Fedora 12 / 13 - Nouveau + Nvidia Driver Solution
 

UPDATE: updated to include Fedora 13...

This is info that I've found to install the proprietary Nvidia driver in Fedora 12. After searching and searching this is the best I've found. I hope this helps someone out there that needs help with this.

If you use an Nvidia card in your system and install Fedora 12, Fedora will use the Nouveau driver by default. Follow these steps to disable the Nouveau driver and install the Nvidia proprietary driver.

-Download the latest Nvidia driver from their web site
-Drop to init 3 (CTRL + ALT + F2, login as root, run "init 3")

-Install the driver using:
-Add this to the end of /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:

-Add this to the end of the kernel line in /boot/grub/grub.conf

Here is a list of VGA modes. (removed "nouveau.modeset=0" and added "rdblacklist=nouveau")

Replace 31B with the desired mode:

1600x1200 - 346
1280x1024 - 31B
1400x1050 - 348
1024x768 - 318
800x600 - 315

-I also removed the nouveau x11 package, but it isn't necessary:
-Type "reboot" and enter to reboot

Reboot and it should boot using the proprietary Nvidia driver.

Credits to the person that originally posted this information:
http://linuxformat.co.uk/forums/view...e8d051ac34216c

~JoshGriffin

but you will miss the graphical boot loader .

And have to add vga=795 to /boot/grub/grub.conf to get the graphical boot loader to work again.

This is how I added

Here the issue is I have a 19" Wide screen ( 1370x768 ), and i dont know what is the vga equivalent for 1370x768.
vga 795 is equivalent for 1200X1024.

@ JoshGriffin :
Thank you for the information about disabling nouveau.

For your information :
"All" Nvidia versions are available in the atrpms repo
http://www.atrpms.net/
http://www.atrpms.net/install.html

I haven't seen the driver ( 190.xx.xx ) from the atrpms.repo
work, missed out some of the nouveau stuff, may be it will
work now, thanks to your thorough explanation.
.....

Peeths003:

Thank you for that info. I added that to my post.

knudfl:

I tried using RPMs and I myself couldn't get it to work. It may work, but I couldn't get it to work. I'd rather use the install file from Nvidia anyways.

Sorry, forgot : # yum install nvidia..........

Why talk about RPM's ? You don't use that much
for package install ? Unless with no internet.
Manually installing rpm packages is last resort.

The Package Manager , Add / Remove Software
.. and yum : access to about 12,000 packages.
.....

I missed that detail in my explanation. :) I used yum to install the Nvidia driver (via RPMFusion) and couldn't get it to work.

Apologize that I misunderstood # 5.

I think, I used the rpmfusion nvidia packages in Fedora 10, 11.
Before that, I have always installed nvidia manually.
Now, without any drivers in rpmfusion, I found the atrpms
reference, and installed from them.
Still don't know, if they work. I'll try that another day.
..... .. :) ..

a word of WARNING
if you do use the atrpm repo for thee nvidia driver YOU ARE STUCK using ONLY THE ATRPM REPO . It is INCOMPATIBLE with rpmfusion
this also means YOU MUST USE THE KERNEL FROM ATRPM

-- dissable ALL othere repo's if you use atrpm.

Geez. You would think Fedora would have an easy solution for nvidia drivers. Its a pretty painless operation with most distros nowadays.

I'm sitting here with no display, and no rescue mode after trying the fusion nvidia drivers. I cannot find xorg.conf running the live cd to copy to my fedora install. How do I restore x?

there is A VERY EASY solutition
and THAT IS IT

@fair_is_fair:
I had the same problem when trying to use the repos. Then I came across this solution and reinstalled. Maybe that will work? If you want to continue using repos you might want to start a new thread on how to resolve using repos.

@John_VV:
The default repos in Fedora do not include the rpms for akmod-nvidia. I followed a few solutions I googled using repos and after a few hours couldn't get it to work. After working with the solution I posted I had it up and running in a few minutes. In my case Fedora 11 was no sweat to set up the Nvidia driver and Fedora 12 is like pulling teeth. There might be a simple way of installing the driver using a repo but I couldn't figure it out. This thread is for people in the same boat.

Thanks Josh. I was trying to avoid a reinstall because I have a fair amount of time and bandwidth invested in my Fedora install. I did not expect display problems. I will use your solution to get my display back up.
Btw... akmod-nvidia was installed. Removing akmod-nvidia and rebooting did not restore the nouveau driver either.

fair_is_fair

Sorry for the misfortune. I would help with your current situation but I don't know enough to help. Good luck with the re-install! :)

there is the "how to" Guide for it
"F12,F11 & F10 Nvidia driver guides "
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=204752
the very first post in that long thread

Ok, so I have a problem. I've gone to the Fedoraforum.org guide, and I also followed the RPMFusion tips section. Neither of them worked well for me.

When I added the rdblacklist=nouveau to grub.conf it still loaded the nouveau kernel (gave me the graphical bootup for Fedora 12. If I hit the up arrow during this load (and before I put in my LUKs passphrase for my encrypted /home) I could no longer enter the passphrase. It wouldn't accept it and I couldn't mount /home.

I also did the dracut thing with the boot image, which removed the nouveau driver from the init image. But, I was back to not being able to put in my LUKS passphrase and couldn't mount /home.

I haven't tried using the Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia website, but after spending 2 hours trying all this crap and then trying to restore my system (which I luckily was able to do) I'm not too inclined to keep messing with it.

Anyone else had the same problem with an encrypted partition trying to mount it at boot time? I'm guessing that when I disabled nouveau it reverted to the vesa driver. Seems like something is broken there with LUKS.

Thanks
for my 19" 1440x900 screen, I had to remove the "vga=***" option, it crashed the system

My solution was just to run mkinitfs without the option to load any video driver with the initial RAM file system (which disables the graphical boot screen, but I like to watch the boot messages.) Then there's no driver loaded when the nVidia driver gets loaded by the akmod process.

And, FYI, I have to use the nVidia driver since nouveau has a "bug" that crashes my on-board nVidia driver (a MPC67) after five minutes to five hours of use. (When the driver crashes, so does the X-server, and all unsaved work. At least the screen doesn't turn blue, eh?) I reported the bug during Rawhide testing, but, as far as I know, it's not yet fixed.

doesn't work for me
 

I've tried every FC12 recipe including this one and none work. I had a few problems with FC11 where I used kmod-nvidia but had to add "vmalloc=256M" to the kernel line in grub.conf. lspci reports
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8200 (rev a2)
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8400 GS (rev a1)
---
I've tried kmod-nvidia and the nVidia download (the nvidia.ko build goes without a hitch. At startx, the machine hangs and needs a power down reboot. The only way I can do anything is from run-level 3. I am running the latest 32 bit PAE kernel. Having troubles with 64 bit Python. If I use rdblacklist=nouveau the boot hangs after "Starting udev:" and then requires a power down, wait, power up reboot. Same thing happens if I build a nouveau free initrd, but then I have spend 3 more hours rebuilding my FC12 evaluation system. Am using an MCP78 south bridge with a fan hot melt glued to it (121 F).
---
This gives me 2 DVI ports for my pair of 24" monitors (1920 x 1200). Thank the Gnome for workspaces or I would have had to buy 6 more monitors :-). Note: VGA is too fuzzy. I do software development. I need 4 or 5 reference manuals open, a debugger, a profiler, a test bed, and all of my other development tools open. It would be nice to have everything visible at the same time, but I make do. Nouveau is not ready for prime time.

Thanks for the info. This is what I needed.