1. Download the nvidia-settings package source.

* Enter commands in the terminal where you see a '$'.

$ cd /tmp
$ apt-get source nvidia-settings



2. Build the libNVCtrl library.

$ cd nvidia-settings*/src/libXNVCtrl

$ xmkmf
$ make clean
$ make



3. Install libNVCtrl and related headers.

$ sudo cp *.h /usr/local/include/
$ sudo cp *.a /usr/local/lib



4. Download sensors-applet package source.

$ cd /tmp
$ apt-get source sensors-applet



5. Build a new sensors-applet package.

Edit the file sensors-applet*/debian/rules to add the configure option --with-nvidia to the DEB_CONFIGURE_EXTRA_FLAGS block.

You can optionally edit the debian/changelog for sensors-applet to give it a version bump. Just change the top version line from 1.0-4 for example to 1.0-6. This will make ubuntu perfer your package over the one in the repository.

$ cd sensors-applet*

$ fakeroot dpkg-buildpackage



6. Install your new sensors-applet package.

$ sudo dpkg -i sensors-applet*.deb