hi all,

i have all my components to build my best box to date.

my motherboard doesn't have any video, but i have an Nvidia card that i will install prior to firing up the box. will the Nvidia be autodetected and will i get a screen displayed?

will i be in the dark, as it were?

any guidance would be appreciated.

tia...

just be ready for the nv driver not to work - I always have to either a)install the nvidia blob, or b)change the driver entry in xorg.conf from nv to vesa, before X will load(without totally going borko) for me, with basically every distro I've tried. Live-CDs that try use the nv driver (presumably) also always fail for me - I have to use "safe video" mode like the Ubuntu cd has.

Some distros include Nvidia's binary blob though, but I guess Fedora isn't one of them.

edit: doh, I have an XFX 6600gt btw

lurko, thanks for the tip. i'm afraid *nothing* will work, though, since i don't have on board video. will my bios still come up and display on my screen even without onboard video?

i will probably dual boot ubuntu and mepis, if that helps.

do you know of any tutorials to help with this just getting started process?

tia...

Well whenever I try a new distro, I find that my system has problems with both nv and vesa drivers i.e. generic ones. So, I tend to just find out the easiest way of installing the "proper" (read as proprietary) nvidia driver - yes I am using sidux which might scare some users away (being as how it's based on debian SID a.k.a. unstable) but it seems fine to me - I use an updating script to install the nvidia driver.

Normally if the distro you choose doesn't have a nice bonus like that, you usually need to make sure that you also have the kernel sources (sometimes called the kernel headers) installed so that after you've downloaded the nvidia driver you can then run the command to install it and it can make the kernel module itself.

So anyway, I can't say for mepis I've not tried that but if you print of the instructions at the ubuntu site then you should be able to get it running with few, if any, problems.

Oh and the main problem I have with those generic drivers seems to stem from my insistance of running my system at 1600x1200@85hz - I have a 21 inch CRT. Invariably as long as I can make out the screen I revert to 800x600@60hz and even the nv driver is usable to finish setting up the system.

And no, I also only have a seperate AGP graphics card - no onboard graphics capability.

There are extensive instructions for ubuntu (oh and if you're just moving over from windows I'd suggest Kubuntu as the KDE front end has a more familiar feel to it - but you can have both i.e. gnome and kde).

regards

John

I also run at 1600x1200, but with liveCDs and such, that's never the problem (usually just get dropped to 1024x768)

GNewbie - I also only have a video card, no onboard video. If your card is installed and none of your hardware is faulty, it will certainly be detected and used. If you're asking if you can boot without video hardware, no, that's a waste of time.

Hi !

I you're completely new to Linux, try Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) or 6.10 (Edgy Eft). Either of these will have you up and running quickly, personally, as I am a Novice myself, I would recommend Edgy.

Hope this gets you through!

Hi. I too am a newbie. I gave up on the nVidia card and stuck in an old ATI card that worked fine. But I never really give up. Two weeks on I have the nVidia working !!!, so I want to pass it on.

My prob was that I could not even get a console with the nVidia card, but I can with the ATI card. So, I took out the ATI and put the GeForce back in and, as expected X failed and I can only get a text console.

Logon as Root and get to grips with the madness that is vi.
First view \etc\X11\xorg.conf

You will find an entry for the your adaptor in the driver section and in the screens section ( I am assuming you have got hold of an adaptor that works ie its not the nVidia one).

You need to use vi to edit the driver section;
replace the identifier string with
"nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600]"
the Driver line with "vesa" (this is vital)
BusID (on my machine) "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "UseFBDev" "true"

and in the Screen section find the default screen and replace the device there with the same line you used as the Identifier in the device section.