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-   -   Need Driver for GeForce Go 7150M Graphics Chip (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/need-driver-for-geforce-go-7150m-graphics-chip-613842/)

cosaides 01-15-2008 08:29 PM

Need Driver for GeForce Go 7150M Graphics Chip
 
Hello,

I've just started using Linux, and have installed it on two laptops. One of the laptops has a graphics chip that is not recognized by the OS. I have looked all over online, as well as Nvidia's site for a Linux driver for the GeForce Go 7150M graphics chip, but can not find one. Unfortunately, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, does not recognize it. Is anyone aware of anyplace where I can find this driver? Thank you.

elliott678 01-15-2008 08:53 PM

Have you tried the latest driver from Nvidia? I can't imagine that card being anything other than a differently clocked version of any of the other Geforce Go 7xxxM cards.

steve02169 01-15-2008 10:37 PM

see if "nv" is the driver listed in xorg.conf or post that file here.
You should be able to use the latest nVidia driver from their site, I believe. (Or an RPM from dag.wieers.com or rpm.livna.org)
One of the people claiming the 7150m isn't compatible said that the 6600 wasn't, which isn't true, so I'm still confident you should be able to get this going.

MyHeartPumpsFreon 01-15-2008 11:59 PM

Try using this command
Code:

yum install kmod-nvidia
This should install the drivers for your graphics card. In the meanwhile, you should be able to change your xorg.conf file to use the driver 'vesa' to get a low quality graphical display.

Regards,

Brandon

cosaides 01-16-2008 11:40 AM

Well, I feel silly now, because I was able to get the latest driver to work. I'm pretty new at this, so I was unaware that installing it from runlevel 3 would make a difference. In fact, I stumbled onto this solution by accident. I would change the runlevel to 3, boot into a command line, install the driver, change it back to 5, and after rebooting, the screen would go blank. However, the last time I tried, I forgot to change it back to 5, so when it booted up, it booted back into a command line, so I typed "startx" to bring up GNOME, and it came up perfectly. I was then able to change the runlevel to 5, and boot straight into GNOME with no blank screen. I still have no idea why you should reboot into a command line first, after installing the graphics driver, but I'm sure I'll learn. Thanks for the advice.

MyHeartPumpsFreon 01-16-2008 04:01 PM

That just may be how RHEL operates. I run Fedora 8 and it uses the generic "nv" driver for my card. However, it doesn't operate at it's best with that driver... I need the proprietary driver. I can install the proprietary driver from a terminal (in Gnome) and then restart X (ctrl+alt+F2) and the driver works.

Even though Fedora is Red Hat based, they're NOT the same. RHEL is much more conservative and Fedora is bleeding edge. I like living on the edge though, it just gets me in trouble sometimes.

Regards,

Brandon

steve02169 01-17-2008 01:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosaides (Post 3024742)
Well, I feel silly now, because I was able to get the latest driver to work. I'm pretty new at this, so I was unaware that installing it from runlevel 3 would make a difference. In fact, I stumbled onto this solution by accident. I would change the runlevel to 3, boot into a command line, install the driver, change it back to 5, and after rebooting, the screen would go blank. However, the last time I tried, I forgot to change it back to 5, so when it booted up, it booted back into a command line, so I typed "startx" to bring up GNOME, and it came up perfectly. I was then able to change the runlevel to 5, and boot straight into GNOME with no blank screen. I still have no idea why you should reboot into a command line first, after installing the graphics driver, but I'm sure I'll learn. Thanks for the advice.

You would definitely have to drop to runlevel 3 or below after changing xserver to restart it. If I install any video driver or edit xorg.conf I logout (usually) and do a Ctrl-F4 to login commandline as root and type 'init 3' to drop to runlevel 3. Then I 'init 5' to bring it all back up. There's nothing wrong with 'startx' per se, but it's included in runlevel 5 so 'init 5' is usually a better indicator that everything's ok.

Sorry I didn't think to mention, had you done all this testing without restarting x? Not to embarrass you, just want to know if you found some weird bug or we just forgot to mention restarting x, we all had to learn it too!

calligraphy 02-05-2008 10:16 PM

I'm trying to install Mandriva on my husband's HP laptop. It has the same nvidia graphics card, and we're not having any luck with this. We've installed the os, but when we try to use anything but the default graphics card setting we end up back at the command line, and asking to 'startx' doesn't work.

I took some community college courses in unix about 8 years ago, but I haven't used it since and I'm basically a well-informed complete newb.

MyHeartPumpsFreon 02-06-2008 07:26 AM

Calligraphy, you need to change your xorg.conf file. From the command line, issue this command as root:
Code:

nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Remember, case is important. That's a capital X. Scroll down to where it shows 'driver' and change this to vesa. Save the file by hitting ctrl+x, it'll confirm you want to save it and the file name is correct. Vesa is a generic driver that should work with any video card. This will allow you to use a GUI to get on to the internet, download the Nvidia driver and install it.

I don't know what package manager Mandriva uses, but you can definitely go to Nvidia's website, download the driver and follow the installation instructions. Not very difficult.

Brandon

Wonder Weirdo 03-05-2008 11:09 PM

Could someone pleas give me a step by step on how to do this. I have an HP Pavilion dv6000 with an Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M GPU and I'm running Open Suse. I'm still working out the details with Linux and still trying to learn to GUI. Could someone be so kind as to write out a step by step guide on how to get the graphics card to work?

steve02169 03-07-2008 12:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wonder Weirdo (Post 3079628)
Could someone pleas give me a step by step on how to do this. I have an HP Pavilion dv6000 with an Nvidia GeForce Go 7150M GPU and I'm running Open Suse. I'm still working out the details with Linux and still trying to learn to GUI. Could someone be so kind as to write out a step by step guide on how to get the graphics card to work?

There are 3 graphics drivers that have been referred to; vesa, nv and nvidia. Vesa offers the bare minimum of quality. nv is open source but offers lesser quality than what's on the CD for Windows that comes in the box. nv is what is usually recognized. nvidia is the proprietary driver that nvidia writes and compiles for suse that is comparable to the quality of what they offer on the Windows disc. For 2d purposes you're usually fine "out of the box" with Linux. That would be "nv". If you want to check what you're using now open the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and scroll near the bottom and look for a section 'driver' and check what's listed. For anyone of entry-level to advanced it's ALWAYS better to use packages to install software. If you want nvidia's proprietary driver search for kmod-nvidia to install. This is an important thing to understand either way. Ask if you need more clarification on this. You can also go to nvidia's website to get a Linux install script. I'm stose and I'm at comcast (.net) if you have trouble.

Drakeo 03-07-2008 12:49 AM

pleas go to nvida site and down load the source program and then build it your self if you cant do that with out gui help I am sorry. try another distro.

Drakeo 03-07-2008 12:49 AM

set you xorgconfig to vesa

steve02169 03-08-2008 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drakeo (Post 3080791)
pleas go to nvida site and down load the source program and then build it your self if you cant do that with out gui help I am sorry. try another distro.

It's weird that you'd think building it from source would be a helpful suggestion or even a good idea.
And as far as vesa goes from your next post--wtf?

cosaides 03-08-2008 01:33 AM

Well, as the OP, there are two solutions I found for this. If your linux distro has all the necessary dependencies installed, then you simply install NVIDIAs Linux driver from runlevel 3. However, there are a couple machines that didn't, and needed the following commands run first:

yum install gcc
yum install kernel-devel
yum install kernel-PAE-devel (or kernel-devel-PAE, I forget).

Not sure if that helps the rest of you though.


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