which distro will support my new Nvidia 8600gt video card?

i have Mepis but apparently they don't support this card. yup, i tried the Vesa mode off the live mepis 6.5 cd. (64 bit)

i get a big black screen. i even tried the stock built in Nvidia 6150 LE vid card on my HP PC. nada, i get a "signal not found" on my LCD then an orange power light.

from what i hear from my Mepis buddys, i am not supported there with this card. anybody know of a distro that WILL support my card?

thx lenny

This isn't a distribution issue, it's an Nvidia driver issue. You need to download and install (per the instruction from Nvidia) the 100.14.11 version of the Nvidia driver.

ok--but how do i get the driver on my linux hard drive? or better still, since i can't see the KDM desktop but CAN login, what is the command/process?----for loading it on my drive? the commands always get me here. i know, i know, i'm a useless desktop kinda guy. but i'm willing to learn.....thanks lenny

To get the driver from a command line, if you are running a 32-bit OS, type (as root):

For a 64-bit version of Linux, instead use:

Then run the installer with:

sh ./NVIDIA*

hey mace, i ran that 64bit command twice. first one i ran connects then gives a error 404
. second time i ran it i get "name or service not known".

ok, i was gonna try this but need a command line to make it work?

i already loaded the 64bit Linux driver from the Nvidia site on my fat32 drive tonight. can i copy it somehow to my linux drive? and what would the command line be? if it's possible, i'll run the sh ./nvidia* installer afterwards.

thx again

I just copied/pasted the command and it worked. Maybe you are typo'ing it

well, ok i did type it----but i'm at the black screen, in root. how do i copy paste it there? i can't get into my desktop still.....

I'm not suggesting that you copy/paste it, merely that the command is correct. You need to transcribe it carefully.

hi, lenny45.

I'd think that you've installed windows and linux on the pc according to what you said above. Am I right? I suggest that you download the nvidia driver for linux platform into a fat32 partition under your windows, then reboot your pc into linux and mount your windows hdd partition which contains the driver and install it by issuing sh *.run as root.

Hope that my suggestion will do some help to you.

GOODLUCK!

cnzhannet

What's more, you have to reinstall the nvidia driver each time you upgrade your kernel.

thx guys. yea, i always worry about transcribing it mace, it don't work if you can't type it correctly. that's why i did it twice.

and no cnz, i have 3 hard drives in my PC. yes--i said hard drives, NOT partitions. i just change booting order when i want a different OS. i loaded the linux Nvidia driver (the one mace mentioned) on my 3rd drive, a catch-all, backup Fat32 drive between Linux and Vista.

is there a command to copy from it to my Linux drive?

thx again. lenny

I think Mepis should have some packages available to install the driver, which might be easier than trying to get the file transferred plus it should upgrade itself along with updating kernels.

I haven't used a debian based system for a while, but I think the command to search for packages is apt-cache search nvidia. That should list packages that are related to the nvidia driver. Find the name of the one you want, and install it with apt-get install [package name]. If you haven't updated your system since you installed, or recently it's probably a good idea to get everything to date first with the commands apt-get update then apt-get upgrade. All of this needs to be done as root by the way.

If you still need to install the file you downloaded you can move the file with the command mv [location of file] [where you want the file to be]. I think you can run it from the location that it's at now though. Change to the directory it's in with the command cd [location]. Then run it just like macemoneta said.

Have you tried the plain 'nv' driver in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf?