Nvidia drivers
 

Hi,
I've been trying for a month to install the Nvidia drivers now, and they still don't work,
I tried to install by SRPM's but when I install the Kernel spec-file i got this error:

install: cannot stat 'nvidia.0': No such file or directory
error: Bad exit status from var/tmp/rpm-tmp.48734(%install)

is there anybody who can help me?

thanx
mathijs

just get the tar.gz file from the site and install that as instruction in the readme file.

Which Distribution are you running ?

Tar-files
 

I've tried to install by tar but it didn't work out either
I'm running redhat 8.0, i'll have to check my kernel version...

just a second

mathijs

I'm also running redhat 8.0 and didn't have any trouble intalling from the source tar's. The ones that worked for me were.

NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.tar.gz
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.tar.gz

Mike

Maybe
 

hmm
i'll try again from tar-files

i'll lett you guys know if it worked

i'm having a 2.4.18-14 kernel

thanx
mathijs

Guys, here's your solution.

Follow VERY ACCURATELY the procedure !!!!!!!!!

the COMPLETE & DETAILED procedure :

First, visit the Linux section of the nVidia driver download area and get the following two files:

NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191.src.rpm (at top of page)
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.src.rpm (at bottom of page)

Save these files to your machine. Now, open up a terminal (konsole, gnome-terminal) and become root (also called superuser). Change to the directory containing the packages and install them with:

cd /path/to/packages

rpm -i NVIDIA* (or rpm -ivh NVIDIA* for verbose output and to print hash marks [#] indicating installation progress)

Since these are only source packages, we haven't actually installed any drivers yet, we've just placed the necessary files onto the system to get us started. To verify that everything is where it should be, issue the command:

ls /usr/src/redhat/SPECS/

You should see two files listed: NVIDIA_GLX.spec and NVIDIA_kernel.spec These two files simply tell RPM how to create packages using the source files. These source files were installed into /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES. Once you're satisfied everything went according to plan:

cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS

This is the directory the source packages were installed into. /usr/src also contains the source code for the Linux kernel itself (assuming it was selected when you installed Psyche). Once inside the /usr/src/redhat directory, you might want to take a look around and see if you can get a feel for what the various directories are for. If you aren't comfortable with that, don't worry, it's not necessary. Next, the hard part (if you've been exploring, before you proceed make sure your working directory is /usr/src/redhat/SPECS – you can use the pwd command to display this for you):

rpmbuild -bb NVIDIA* (“rpmbuild” should be self-explanatory, the bb means “build binary” -- man rpmbuild at the console or #rpmbuild into Konqueror's address bar or a command box for more information)

It should only take a few minutes for the two packages to be built. You'll see information scrolling by as your request is carried out. Don't worry if you don't know what any of it means, since not many people do. Once the build process finishes, you're almost there. Now, to install the packages we just built:

cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/ (this is where rpmbuild puts the packages after they are ready)

rpm -Uvh NVIDIA*

RPM will process for a moment, indicating its progress with hash marks and by displaying a percentage. If all has gone well, you should see both packages install and then be returned to a command prompt. At this point, I would suggest you view the README located on nVidia's website, as it contains a great deal of information about using, troubleshooting and customizing the nVidia drivers. For the impatient, I'll include here the minimum changes you need to make to your system to get the drivers working.

At this point the drivers themselves are installed and ready to go. Now all we have to do is tell XFree86 we want to use them instead of its own drivers. Since this requires making changes to the (vitally important!) XFree86 configuration file, we'll make a backup copy of it before going any further. This is extremely important! Without a clean working copy of this file, you will not be able to access your desktop.

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/X11/XF86Config-original

Now if you manage to mangle XF86Config you can copy XF86Config-original to XF86Config and start over with a known-good configuration. For those of us who aren't vi or emacs aficionados, Red Hat has included an excellent screen-based text editor called pico. Considering the number of capable and friendly GUI-based editors included with modern Linux distributions, you might question the need for using or even being aware of console-based alternatives -- until, like now, you're doing something that has the potential to render your GUI unavailable. As a general rule, you should always have a familiar console-based editor available for just such times. There are few things more frustrating than needing to make a simple change to a configuration file and being stumped because you have no idea how to do so from the command line. That being said, still as root user, issue the command:

pico -w /etc/X11/XF86Config (always use the -w switch with configuration files, since it prevents pico from applying any line wrapping and thus mangling the file)

Locate the line containing Driver "nv" and replace it with Driver "nvidia". To search in pico you press CTRL+W and enter the search term (shortcuts are displayed at the bottom of the interface). Now, find the section called Module and make sure Load "glx" is one of the entries. If not, add it to the list. Also in the Module section, remove or comment out any lines that contain Load "dri" and Load "GLcore". (You comment out a line by prefacing it with a hash mark, as in #Load "GLcore".)

