Hello,

I've just bought a new computer with an Nvidia graphics card, but when I boot the system I get a lot of error messages for Nouveau and the system hangs. If I could get to the login I could download the Nvidia binary but I cant get there because of the Nouveau errors.

You don't provide us any details to let us help you. You don't say what hardware you're using, or what version/distro of Linux you're trying to boot. However, this is a fairly well documented/known issue. Try adding "nomodeset" to the kernel command-line when you're booting up the first time. It may let the installation continue.

From there, though, getting X to run may (or may not) be problematic.

The installer should offer a failsafe mode somewhere in the menu. If you're using Ubuntu, you'd probably need to use the alternative installation disk and then install the driver from a terminal — actually, it would be easier to use something else!

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi,

Yes, Im using Slackware 14.1 (and Lilo). Graphics card is an Asus Nvidia Geforce GT 610.

TB0ne, I tried booting with 'nomodeset' on the kernel command-line in Lilo, but it wouldnt proceed to boot screen.

Ahh...seems that this is something others have encountered:
http://www.jmcunx.com/misc/nouveau.html

Since you're saying you can get to LILO, and want to install the nVidia proprietary driver, can you boot to runlevel 3, which is just a text-only console? From there, you should be able to run the nVidia installer (typically, a .run file), which will (??) blacklist the nouveau driver, and let the nVidia installation proceed. Do you have your kernel source installed already?

You should be able to run "wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/304.88/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.88.run", to get the latest driver that supports the GT610, make the file executable, and run it.

Erm, I dont know how to to this. Can it be done from the Lilo screen?

I think so


Sorry for being a noob.

Yep..should be able to press ESCAPE at the LILO boot screen, then just enter a "3" in the box. Been a while since I've used LILO though, since I'm openSUSE/Grub now.
No worries at all...at least you're asking questions (and providing answers). If you don't have the kernel source installed, when you try to build the nVidia drivers, it'll complain about them being missing. Not sure how to install them on Slack these days, but it should be like installing any other package. Since you'll have full networking available to you in runlevel 3, you may be able to install it from online repos/DVD. This may give you a start:
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:slackware_admin:start

1 members found this post helpful.

Are you running KDE? Then compositing is likely the culprit. I had this with a GT 610.

Find ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc or wherever Slack puts that file.

And set this parameter:
If everything else fails boot a Mint live stick or so. I would recommend to try this first before you install the proprietary drivers.

jlinkels