I've just downloaded the latest nVidia driver for my 7300 graphic card. So, I would like to update the driver I have installed now.

The driver I downloaded is: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run

What are the best steps I should follow to update the driver?

Thanks!

su
m-a update
m-a prepare
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run

Sorry for my poor knowledge but What does m-a mean?

Thanks again,

I would do something different if upgrading my Nvidia driver...

I would switch to another tty (ctrl-alt-F3) then run these commands:

substitute GDM with KDM if using KDE

then this removes the nvidia module

then run and follow the Nvidia prompts.

I've done this many times when I used Debian. Worked always.

restart GDM or KDM

then (ctrl-alt-F7) to return to desktop

Thanks for your suggestion.

I've tried to use your solution but after the command:

# modprobe -r nvidia

I get the following message:

module nvidia is in use

What am I missing?

That means that the driver is still in use, because either one of Xorg, or GDM, or KDM, or XDM, are still running.

Depending on the OS, you need to switch to a runlevel where the graphical desktop environment is not turned on.

Commonly, init 4 is the graphical runlevel, so anything less than 4 is suitable for installing the nvidia driver.

On some Debian systems and Ubuntu, I believe init 5 is the graphical runlevel, so you need to be in init 4 or 3 or 2 and then kill all processes related to X, before removing the running driver and executing the nvidia installer.

You might try:

/etc/init.d/gdm stop

in place of the killall -9 gdm command. Might work.

Sasha

PS - another option, if your kernel supports it, would be:

modprobe -rf nvidia

which tries to FORCE the module to unload. It isn't recommended, and may cause undesired behaviour, so it's not near the top of the list of things to try

Sasha

Are you using Gnome or KDE..? you need to ctrl-alt-F3 then follow GrapefruiTgirl advice and

or or or You need to end the X session.

then after the driver update do or then switch to the default tty ctrl-alt-F7

Right, and in further addition to what manwithaplan and I have written, issuing a final "killall X" after the above, would be a good additional measure -- gotta make sure all that X stuff is dead!!

Sasha

He could also do this:

apt-get install module-assistant
m-a update
m-a prepare
m-a a-i nvidia

If that doesn't work then I'd try downloading the nvidia driver and runnign it. To get out of X you do need to stop gdm/kdm but he also needs to stop the desktop itself? ctrl+alt+backspace? I haven't used gdm/kdm in such a long time, does it still let the WM run even if you kill it?

Easiest way use smxi. Logout out of your desktop, ctrl+al+F1 login as root run smxi .

Maybe there should be a sticky regarding the install of Nvidia drivers for the Debian forum.
Looking at this thread there are three different methods mentioned.
If i was new to Linux and Debian in particular,i'd be really confused.
I'd be willing to write a how-to if it would help.
Perhaps one of the 'mods could comment here?.

I agree about the potential for confusion. I for one don't use Debian, and haven't used Ubuntu for a long time, so there are likely details I (for one) an unaware of regarding this install.

I'm not sure a sticky would be the way to go, but certainly a tutorial or article in the Wiki or "Linux Answers" department(s) would be ideal.

@ Trooper, thanks for the offer; if you'd like to write one, it would be appreciated by many, surely. We'd decide where to put it later.


Sasha

All of this is ran in root or sudo.

If your running debian the first method you try is the debian way which is this:

apt-get update
apt-get install module-assistant
m-a update
m-a prepare
m-a a-i nvidia

wait for it to compile and install and then run

apt-get install nvidia-glx

The other way is to use the nvidia drivers from the website, which you might still want to do the first half of the above just because it's easier.
apt-get update
apt-get install module-assistant
m-a update
m-a prepare

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run

Now if you do it that way you might get an error if xorg-xserver is running, so your going to have to kill gdm/kdm and any other X servers. Once they are stopped you can run 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run' again.

The smxi I haven't seen in any debian tutorials, though I haven't really searched in a while for about 4 years now. lol Once I found out about module-assistant it all became pretty simple.

[edit]
http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

Wiki says there are 4 ways, now I shortened the module-assistant commands, the method I posted is the latest.

The wiki seems old =( You can download the source.deb or .tar files but you can also just run the installer via 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-185.18.36-pkg2.run' and that would cover building it from source.

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.p...ian/Nvidia_way

No problem.
Would it be best to start a new thread for the how-to,or post it onto this one?.
Although it looks like mushroomboy has done half the work already!.