Instructions for installing Nvidia driver on FC3

BorderPatrol · 12-07-2004, 04:25 PM

what development packages are needed and how can i make sure i have them and get them if i need them.

jens · 12-07-2004, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by BorderPatrol
what development packages are needed.

None.

haertig · 12-07-2004, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sdat1333 I hope this helps alot of people, feedback and more information is certainly welcome.

I haven't tried his yet, having just now successfully gotten Linux installed and booted, but thanks for posting. I have this bookmarked.

One question though. Why would I need to install different nVidea drivers when whatever was installed by default for me appears to be working fine? Will this speed up my installation, or maybe fix some bugs/glitches that I haven't run across yet? I have an older Dell nVidea GeForce2 GTS DDR 32mb card in my system.

Thanks again!

BorderPatrol · 12-08-2004, 11:38 AM

haertig,
The reason you would want to intall it is because of graffics. I went to play MOHAA and I needed open GL support. The only way to get that is to install or configure the drivers.

djljjm · 12-08-2004, 07:08 PM

I am having problems with the instructions. There are a couple things....the 9th step (RPM) won't work for me at all, keeps saying unknown command...not sure if that's why the entire process isn't working

The next thing is that on step 11 when it asks to overwrite do we just push y and then enter? That's what I was doing not sure if it was actually overwriting anything

On boot it says that the x-window cannot start up because the driver was set up incorrectly...not sure what I can do from here (I have spent about 4 hours working on it) I am a newbie so I might need multiple instructions. Thanks

djljjm

sdat1333 · 12-10-2004, 07:19 PM

sorry it took so long to get back to you,

If it cannot find the rpm then that means you dont have the rpm that is a conflict, so you shoudl be good there.

Yes, just push y and hit enter.

Did you edit the xorg.conf file, that is one of the first things I would check

MTUTech · 12-10-2004, 08:01 PM

sdat - Thank you very much, you helped me out big time. Was really getting frustrated with fedora, I owe ya one.

MTUTech

diefree · 12-10-2004, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sdat1333
I had one heck of a time installing the NVidia drivers on my system, so I thought I would post the steps that worked for me, so ohters could be spared the pain. I got these instructions from several sources. For the record, these instructions worked on a GeForce 4 MX440 and a GeForce FX5200. They were performed on a clean install of FC 3, and all actions were performed as root. The latest NVidia driver(NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run) was used. I have an AMD Sempron 2600. These instructions will not work unless you have the development packages installed.
Do not type the quotes around the command line commands. These are only there to seperate what is to be typed from the rest of the instructions.

READ AND PRINT OUT THIS PAGE BEFORE STARTING

1)Download the latest NVidia drivers to a directory of your choice

2)Edit the /etc/inittab manually using a text editor. Change the line that reads "id:5:initdefault:" to read "id:3:initdefault:" . Certain tutorials will instruct you to use the telinit 3, init 3, or even runinit 3 command. These commands didn't work for me, though. However, they may work for other people.

3)Reboot your system. You will end up in a command prompt environment. DO NOT PANIC. This is what it is supposed to do. Use the "cd" command to move to the directory you downloaded the driver to. For example, if you downloaded the driver to the /root/ folder, then run the command "cd /root/".

4)Now type "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run".

5)Accept the license agreement. Now it will probably say that it could not find the kernel source. You can allow the installation program to look for the source online, but it won't work unless the servers are updated. Now it will say that it needs to compile its own kernel. Please allow it to do so. This is the part of the installation were the development tools are required.

6)Now run the command "cd /etc/X11"

7)Next type "vim xorg.conf". This opens the text editor. Use the arrow keys to move the cursor. Press the Insert key, and on the bottom, either "INSERT" or "REPLACE" will be shown. If INSERT is selected, then when you type the text you types will be inserted before the selected character. If replace is selected, then what you type will replace the selected character(s). Look for a line that reads "Driver "nv"", or "Driver "vega"". Change it to read "Driver "nvidia"". Now go scroll up until you get to "Section "Module"". Make sure that one of the lines between"Section "Module"" and "EndSection" says "Load "glx"". If the lines "Load "dri"" or "Load "GLcore" are present, then comment them out by placing a # at the begining of the line.

8) To exit and save changes, push esc. Now type ":wq" and hit enter. If you mess up you can quit without saving by hitting esc and then typing ":q!".

9)Now that you are back to command prompt, type "rpm -e --nodeps xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL"
NOTE: If you update "xorg-x11" package with up2date or yum, you will have to do the abouve command again.

10)Now run "modprobe nvidia"

11)Now run "cp -a /dev/nvidia* /etc/udev/devices
Allow it to overwrite what is there.

12)Now run "chown root.root /etc/udev/devices/nvidia*"

13) Almost there, all that's left is to edit /etc/inittab back to what it was. To do this, type "cd /etc/". Now type "vim inittab" . Change the "3" back to a "5".

14)Reboot by hitting ctl-alt-delete

15)You're done!!!

I hope this helps alot of people, feedback and more information is certainly welcome.
A special thanks to perfect_circle for helping me wih this. Also, parts of this tutorial were taken from http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26260

-Sean

Worked perfect. Thanks for the help.

djljjm · 12-11-2004, 03:02 PM

I just wanted to say thanks...after rereading the directions and going over my steps I figured out what I was doing wrong...so I'll put it up just in case someone else is having the same problems.

When I was # out the line in the config file I wasn't going before the "Load" instead I was going right after it, thus not making the entire line invisible to the computer. By doing this it was trying to load nothing and causing problems.

One more question...when I loaded the computer it did start up by saying "NVIDIA" for the first time so something definitely changed but when I go into the hardware of display it still says "NVIDIA (Generic) does this matter?

djljjm

iain.ross · 12-12-2004, 11:36 AM

Thanks. After trying various howtos and failing, this one worked. I didn't need to do the Mesa-libGL bit though. Otherwise did everything by the letter.

Thanks again. Not sure I like FC3 as much as SuSE 9.2 Pro yet, but time will tell.

sdat1333 · 12-12-2004, 03:20 PM

Yah, I'm trying out Suse right now, it seems pretty good.

jollyjoice · 12-14-2004, 12:14 PM

Tnx.
I used the -update thingy too to make sure I had the latest (I didn't). Works fine, just no OpenGL, any ideas?

babanetcom · 12-18-2004, 11:37 AM

I have -as said above- the same problem but I have an S3 Unichrome, not a nvdia...

sdat1333 · 12-18-2004, 03:17 PM

I would help but I no longer have fedora

jens · 12-19-2004, 12:26 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jollyjoice
Tnx.
I used the -update thingy too to make sure I had the latest (I didn't). Works fine, just no OpenGL, any ideas?

I don't understand this.
First you thank him(so your nvidia driver works).
Next you state you don't have OpenGL.
Now what do you think nvidia uses?