Installing graphics drivers on my lab computer proved to be more of an ordeal than I had originally anticipated. If you find yourself experiencing a mysterious issue where attempts at logging in after the initial Ubuntu installation result in simply returning to the login page with no error message, the issue may be due to the LightDM display manager, which is responsible for starting X servers, user sessions, and the login screen itself.

Installation Protocol

After digging around on StackExchange, here is the protocol I came up with that solved the login loop issue.

1. Hit CTRL+ALT+F1 and login
2. Disable the LightDM service by typing sudo service lightdm stop
3. Download the .run driver file from the NVIDIA website using wget <desired driver url>
4. Allocate proper permissions to the .run file by typing chmod a+x <filename>.run
5. Enter runlevel 3 by typing sudo init 3
6. Install .run file
7. Reboot by typing shutdown -r now