XUbuntu 13.04 and Nvidia Geforce 4 MX 440 with AGP8x
 

Hi, this is my 1st post and I'm a beginner, not quiet a noob but a bit better, since i have been doing a bunch of research and fixing my own problems up until now. I recently switch from windows xp to Xubuntu after trying out other distros. I like it, light, fast, good looking, and bunch of open programs for free! But linux for gaming.... well i dont have a great computer, but when i used XP i was able to play older games, which i prefer older games over most newer ones, in my oppionin Deus Ex is much more fun than Black Ops 1 or 2. but enough on my thoughts and to my problem. Like i said i had everything working on xp but i cant get my graphics card to install on linux. ive tried just about anything i could find on bing, google, and yahoo search. by the looks of it the newer nvidia xorg doesnt like older cards, but when i try older kernels i get many errors and 1 problem after the next and ive fixed one after the next and they some how just circle back into other errors ive dealt with. i decided to start all over here from scratch on this problem, so i dont plan on posting my older errors. so if som1 could just help me out, give me a step by step instructuion on what should work, it would be better if you have done the same thing and know exactly what to do but who am i to complain. then if i get errors i'll post them back here so if anybody could halp even a lil thanks. i do plan on getting the Steam OS when it comes out and saving up for much better, up to date, equipment but that wont be until next year, hopefully by spring time. until then i would like to play hitman 3 and half life 2. which i forgot to mention i have gotten both games working b4 but at very very low fps after i had some what installed my driver but i guess not correctly.

In either the Software Center or the Synaptic Package Manager, look for the program jockey-gtk. If you use the Software Center, just click on the Install button and wait until it finishes. That will give you a menu entry called Additional Drivers (green) which will in turn give you a choice of drivers to install.

If you have used your card successfully with XP, there is a good chance it will work with Xubuntu.

That is one OLD card !!!
( and i have a Gforce2 mx 400 on a old machine )
the antique gf4 card uses the 96 driver
unfortunately this driver is NOT SUPPORTED in the current xorg-server !!!
xorg-server is to new . To use the 96 driver you have to DOWNGRADE xorg-server to 1.12 !!!!

or

use the Nouveau driver

the current ubuntu is too new a os for a 12 year old nvidia card

CentOS 5.10 works out of the box for installing the 32 bit "NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.23-pkg1.run" driver
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/96.43.23/

CentOS 6.5 works BUT you MUST !!! you MUST downgrade xorg-server to the version in CentOS 6.3 " xorg-server 1.12.0 "

Debian-stable ? Might work but i am betting that it's version xorg-server is also TOO NEW

not so
if the card is a gforce5 or older there is NO SUPPORT
as in if it uses the 96 and the 173 driver it will not work with current os's using xorg-server 1.13 or newer

1st off thanks for the speedy replies. i already tried the Additional Drivers in several ways and nothing except 'no drivers can be found' or something closed to that. and for the centos post: ha yeah i know, very old card, i think 2003 or something haha. there is no way i can get a downgraded xorg-server 1.12.0 on XUbuntu? if not could you explain why just so i could know? also explain why 13.04 is too new for my card? i understand that its outdate so why put the support but why cant i seem to get the support added on? mean while i'll look more into centos 6.3 but if i can i rather keep XUbuntu, which reminds me what about an older Xubuntu instead?

the default Nouveau driver will run a gforce4 ( and 2 ) card
But you might not have the fan working , so after 5 min. it might overheat
this will happen on 2000 era motherbords that do not have a thermometer built in



you can try downgrading the xorg-server in 13 to the version used in 10 but that is a huge step backwards
you have the same problem with fedora 19/20 in having to use the xorg-server from fedora 11

the 96 driver cards date from 2000 and 2001

Now i am NOT a Ubuntu expert . So downgrading xorg-server to 1.12 or 1.11 might be possible to do but not easily done .

alright seeing this gave me an idea so i found this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...5#post11891185 although it was used on 12.04 i think it'll work on 13 but im not 100% sure, would you recommend it? ive tried it already but changed http://fr. to http://us. but im stuck on

2) In /etc/apt/preferences:

Package: xorg xserver-xorg*
Pin: release a=oneiric
Pin-Priority: 1050

i dont get how to do this...? could you explain?

remember you need to be able to do that with NO GUI
before you can install the Nvidia.run driver you first have to UNINSTALL or Blacklist the Nouveau driver and REBUILD THE BOOT IMAGE to REMOVE the nouveau driver from it
then the nvidia driver can install


on my old computer i had to turn off the GUI ( turn off Xorg )
downgrade xorg-server
install nvidia .run

reboot into the text only boot
reenable xorg and reboot again into the gui


all from the commandline

Switching out Nvidia for the installed Nouveau adds a bunch of steps

since youve done this b4 could you post the code i would need or the code you put and i'll change to my needs?

