Alright, this is the third forum I have posted to regarding this and i'm hoping someone can help me out. I have installed fedora, which is my first time using linux by the way, and my video drivers are bad and I need to install real ones instead of the default. I'm a very good windows user so if that helps relate anything to me, feel free. I'm just trying to install the right drivers from the tarball i downloaded from intel. Please please help me through the whole process. I have been given links to articles that don't mean anything to me and been told to enter commands and they don't work at all and I don't understand what people are telling me to do. I DONT KNOW LINUX AT ALL. No one seems to understand that. THanks!

Usually, tarballs (similar to zip files in Windows) must be extracted and then installed. I am still learning myself, but I will try to help you because I have received great help here.

The format for extracting the files is this (from a terminal command line in /home/you directory if that is where the tarball was downloaded to):

$ tar xvf nameofpackage-1.0.2.tar.gz

The nameofpackage is whatever the tarball you are extracting is. Be sure to type it in exactly.

A whole lot of lines with whiz by on the screen. When they are finished, a new directory will have been created with the name of your file (without the tar.gz ending).

Type CD nameofpackage-1.0.2

In the new directory, type ./configure

Another bunch of lines with whiz by on the screen. When they are finished, type "make" without the quotation marks.

Then type: su make install

You will be asked for your root password. Enter it and your program should install.

I will warn you that many times dependencies are required and if the "make install" command doesn't find them, it will stop dead in its tracks. However, after you have extracted the file, you can usually find a README (use Konqueror to get to it if that is easier). This will many times have installation instructions much more detailed than what I have written.

Hope this helps.

Bob (apologies to any experts who find anything erroneous in my attempt to help)

Welcome to LQ, ridergroov1

what video card do you have?
For both ATI and nVidia cards there are rpm's available to make your life a lot easier

Hey guys. It is an intel video card 82915g

After browsing the intel site, the only linux driver for a video card I've found is an rpm for suse!?
Is there a readme file with the driver you downloaded?

Hey all,

I did end up downloading the RPM and it did install. Much to surprise though, just when I thought I was there, still nothing after the reboot. I don't see the driver listed in the drivers section when I go to change it. I don't understand what the problem is at this point and I'm at the point of frustration with this. When something this small is this difficult, it makes me wonder if it is better than Windows. Granted, I hate Windows, but I will say i've never had this kind of problem installing a driver for something in Windows. I'm not totally ready to give it up...but i'm getting there. I did as instructed and it did make a lot of sense but after installing the RPM I still have bad video display. I don't even knwo what kind of help to ask for now so if you still are interested in helping, I'm still ready to learn. I ran a scan with PC Wizard 2006 and the video came up as Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS, 910GML Express Family Chipset...which was a little different than I had said before but after downloading the RPM for that, it was the same file and told me it was already installed. I guess...help?

First steps with linux can be a bit frustrating sometimes, especially if your hardware isn't automatically supported 100%.
Since the rpm was prpared for suse it may not work on fedora though. Not very distro puts every file in the same place and the maybe the rpm expected to find something that was installed but not where it was expected.
Looks like for the time being the tar file is your best option. It sounds like a bit of abracadabra, but try following BobNutfield's steps - they're pretty complete.

Maybe SuSE's hardware detection and setup just does better with these chipsets. My laptop has the Intel 855GM/GME chipset and not only is the integrated Intel "Extreme2" video supported out of the box by SuSE (9.3 & 10.1) but 3D hardware acceleration is easily enabled too (though not by default for some odd reason.) Unfortunately I havent tried putting FC4 on my laptop yet so can't say 100% if switching distros would make a difference, but since the price is free and you're not commited yet, might as well give it a try IMHO. I can say Mandriva 2006 runs like cr@p on the same laptop though, so you never know (until/unless you try.)

What is SUSE? I did see the driver for that but they also had one called "Linux" and that is the one I tried. I think I will try the SUSE version. What is that? Thanks!

SuSE is another distribution (distro for short) like Fedora. You'd have to download or buy the SuSE CDs. The three major RPM-based distros are: Red Hat/Fedora, Novell SuSE and Mandriva. While they share the same package management system its generally wise to use packages created specifically for your distro. There's a SuSE forum here if you want to inquire further about it...

Alright thanks. So does SUSE look just like Fedora? What is different about it? Is it free? Thank you!

suse uses kde and redhat uses gnome

and suse finds more of your hardware (I had a lot of problems with suse 10, but 9.1 was great)

It's a matter of tastes really - I had a lot of trouble with suse and threw it out, others find it the perfect distro. BOTH Fedora and Suse use KDE and Gnome, and some other lightweight desktop environments. The difference (apart from the fact that Fedora's DEFAULT is Gnome and Suse's is KDE) may lie in the theme used for KDE or Gnome and also the wallpapapers, all of which can be easily changed to suit your preferences.

Alright, well back to my original problem. Any other ideas? THanks!