Drivers

barron123 · 05-15-2004, 12:38 PM

Im totally new 2 linux and im using mandrake 10 but i hav no drivers for my gfx card.
My gfx card is a geforce 2 mx400 64mb
How do i install drivers?

wrongman · 05-15-2004, 01:01 PM

have you tried to download them from www.nvidia.com ?

wrongman · 05-15-2004, 01:04 PM

ps: to be more precise, here is the exact link:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

Mega Man X · 05-15-2004, 01:06 PM

Hi there barron123!!!

Luckily, Nvidia provides an official driver for Geforce cards family. The installation is deadly easy, once you know what you are doing. Go to nvidia site:

www.nvidia.com

and grab the driver. Most likely, this is the one you want:

http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L...-5336-pkg1.run

Make sure to read the README:

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Li....0-5336/README

Suse users has to read this:

ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/sup...nstaller-HOWTO

A quick description of the steps you've to follow:

1 - Download the driver and save to your disk.

2 - Make sure you have gcc and the kernel-source installed.

3 - Edit the runlevel. Open the file "inittab" located at /etc/, and you will see something like this:

Code:

# Level to run in
id:5:initdefault:

edit the 5(Multi-user mode, graphical login) to 3 (Multi-user mode). Reboot.

4 - You are now into text mode login. Login as root, then navigate through your file till you find you nvidia driver (the one you've downloaded at step 1). Then run the script:

Code:

./ NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run

5 - Edit your XF86Config-4 located at /etc/X11. Scroll down the file till you find something like this:

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "VESA Framebuffer"
    Driver      "vesa"
    ...

Where it stands driver "vesa" could also be "nv". Substitute the driver to nvidia instead like this:

Code:

Driver    "nvidia"

Watch out that Linux is a case sensitive Operating System unlike Windows, meaning that "nvidia" is different of "NVIDIA" which is different of "Nvidia". The correct is "nvidia"

6 - type "startx" to see if the driver is working. A nvidia logo will be shown right before Linux loads the Window Manager. if everything is ok, you might want to re-edit step 3 back to runlevel 5 to login graphically again

Good luck!

comprookie2000 · 05-15-2004, 07:22 PM

Great Post,that will help out alot of folks,have fun,david

Mega Man X · 05-15-2004, 07:56 PM

Cool, thanks comprookie2000!. I'm glad you liked. Well, I really think that we could have a sticky with Nvidia drivers installation

Thanks again!

Korff · 05-15-2004, 09:07 PM

You don't need to edit your /etc/fstab.

Just control+alt+F1. Log in as root and type init 3

and boom, your x windows is closed.

Mega Man X · 05-15-2004, 09:09 PM

hmmmm, that would simplify things a _lot_, since we just need to use the above method once. Thanks for the tip Korff