Hi,

I just bought an nVidia GF8500 GT, and am searching for a distro to run. I tried openSuSE 10.2 and 10.3, and Fedora Core 7. Under both, I have no idea how to get acceleration going.

I tried following specific instructions for openSuSE, i.e: installing from the repository, but no effect. Graphics is painfully slow. It takes forever to scroll to the end of the screen.

I tried installing the official nVidia drivers, but afterwards X stops working.

lspci gives following:

VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Unknown device 0421 (rev a1)

Is there no linux driver for the 8500?

hmmm... looking on the nvidia website, there's a weird driver with version number 100.14.03 that says it supports the 8500 GT. I don't know what the deal is with that driver version number, but I suppose it may be worth a try in your case.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d...100.14.03.html

(that's for the x86 version. Check the archives for other versions if you're not running x86)

You *will* have to go through the install process. This usually means that you have to have your kernel headers installed (which doesn't happen by default with Suse) and gcc 3.4+. Pay close attention for error messages during the driver install. Also be sure you're using the nvidia tools to help you out with settings. nvidiaxconfig will make your life easier unless you're familiar with setting up xorg.conf by hand.

I've run accelerated graphics on Suse without issue. Suse (and openSuse) actually has pretty decent X functionality & is one of the easier ones to setup, but be sure to read the speacial suse instructions on the nvidia website, as you have to do everything a bit differently with that distro.

Hi,
I just wanted to clarify a few things. The 100.14.03 Nvidia driver is a beta driver, meaning it is still being tested and developed, and is not yet a stable upgrade from the latest issued driver.

moeFEAR, you can do one of two things. You can install the beta driver, which claims to support your new card, but it is not guaranteed to work as expected. Or you can wait until the beta driver is released as stable, in which case, you can then download it as a stable version, and install it as normal.

Until then, you can continue to use the default 'nv' drivers. They won't give you 3D acceleration, but they are stable and will let you continue to use your computer in the meantime.

Information on beta Nvidia drivers:
http://www.nzone.com/object/nzone_do...etadriver.html

Hope this helps,
Sam

Hi,

I would like to thank you BrianK, and samstar. I understand completely now where to go from here.