Hello. Newbie here. On 9.2, NVidia drivers were .rpm and installed quite easily with no programming knowledge required. Now, with 10.1, which is supposed to be a step up, installing the NVidia drivers has become a horribly complex situation. Exit X server, modify this and that etc. What on earth are they doing? Isn't this supposed to get easier instead of harder?
I know, there are many people out there that are very good with software and programming, but at the same time, there are many more people who are not good with such things. I am one of them. Ask me anything about mechanical engineering and I can help you. Send me into programming and I get lost. Like most people. Note the word "most". Programmers are few and far between compared to the number of people who use computers. So why on earth are tutorials written as if everyone is a programmer?
I am begging anyone out there using SuSe 10.1, to write a tutorial for everyone else, that cannot afford to screw up their systems by making a mistake fooling around in their systems.
I see people write "shut down your X server". What on earth is that? How do I do that? Most people are not programmers! We don't know what you are all talking about! One liners may work for programmers, but not for the rest of the world. When I help people with engineering, I DO NOT assume that they know everything I know. I help them in simple explanations with enough detail to get the job done effectively. Why don't programmers do that? I am not cutting down programmers, I am saying that they need to tone it down so everyone else can understand what they are talking about.
Can someone PLEASE write a simple, easy to understand, step by step tutorial on installing the new NVidia drivers in SuSe 10.1 using KDE? I spend more time doing research and finding nothing but programming jargon, than I do actually using my computer to do my work!

nvidia has a suse specific howto,
http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/nvidia-...ler-HOWTO.html

this is how i do it

install kernel source and kernel syms with yast
open a root terminal
cd /usr/src/linux
enter 'make cloneconfig'
exit
ctrl + alt +f2
login as root
enter 'init 3'
login as root
cd /to/where/the/nvidia/file/is
enter 'chmod +x NVIDIA-rest-of-filename'
enter './NVIDIA-rest-of-filename'
enter 'sax2 -m 0=nvidia'
fill in information for your monitor
test
save and exit
enter 'init 5' or 'shutdown -r now' to reboot

huzzah

I found the first part of this really helpful:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/17174.html
I printed out the bit about how to install the nvidia driver and just copy from it (but change the file name and directory to your own of course).
You have to reinstall it like this whenever you upgrade the kernel.
May I also add that with suse 10.1, installing the nvidia driver is the easiest it's been since I started with suse 9.3. Till now all the text was written with no spaces when it's installing, it was impossible to read. It's easier to install now, and also everything looks just a bit better on the screen too so I guess the driver itself is better.

If I am to understand this correctly, the X server is the desktop? This would make sense to turn off anything using the graphics driver that the new driver would be changing, thus exit the X server. Is this correct?
I printed out the monitor information found in Yast, as well as the instructions from NVidia as well as from rshaw's recent post. Thanks by the way for the help. I have no idea what to expect when I exit the X server, so I thought it would be practical to have a print-out of any information available.
I am going to try this install now. I will inform everyone of what happens. Provided the computer still works! LOL.. such a newbie.
Again, thanks for the help!

X is the graphical system.
When you are in init 3, you are in text-only mode.
good luck!

Well, here are my results. I didn't find anything of use on the NVidia page they specified. It only took me to the page where I downloaded the file to begin with. Why was this not a problem with 9.2, but it is a huge problem with 10.1? I just don't get it!

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Tue Jun 20 22:37:55 2006

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: false
no ncurses color : false
query latest driver ver : false
OpenGL header files : true
no questions : false
silent : false
no backup : false
kernel module only : false
sanity : false
add this kernel : false
no runlevel check : false
no network : false
no ABI note : false
no RPMs : false
force tls : (not specified)
force compat32 tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
installer install prefix: /usr
utility install prefix : /usr
kernel name : (not specified)
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel output path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp mirror : ftp://download.nvidia.com
RPM file list : (not specified)

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
WARNING: The NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro GPU installed in this
system is supported through the NVIDIA legacy Linux graphics drivers.
Please visit http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html for more
information. The 1.0-8762 NVIDIA Linux graphics driver will ignore
this GPU.
WARNING: You do not appear to have an NVIDIA GPU supported by the 1.0-8762
NVIDIA Linux graphics driver installed in this system. For further
details, please see the appendix SUPPORTED NVIDIA GRAPHICS CHIPS in
the README available on the Linux driver download page at
www.nvidia.com.
-> The file '/tmp/.X0-lock' exists... an X server appears to be running
ERROR: You appear to be running an X server; please exit X before installing.
For further details, please see the section INSTALLING THE NVIDIA DRIVER
in the README available on the Linux driver download page at
www.nvidia.com.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

It isn't a huge problem.
I don't wanna seem like a pr1ck here, but I really think that if a minor task like installing a video driver from the CLI is putting you off, then maybe Linux isn't for you.

Please do not be offended by this comment. Not everybody likes the same thing.