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Old 02-16-2005, 07:17 PM   #1
fevel
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Nvidia on debian sarge


Would somebody be so kind as to teach me how to obtain and install the nvidia geforce 2 drivers for Debian Sarge...im having a really bad time trying to figure it out, went through some tutorials but didnt help. When I installed the distro he asked me wich driver i wanted to load "vesa, etc..." I chose "NV" but it didnt seem to change anything.
 
Old 02-16-2005, 07:49 PM   #2
Moloko
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There is a good tuturial here:
http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20041109.ars

Scroll down the page for the instructions. If it didn't help, specify what didn't work for you.
 
Old 02-16-2005, 09:44 PM   #3
Norb
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I had many problems also with NVIDIA, after coming across this link and following it word for word my problems ended. I'm using the 2.6.8-2-686 kernel and the 1.0-6111-pkg1.run Nvidia drivers, for a MX4000 card. I've never been able to upgrade to the 1.0-6629 drivers it seems there's a problem with my card.
Good luck

http://serios.net/content/debian/nvi...ay-drivers.php

Last edited by Norb; 02-16-2005 at 11:13 PM.
 
Old 02-17-2005, 03:00 AM   #4
kermit
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I tried to install nvidia drivers into 2 sarge machines:

- My laptop: Dell inspiron 8000 (GeForce 2 mx I think) went smoothly with

http://tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/debia...-dri-howto.txt

- My desktop: GeForce MX 440 (or something alike). After a couple of weeks trying, finally I used a knoppix live cd and copied the XF86Config-4, it uses vesa, but at least works.

Hope this works
 
Old 02-17-2005, 02:34 PM   #5
fevel
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got a problem... My apt repositories cant find the NVIDIA-kernel-common, do u have a source for me to add to the source.list
 
Old 02-17-2005, 03:23 PM   #6
Wandering_Dru
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Quote:
Originally posted by fevel
got a problem... My apt repositories cant find the NVIDIA-kernel-common, do u have a source for me to add to the source.list
Look at your /etc/apt/sources.lst and make sure that the repositories have contrib and non-free in addition to main.

ie,
Code:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free
 
Old 02-18-2005, 03:41 AM   #7
kermit
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Yeap, that should work. Good luck!
 
Old 02-18-2005, 08:13 AM   #8
fevel
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even when i added deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing main contrib non-free to the repositories list he still gave me the message "cant find package NVIDIA-kernel-common, u should run apt-get update to fix that" ...I did run apt-get update before trying to install
 
Old 02-18-2005, 11:35 AM   #9
Wandering_Dru
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The package is definitely there.
Code:
# apt-cache show nvidia-kernel-common
yields:
Code:
Package: nvidia-kernel-common
Priority: optional
Section: contrib/x11
Installed-Size: 44
Maintainer: Randall Donald <rdonald@debian.org>
Architecture: all
Version: 1.0.6629+1
Depends: modutils | module-init-tools
Recommends: nvidia-kernel-source | nvidia-kernel
Filename: pool/contrib/n/nvidia-kernel-common/nvidia-kernel-common_1.0.6629+1_all.deb
Size: 3352
MD5sum: 593bfe5dbb140304310022098187210b
Description: NVIDIA binary kernel module common files
 This package contains files shared between nvidia module
 packages.
Make sure it's all lowercase. You have "NVIDIA-kernel-common" listed in your post it should be "nvidia-kernel-common".
 
Old 02-24-2005, 10:04 AM   #10
Pollywog
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Quote:
Originally posted by Moloko
There is a good tuturial here:
http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20041109.ars

Scroll down the page for the instructions. If it didn't help, specify what didn't work for you.
I am unable to get the nvidia packages for Sarge, and the packages in unstable are apparently intended for 2.4.x kernels.
My kernel is 2.6.x and I have been away from Debian for a year or more and I am confused as to how to build the nvidia drivers because Xandros included them and apparently something has changed in Debian.

Are the drivers now included in the kernels?
 
