GeForce3
 

I using a GeForce3 on Red Hat 8.0. But games like chromium and malestrom run pretty sluggish. Is it because I dont have my drivers set up right? Also I'm using the generic GeForce3 drivers that came with Red Hat 8.0.

Yup. That's the cause. Take a nip over to http://www.nvidia.com. Go to drivers then select linux. There'll probably be an rpm for redhat 8.0, if there's not, compiling it from source is easy anyway. And whatever you do, read their README file on the download page. It's big but very good, and should lead you well through the install.

IA32 or IA64
 

Whats the difference between IA32 and IA64? How do I find out what version of Xfree I have?

IA-32 means Instruction Architecture 32 bit. (80386, 80486, Penitum, Pentium MMX, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, etc.)

IA-64 means Instruction Architecture 64 bit. (AMD Optron, AMD Hammer, INTEL Itanium (sp?) )

Go to sandpile.org for more information about x86 processors.

At the bash prompt or console. Type X -version . Yes, bash is case sensitive.


Download the rpm file for your distribution. You can download the source code and compiling it yourself. RPM files are usually easier to install.

i typed in rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.src.rpm
and i got this at the end
install: cannot stat 'nvidia.o': No such file or directory
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.1764 (%install)

RPM build errors:
usr buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
user buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.1764 (%install)

Also what runlevel is console only because it said that i should shut down X.

Run-level 3 should do the job for console only. Don't have a clue about that rpm error. I stay away from them as much as possible...

One more thing besides that error how do i config the S-video out for my GeForce3,

What is the difference between the UP, SMP and Bigmem architecture?

I couldn't get the source RPMs to build properly so I downloaded the sources that were in the *.tar.gz format

Then when I go to make it I use this:
make SYSINCLUDE=/lib/modules/current kernel you are using/build/include

For me current kernel was 2.4.18-27 so the command looked like this:
make SYSINCLUDE=/lib/modules/2.4.18-27/build/include

Also ensure you have the kernel source installed.

What kernel source?

I just tried install the NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.rh80up_2.4.18_18.8.0.i686.rpm kernal. When i tried to go back to runlevel 5 i told me that it couldnt start X server. The output said after it tried to initialize the GLX extension:

Fatal Server error:
Caught signal 11
server aborting

I also installed GLX after the kernel

The kernel-devel packages.

You need this so that the headers are there, this is only if you are going to use the NVIDIA source drivers.

You need to rebuild the RPM as root, since typically only root has permission to save the finished RPM. After it's done, of course, you'll need to install the RPM. Everything should go smoothly if you follow nvidia's instructions. Kernel first, then GLX, then edit your XF86Config-4 file, then start X and everything should be peachy.

Where do i get the Nivdia module because it tells me it cant find and how do i uninstall the kernal i just installed so i can reinstall it?