nvidia-71 driver (required for old TNT chips) missing in Ubuntu 11.10

[sds]

X is very slow; video cannot be watched. load average is at about 1/2 all the time.

$ lspci | grep VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)

$ aptitude show nvidia-current
Package: nvidia-current
New: yes
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 280.13-0ubuntu6

from Xorg.log:

[1284916.373] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[1284916.374] compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[1284916.374] Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[1284916.374] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module 280.13 Wed Jul 27 17:14:51 PDT 2011

[1284916.394] (==) Matched nvidia as autoconfigured driver 0
[1284916.394] (==) Matched nouveau as autoconfigured driver 1
[1284916.394] (==) Matched nv as autoconfigured driver 2
[1284916.394] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 3
[1284916.394] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 4
[1284916.394] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[1284916.394] (II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
[1284916.395] (II) Loading /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xorg/extra-modules/nvidia_drv.so
[1284916.396] (II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[1284916.396] compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[1284916.396] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[1284918.684] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your
[1284918.684] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages.
[1284918.684] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[1284918.684] (II) Unloading nvidia
[1284918.684] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)
[1284918.684] (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
[1284918.685] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
[1284918.715] (II) Module nouveau: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[1284918.715] compiled for 1.10.1, module version = 0.0.16
[1284918.715] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[1284918.715] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 10.0
[1284918.715] (II) LoadModule: "nv"
[1284918.716] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module nv
[1284918.716] (II) UnloadModule: "nv"
[1284918.716] (II) Unloading nv
[1284918.716] (EE) Failed to load module "nv" (module does not exist, 0)

from dmesg:

[1284543.313477] unity_support_t[30494]: segfault at 4 ip 002d1b24 sp bfbe0ed0 error 4 in nouveau_vieux_dri.so[2bb000+39000]
[1284916.460132] nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
[1284916.460144] Disabling lock debugging due to kernel taint
[1284918.669282] NVRM: The NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro GPU installed in this system is
[1284918.669287] NVRM: supported through the NVIDIA 71.86.xx Legacy drivers. Please
[1284918.669289] NVRM: visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
[1284918.669292] NVRM: information. The 280.13 NVIDIA driver will ignore
[1284918.669294] NVRM: this GPU. Continuing probe...
[1284918.669305] NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter found!

alas, aptitude search nvidia only finds nvidia-96 and nvidia-173.
where do I get the driver for my box?
the video worked just fine before I upgraded to 11.10.

[Harry (harry33)]

This is because your setup wasn,t able to load nvidia module, so nvidia-current is not in use.
Instead your system did load nouveau module, the open source X driver.

See this:
[1284918.684] (EE) NVIDIA: Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module. Please check your
[1284918.684] (EE) NVIDIA: system's kernel log for additional error messages.
[1284918.684] (II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
[1284918.684] (EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module-specific error, 0)
[1284918.684] (II) LoadModule: "nouveau"
[1284918.685] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so

The version nvidia-current_280.13-0ubuntu6 and
the version nvidia-current-updates_285.05.09-0ubuntu0.1
from the Oneiric official repositories both support xserver 1.10.

[sds (sds-gnu)]

So, I guess this is a request to package nvidia driver v 71 in addition to 280, 96 and 173.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

It looks like nvidia-71 was retired a few years ago.

Strangely, the source code still exists for current Ubuntu releases:
https://code.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-71

But no binary packages have been released from it since Ubuntu 9.04.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The nvidia-71 driver is not supported for 11.10. We did not get a build of it from NVIDIA in time for the release. Use -nouveau, -fbdev, or -vesa instead.

[sds (sds-gnu)]

1. comment#3 says that you have the sources - why don't you build from them?

2. can it be supported in 12.04?

3. I am using nouveau, but it is extremely slow and resource-intensive.