Old 02-24-2005, 10:25 AM   #11
HalfDiminished
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Something did change - 2.6 kernels now use udev rather than devfs. udev creates device files (in /dev) dynamically depending on what devices it detects. I am preparing to try the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run package this evening. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Old 02-24-2005, 12:14 PM   #12
Pollywog
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Quote:
Originally posted by HalfDiminished
Something did change - 2.6 kernels now use udev rather than devfs. udev creates device files (in /dev) dynamically depending on what devices it detects. I am preparing to try the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run package this evening. I'll let you know how it goes.
I know about that, I was referring to something being wrong with the nvidia packages.
I finally got nvidia-kernel-source from unstable but I am unable to locate the corresponding glx package and I think this is why I can't get the nvidia driver to actually work, though it is loaded. I don't see any error output but I think that is the problem, glx.
 
Old 02-28-2005, 08:09 AM   #13
HalfDiminished
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Ok, well here's the story. For the first time in years I have my geforce 2 working in linux! Here's how I did it. I got the latest kernel-image-2.6.10 from Debian. Then I got the latest kernel-sources-2.6.10. I installed the stock kernel then used its .config file as a start for compiling a custom kernel. In the configuration file editor (make xconfig) I disabled rivafb. Then I made a few non-graphics related tweaks for soundcards and compiled. After compiling and testing the new kernel, I started the nvidia driver installation process. I opened a shell and (as root) did a telinit 1 to go into single user console mode. With X disabled, I navigated to the directory where I have NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run. I ran it by
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run
I was not connected to the internet and I had the installer compile a kernel interface. All went smoothly. Now to edit the XFree86Config...change nv to nvidia, comment out load dri and load GLcore. After installing, I did a modprobe nvidia and then startx and the wonderful nvidia splash screen came up. I get about 1100 fps with glxgears. Now the problem is that the nvidia devs don't get created fast enough by udev at startup, so (following Decibel's udev howto) I added the folloing lines to /etc/udev/links.conf
M nvidia0 c 195 0
M nvidia1 c 195 1
M nvidiactl c 195 255

And it's a done deal. Hopefully I haven't left anything out. I'm at work and don't have access to my home PC (where I did this stuff - this is all from memory).
 
Old 02-28-2005, 11:05 AM   #14
Pollywog
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Quote:
Originally posted by HalfDiminished
Ok, well here's the story. For the first time in years I have my geforce 2 working in linux! Here's how I did it. I got the latest kernel-image-2.6.10 from Debian. Then I got the latest kernel-sources-2.6.10. I installed the stock kernel then used its .config file as a start for compiling a custom kernel. In the configuration file editor (make xconfig) I disabled rivafb. Then I made a few non-graphics related tweaks for soundcards and compiled. After compiling and testing the new kernel, I started the nvidia driver installation process. I opened a shell and (as root) did a telinit 1 to go into single user console mode. With X disabled, I navigated to the directory where I have NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run. I ran it by
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run
I was not connected to the internet and I had the installer compile a kernel interface. All went smoothly. Now to edit the XFree86Config...change nv to nvidia, comment out load dri and load GLcore. After installing, I did a modprobe nvidia and then startx and the wonderful nvidia splash screen came up. I get about 1100 fps with glxgears. Now the problem is that the nvidia devs don't get created fast enough by udev at startup, so (following Decibel's udev howto) I added the folloing lines to /etc/udev/links.conf
M nvidia0 c 195 0
M nvidia1 c 195 1
M nvidiactl c 195 255

And it's a done deal. Hopefully I haven't left anything out. I'm at work and don't have access to my home PC (where I did this stuff - this is all from memory).
Thanks, I got it all working a few days ago after finding the required packages in "unstable". BTW I think the GLcore module should not load for Nvidia cards. I remove that and dri from my XFree86/Xorg config.


8)
 
Old 02-28-2005, 12:30 PM   #15
HalfDiminished
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Thanks, Pollywog. My wording was unclear. I meant comment out "load dri" AND comment out "load GLcore". Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.
 
  


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