i have a p3 384mb mem 80 gb hd (nvidia geforce fx 5500) with win xp and dapper installed i have a 14 gb empty partition for etch. my question can i install 3d acceleration in etch?

Since you have an nvidia, you'd have to d/l the correct nvidia drivers.

I assume you are currently using the "nv" driver which is a generic but unaccellerated driver for nvidia.

You have to d/l the driver from www.nvidia.com, and run the install script. This includes the compilation of a special kernel module, which requires gcc to be installed. There are no other problems, I did this 2 weeks ago for my xorg/etch installation. In xorg.conf the driver is changed (either by the script or by yourself) to "nvidia".

I am not sure if the driver performance in 3D is up to your needs, but I assume this nvidia driver is the best which is available for Linux.

jlinkels

jlinkels, you can get the whole thing done with apt.

First you need to enable both the non-free and the contrib repos.

Then use you're favourite package manager to install nvidia-glx and nvidia-kernal* (you'll need to chose the correct one I'm afrade)

finally edit /etx/x11/xorg.conf look for a line with
and change it to
Then reboot (I think there may be a better way but its easer to reboot than figure it out)

I thought this was the old way to do it. I did that on Sarge with kernel 2.6.8. When I did that for 2.6.8, I discovered that the number of kernels which come with the nvidia modules are limited, and not usually the kernel which you have on the machine.

What I see in my apt-cache is the most recent kernel for which a nvidia kernel is available is 2.6.15. For Etch I'd strongly recommend > 2.6.17.

I have done the nvidia d/l & compile 2 times now, both succesful. I would not stick to 2.6.15 because of this.

jlinkels

I use etch, and I isntalled the dirvers through apt for kernal 2.6.18

There is a good walkthrough for installing the nvidia drivers here.

You can also run Kano's nvidia install script for kanotix, it works well on Etch. It can be downloaded from here

To install the nVidia drivers I suggest the Debian way: is the easiest and it lets you install both driver and kernel module as deb packages, which means you'll be able to upgrade or uninstall them easily.