Using xorg-server from 11.10 is a bad idea IMO. Very bad, and not that easy to do anyway..even when the 11.10 repos were still working (they are cklosed now).

[FIXED] Downgrade to Xubuntu 11
 

After trying out serveral ideas, I Bing searched Nvidia 96 Xubuntu compatabilty and found everything b4 12, maybe even 12, can use Nvidia 96 set up. I dont know why they stopped supporting 96 in 13 but simple fix and I made it harder than it had to be. Simple advice, if you have older hardware, then use older software. Thanks for those who tried to help.

John VV told you why it isnt supported with newer *buntu versions- becuase the xorg version used in them is not supported by the nVidia 96.XX closed source driver. nVidia doesnt want to support old hardware forever, which is why they dont want to update the 96.XX drivers to work with newer software.

You shouldnmt use an unsupported OS just because 'its easy'. Even if you dont mind getting hacked, its not nice for other internet users.

There are supported OSes using xorg 1.12, like CentOS 5.X, or if you want something closer to the *buntus, debian 7 'wheezy'. Which is probably a better idea for gaming than a *buntu anyway).

Ha yeah i guess i just read over that since i already came up with another solution.

how is using unsopprted OS not nice to other internet users? is it cuz other would rather use supported OS and when they find this answer but with unsupported OS they feel screwed?

and how is 'wheezy' better for gaming? takes less ram? lower cpu usage? Im still pretty noobish. I just red a couple of articles on Debian vs Ubuntu, if im right its better cuz its just faster overall?

Using a OS that will NEVER receive any security updates is NEVER a good idea

Linux OS's are NOT windows XP

Microsoft royally messed up most of the world in keeping xp for so long
13 years -- well there are sp1,sp2,and sp3

but there are a ton of XP --NO SERVICE PACK still using IE 5 and IE6 still being used
and they are ALL infected

-- back to Linux

running a OS that is not supported leaves you AND THE REST OF THE INTERNET
wide open to KNOWN and NOW FIXED security holes

Zombie servers and remotely controlled computers ARE A VERY BIG PROBLEM !!!

so PLEASE DO NOT BE PART OF THAT PROBLEM
-- as with everything they are exceptions . sometimes to be able to run ANCIENT and closed source proprietary programs you need a ancient os to run them on

think of RH8 and RH9
and windows 95 and 98

but these are exceptions

My 2001 DELL that originally had XP ( the very very very NEW xp ) installed had 128 meg ram - updated to 256 for free from dell

in '03 it was bumped to 512 meg then in'08 bumped to 1 gig ram

this computer will only be using SL 6.?
RHEL/Centos/SL 6 will be the last os on this computer
the 12 year old 3d card is well 12 years old
the 1.9 ghz p4 cpu is power HUNGRY
one of the drives ( 12 years old ) and a few bad sectors ( well more than just a few)


barring a hardware failure sl6 still has about 6 years of support left
( about November 2020 it hits EOL )

then a 20 year old working computer is basically a doorstop and a large table decoration

Wow that explains it well, Thanks John. I didnt realise that was a problem, but if they are problems that are already fixed, why worry?

Either way you guys made valid and agreeable arguments so I'll change to Debian 7.2.0 this weekend and let you guys know how it goes.

i have debian on my computer now instead of Xubuntu 11 and I cant figure out how to install nvidia 96 driver. i feel like im just running in circles. at least with Xubuntu 11 all it did was notify me that it can be installed and then did. i think its cuz this debian has xorg11 but i was informed the xorg i need should work but i dont know how to install that either. help? link? post walk through? i already tried all day today and im back to the forum >.<