Screen flicker in Slack 13,0 with Nvidia Geforce 9800

Recursacro · 10-03-2009, 06:00 PM

Howdy all! My first post here:
I just installed Slackware 13.0 on my Dell XPS 630. I've an Nvidia 9800 GT and a Dell E248WFP 24" monitor. When I am using KDE my screen flickers several times a minute. By flicker, I mean goes black for up to 5 seconds, then comes back.

I'ven't installed any drivers, and I'm new to Slackware (brand new) and I've only use Ubuntu. In Ubuntu (I had it on this computer for a couple of days, but for about a year on another) it flickered on this monitor too. I didn't have a driver installed on that hard drive either.

I'm running Win7 on my first hard drive, and I have absolutely no graphics problems.

My question is: How would one go about installing a driver for this card on Slack, and will that fix the flicker? Thanks.

CraigZ · 10-04-2009, 03:14 AM

Download the latest Linux Nvidia drivers for your system from the Nvidia site.

Take directly from that site:

"Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.36-pkg1.run

One of the last installation steps will offer to update your X configuration file. Either accept that offer, edit your X configuration file manually so that the NVIDIA X driver will be used, or run nvidia-xconfig"

It is really as easy as that.

The full README is at the download site. I recommend you read it.

I run Slackware 13.0 on an 64bit system and installed this driver as per instructions and have no issues with my dual monitor setup.

Recursacro · 10-04-2009, 09:06 AM

I thank you kindly, CraigZ. I'll be doing that now. I'll report back when everything works fine. Then the only thing left is getting the wireless to work. :-)

CraigZ · 10-05-2009, 06:57 AM

Your wireless should work.

Look here for setting up wpa encryption for your wireless connection with Slackare.

http://alien.slackbook.org/dokuwiki/...wpa_encryption

I was running Slackware 12 on my Compaq Presario 910 and had the wireless working after reading this. Unfortunately I had to put windows back on the laptop for work reasons. All the other machines at home are Linux though, with Slackware and Gentoo being my distro's of choice.

Good luck.