminal window?

yeah, i know this of course, i just need to know the right option in the grub screen, right?

So, you don;t know how to choose a kernel at the grub screen? I am asking so I know how detailed to be. Have you ever done it?

@DaviSN To complete remove HWE (from both your system and from GRUB) follow askubuntu.com/q/1306358/1004020

I tried all these steps right now and it still did not work, it gave me the same error. Any further ideas?

@OrganicMarble Did you disable the Intel GPU? See the Additional Info on that Nvidia link: "Some designs incorporating supported GPUs may not be compatible with the NVIDIA Linux driver: in particular, notebook and all-in-one desktop designs with switchable (hybrid) or Optimus graphics will not work if means to disable the integrated graphics in hardware are not available. Hardware designs will vary..."

@ubfan1 the message seemed pretty explicit. And see comments on mchid's answer. 'The 470 driver will ignore this GPU" does not leave much wiggle room.

How can I install the nvidia-340 driver like @OrganicMarble did? I still had no luck.

@DaviSN Please don't only say "the same error". Please click askubuntu.com/posts/1506388/edit and paste the error message from terminal. If it wasn't a terminal, paste the screenshot