That's it! You should be ready to go. Save all your work, and press CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to restart the X server. If all went well, you should see the nVidia splash screen pop up briefly and then be presented with the standard GDM login screen. Once your desktop has loaded, press ALT+F2 to bring up a command box and type in tuxracer (this assumes TuxRacer is installed, of course) to test your new drivers. If something has gone wrong along the way, make sure the nVidia packages are installed correctly and that your changes to XF86Config are correct (now you'll see why I pointed out the need for a backup file and an easy-to-use editor!).

rpm -qa |grep NVIDIA will query the RPM database for any installed package with "NVIDIA" in its name (as always, case matters). If you don't see both packages listed, something has gone wrong. Back up to the section that explains building the packages and try again.


This should be quite helpful.

Mebrax i'm sorry
 

i tried evrything already,
i've read your documentation about 3 times now,
i've done it
and still it doesn't work
the problem is: my kernel file isn't in the usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/ directory

about the tar files: what's the command i've got to use?
javascript:smilie(':newbie:')
Newbie

thanx
mathijs

All right.

Tried to update your kernel to 2.4.19 as well via Red Hat Network connection ?
Could fix as well the location of the required files.

Cheers,

Membrax,

Here's a follow-on question for you about this thread.
I'm past the situation that Mathijs finds himself in, installed nVidia drivers and necessary bits, and X works just fine.

However,

I'm running a GeForce 4 MX 460 with dual head, and I'm trying to configure XF86config to recognize and use the TwinView feature. Alas, I'm not having much luck.
I found a tool called, don't laugh, YanC (yet another nvidia configurator) which claims to config the XF86Config file, but it seems that the edits aren't added to the file, but overwrite portions of it, including Section "Screen". When trying, then, to startX, the message "no Screens found" is displayed.
Checking XF86Config shows me the problem.

Here's my issue: I'm fairly new to RH 8 (as of ~4:30 this morning ;-), and can't follow good instructions.
Have you any experience with TwinView?

Cheers,
Tmanisaur

Hi Tmanisaur,

Your post is quite interesting and, be assured of it, I did not laugh about the "YanC" tool as many Linux tool adopt sometimes this kind of denomination.

So, let's now go to the point :
- unfortunately I do not have any experience regarding twinview or that kind of stuff.
- "no Screens found" : XF86Config obviously points to resources that aren't at the right location or misnamed.
- Welcome to the free happy people club of Red Hat 8.0, you'll be more than satisfed, no kidding.

By the way, I passed the frontier this evening and changed my VGA card.
From nVidia GeForce Ti500 I installed now my brand new Hercules 3D Prophet 9700Pro 128MB (ATI chipset of course).
The transition occured very nicely and it took me almost 10 minutes to put all the stuffs right in place. Surprisingly for me as well I have to admit.
Quake3 Arena gives me now 314FPS everything on (Best quality) & 1024*768.
The latest ATI drivers (to be found in the section "Powered by ATI") even add a tool in the standard menu of Red Hat, granting access to a lot of stuff that can be tuned.

That's all I had to share for now.

Have Fun !

Hi membrax and thanks for the welcome to the linux community!

I finally did figure out how to get my GeForce4 MX460 to display to two monitors. After much confusion and reading and more confusion, I opted to keep things simple. I added only a few lines to XF86Config and *le voila!* it worked.

For everyone, these lines were placed at the end of the Section "Screens" entries, inside the last EndSection.

Option "TwinView" "on"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "xx-yy" #put your values here
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh"aa-zz" #put your values here
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024, 1280x1024; 1024x768, 1024x768"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"


It's important to know exactly how the nVidia processes these entries. Once I figured that out, life got better.

This did the trick and was the only change I made to my XF86Config file.

Thanks again for the help!

Cheers,
T.

Now, I just have to figure out how to install Quake2.

Quake 2 ?
Is kewl for sure, but if you consider installing Quake3 Arena you won't have any problem as even the demo exists for Linux :

http://public.planetmirror.com/pub/b.../quake3/linux/

Have Fr4g pHuN !

Huh? OK
 

Problem solved!!!
I was so sick of trying and trying, and as I use to do with windows I just reinstalled Linux, installed the drivers (like Membrax said how to do it), and "zie daar" evrything works fine.
:rolleyes:
thanx,
Mathijs

(zie daar is Dutch :-) )

Thanks Y'all!!!!
 

:Pengy:

I just wanted to say thanks for the great work, y'all!!!

I am just getting back into Linux again after a forced absence by higher powers... He he he.

I reloaded Mandrake 9, and loaded the drivers from nvidia (using the canned RPM packages [kicks self in rear]... but it works)...

And like Tmanisaur was looking for the Dual Headed display on my GForce2 8-D

Thanks to all of y'all!!!!

~DaFyre