well, i upgraded in synaptic last week to 1.0-8178-2. and i just now saw the disclaimer below. i run a Geforce T1-4200 video card. i just got UT2004 reloaded. when i click on the startup shell script, the UT screen comes up for 10 seconds then goes away.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

NVIDIA binary XFree86 4.x driver
These XFree86 4.0 / Xorg 6.8 binary drivers provide optimized hardware
acceleration of OpenGL applications via a direct-rendering X Server.
AGP, PCIe, SLI, TV-out and flat panel displays are also supported.

Cards NOT supported by this driver are

TNT, TNT2, Vanta, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR,
Quadro, GeForce2 Pro, GeForce2 GTS,
GeForce2 Ultra, GeForce2 Ti, Quadro2 Pro

See /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx/README.txt.gz for a complete list
of supported GPUs.

Please see the nvidia-kernel-source package for building the kernel module
required by this package.

Try starting UT from command line to see an error message.
You may also try executing /usr/X11R6/bin/glxinfo to see if you have direct rendering enabled

1-won't work from command line
2-i tried executing the other line but it disappears..

i want to try to un-install the drivers i have. before i upgraded to the present in synaptic, the Nvidia setting's were quite detailed in the display menu. now there are just 4 settings.

AND---the time before when i had UT2004 working, i had the original drivers. anyway---i think that's how it was setup---worth a shot?

anybody know the best way of (finding) AND un-installing the Nvidia 1.0-8178-2's? thx..

Well starting ut from a console works:

You need to have X running den go to the folder, where it is installed ( normally /usr/local/games/ut2004)
Then just type ./ut2004

The Game will start, and if not, there will somewhere in this bunch of output be some error message.

Isn't there a search feature in synaptic to look for Nvidia or something?

Maybe you can try download the original Drivers from nvidia.com.
I'm not sure, but maybe, they recognize the previous installed driver and can uninstall them?

I don't use some kind of debian based distro, so I'm not sure about that stuff.

/usr/X11R6/bin/glxinfo this should also be run from some terminal, to see the output!

THANKS VBISIS..........It worked!!!
1-i uninstalled the old drivers...
2-going to the folder and typing "./ut2004" works in the terminal WORKED BIG TIME!
3-then it was that big slow motion video thing and then it froze. ok--, no problem.
4-i am going to install the new Nvidia drivers that work next.....stay tuna.