Trying to get my GeForce4 MX 440-SE to utilize 3d games.

rngetter · 03-06-2008, 10:52 PM

I recently needed help installing a driver for my Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440-SE. Here is a link to the thread in which I asked for help:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=711777

Within that thread I happened to come accross a link that gave specific instructions on how to install the driver I needed. The link to that is:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...83&postcount=8

It turned out that, after I installed the driver, it would just hang during "Running local boot scripts (/etc/re.local). It turns out that I had to edit the xorg.conf for the driver and change the driver from "nvidia" to "nv" for it to boot my interface.

It worked, I was happy, I could see things. However, I still couldn't play any 3d games. I really didn't put too much thought into it, as I had a million other things to worry about. Well, while stumbleing around I happened to come accross:

Applications -> System -> Restricted Drivers Manager

I noticed that it said no proprietory drivers are in use on this system. Down below was the option to check a checkbox that would enable the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver. When I checked it a second box popped up stating that it was necessary for 3d utilization.

Here is a screenshot of the window and the second window that popped up after I checked the box:

http://www.geocities.com/lookin4buss...Screenshot.jpg

After I press the enable driver button it then tells me that I will have to reboot the system for the new changes to take effect. That's understandable. So, I go ahead and reboot the computer only to have it hang in that spot that it used to hang whenever I had the other driver installed prior to changing "nvidia" to "nv". With that in mind, I decided to check the xorg.conf and sure enough, "nv" had changed back to "nvidia". So, I changed it back to "nv" and it booted up fine without any problems. However, after checking the Restricted Drivers Manager, I was right back to where I was. The box was unchecked and it said I didn't have the NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver in use. After all this I've begun to realize that when I change "nvidia" to "nv" I am basically changing from the accelerated graphics driver which does not work to an open source driver that does work. This epiphany was mainly given to me by slowly rereading a post that someone said in that last thread I had posted a link to.

jocko has posted:

Code:

I think the instructions on the page Whiffle gave are wrong:
To use the drivers installed with those instructions, you need to make sure that the driver in xorg.conf is "nvidia", not "nv".
"nv" is an open source driver which, as far as I know have very limited functionality.

My question is....

How can I get the accelerated graphics driver to work on MY computer?! ](*,) :sad:

PS: I came across this post that mentioned something that I'm not sure would fix it for me, in all actuality I don't think it would work for me as I am using an AGP card, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to try. Here is a link to that thread:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=65071

MonctonJohn · 03-16-2008, 08:32 AM

Hi rngetter

I just went through a day and a half of troubleshooting and googling and actually found the solution. I have a Nvidia 6600 GT card and after installing the proprietary drivers and rebooting I had the same issue as you. I will tell you now you should get comfortable with the command line if you want this to work.

First thing to do is get your gui back by editing xorg.conf and setting the driver back to "nv". The easy way to do this is issue this command:

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

This will set your xorg back to the defaults from when you installed the system. Now that you have your gui log in and open a web browser. Go to the Nvidia site and download the latest driver for your card:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx

It should be called NVIDIA-something.run (can't remember the exact name). Now that you have that you need to stop xorg so on the keyboard hit Alt-Ctrl-F1 to get yourself on a command line.

Login. Issue the command:

Code:

sudo bash

to get yourself at a root prompt. Now depending on which desktop manager you are using you have to stop it. For me the command was:

Code:

/etc/init.d/kdm stop

This will stop kdm and xorg. Now that they are stopped you can install the driver from NVidia. First you will have to make the file executable:

Code:

chmod 755 NVIDIA-something.run

Then run it:

Code:

./NVIDIA-something.run

Follow the prompts... its pretty braindead easy. It will install the Nvidia kernel module and configure xorg.

Now you're almost done. There is a bug in loading the Nvidia module so you have to input a "hack" into your kdm/gdm start script. Look for the part that says:

Code:

case "$1" in
  start)

Right after that insert this:

Code:

##hack to deal with broken nvidia km not loading right###
              rmmod nvidia && modprobe nvidia

Now you are ready to try it out. You don't even have to reboot. From the command line start your desktop manager:

KDE:

Code:

/etc/init.d/kdm start

Gnome:

Code:

/etc/init.d/gdm start

Notes:

I tried the proprietary drivers from the Ubuntu repository and they work with the methods above, however xorg is not able to load the "glx" extension to enable openGL. This will kill any attempt of yours to run a 3D game/app. The only way it worked for me was to download and install the driver directly from NVidia.

Let me know if it works

tredegar · 03-16-2008, 08:51 AM

Good instructions from MonctonJohn, but as you have been using the "Restricted Drivers Manager", sometimes some files are left scattered around to confuse things. So, before you try and run the nvidia installer please:
Make sure the files /etc/init.d/nvidia-glx and /etc/init.d/nvidia-kernel do not exist (delete them if they do)
If the file /lib/linux-restricted-modules/.nvidia_new_installed exists, delete it. Notice that "dot" in the filename

Edit /etc/default/linux-restricted-modules-common so it contains this line:

DISABLED_MODULES=”nv nvidia_new”
(You'll need to reset this file if you need to go back to the “nv”driver.)

then go ahead and run the nvidia installer.

Good luck!