I have windows xp running on a small partition. I would like to install ubuntu/redhat but cannot due to my graphics card. I have the driver from nvidia for linux. I would like to know how to start installation of linux but have it recognize the driver.

Don't worry about it now. It should recognise your card automatically during the installation. It will probably assign an open source nvidia driver (nv). If you need 3d acceleration you can then install the binary one from nvidia at any time.

The latest version of Ubuntu recognizes VGA card very well. You can try it first.

When I use a dvd with multiple distributions of linux on it, my screen goes blank and I get some sort of incompatible video message. if the message is important, i'll run through it again happily. it seems to me that it is unable to locate the driver via the web or via hard disk search while installing.

i'll give it another go tomorrow.

thanks for the replies thus far.

Try a distro that doesn't rely on a graphical installer; once the system's installed you can try to figure out the video issue.

1 members found this post helpful.

Try Linux Mint.

I've had the same (or similar) problem. The card is Nvidia NV15DDR (GE Force 2 Ti), dating probably from about ’03, which would be old but certainly not prehistoric or unknown. Driver is supposed to be 71.4X. I cannot find any 71.4X driver on their site. In fact I've seen graphics problems with Linux dating back to '94, when I bought a distro on some 80+ diskettes. Only got a text login prompt. Over the past week or 2, I've tried Fedora 9, 10, 11, 12, Ubuntu and Debian. The installation works fine, but on 1st boot, only get a black screen or text login prompt. I bought some other card, installed the card & tried it, but it did not work either, so I returned the card. I don't know if this is an Nvidia problem or Fedora. I don't need anything fancy, just a working desktop. If Linux has an HCL, (approved hardware list) like Solaris X86, that would be helpful. I wish they'd get this problem nailed.

OK, here is a reply to my own post. This may be the worst kludge ever, but if it works... I have experimented with Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora 9, 10, 12, Mandriva and CentOS current distros. All except Mandriva fail to configure graphics beyond the default unknown 800x600 resolution. I also worked with four different graphics cards. So, after installing Mandriva (which seemed to have other problems not related to graphics), I saved the /etc/X11/xorg.conf off to a safe place, then installed Debian (and I have not tested this with any other distro). I moved the Debian xorg.conf off to another name and moved the Mandriva file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, unchanged. Rebooted and the graphics are fine. Don't ask me details of why or how Mandriva does it, but the resulting file would be different based on individual H/W, so no point on posting my conf file here. There is also a man page on xorg.conf. Also, BTW, Fedora 12 no longer appears to use an xorg.conf file at all, so probably this won't work in that scenario.

Yes, there would be a point in case someone has the same video card.

OK, here is the Mandrake generated xorg.conf. This was for my older Nvidia card as in prior posts -

/etc/X11# cat xorg.conf
# File generated by XFdrake (rev )
# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
#DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
Disable "dri"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor1"
VendorName "Generic"
ModelName "1024x768 @ 60 Hz"
HorizSync 31.5-48.0
VertRefresh 50.0-70.0

# TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
# 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 50.00 768 832 846 1000 576 590 595 630

# 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
ModeLine "768x576" 63.07 768 800 960 1024 576 578 590 616
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NVIDIA RIVA TNT to GeForce 2"
Driver "nv"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "screen1"
Device "device1"
Monitor "monitor1"
DefaultColorDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "480x360" "320x240"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "480x360" "320x240"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "480x360" "320x240"
EndSubsection

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "480x360" "320x240"
EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "layout1"
Screen "screen1"
EndSection