How do I install a NVIDIA driver on my new Mandrake 9.2.1 OS?
 

I'm completely new to Mandrake and it's a wonder that I actually got it installed and dual booting with Windows XP!

When I boot to linux I only get the command line and when I type startx I get an NVIDIA error. So, I downloaded NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run from NVIDIA but I have no idea what to do next?

Can someone PLEASE help with step by step instructions on how to get this installed? I downloaded the NVIDIA file to c:\temp. Here is my partition information:
40 gig harddrive - 2 partitions - Windows XP on first.
40 gig harddrive - 4 partitions - Linux OS on 3rd - Linus SWAP on 4th

You guys are great, and thanks in advance for your help!!!

Hi THEBIGFISH!

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org. Try this and see if it helps ;)

Good luck!

How do I copy the c:\temp\(NVIDIA file) to my linux partition on my 2nd harddrive(3rd partition)? :)

Hi THEBIGFISH

http://workshop.molecularevolution.o...mputing.php#cp <- This should be helpful. Use the command "cp" to copy files. Good luck installing NVIDIA driver :)

you can easily copy files between Linux and Windoze using your GUI and coping and pasting as long as you can see your Windoze partitions from within Linux. Try this:
1.find your home icon(the little house)
2.open it
3. use the up arrow to go up up untill you see the /boot, /root, /mnt/ and so on. Windoze will be inside /mnt/hda1 most likely or /mnt/hda2
4. go inside /mnt/hda -whatever and look for your file
5. grab it with the mouse and drag it inside the home Linux dir. KDE will complain and say do you wanna copy it move it ? say yes and KDE will do it for ya.

Another thing, Mandrake uses the RPM system. maybe you should go back and look for a driver that ends with the .rpm extension. Those are very easy to install. The one you got, well I dunno...;-)

Now a little sugestion I give Linux newbies: don't try to run BEFORE you can crawl. Forget about installing anything for a while. Learn about your system instead and how to navigate inside it using KDE. I KNOW it's frustrating but that's the way things are

The problem is I can't get to the GUI, all I get is command line. Man, I wish I could get to the GUI stuff! Like why isn't my NVIDIA card already ready to go after I installed Mandrake!? :(

that's one of the few serious problems facing Linux-not all current hardware is supported. When i fiurst began with Linux, I listened to the advice of some pople who sold me an NVIDIA card and assured me it will work with Linux...Well it did, but ONLY with XFree version 3 and NOT ver 4. I just reinstalled mandrake 8.2 on a spare hard drive and I had to choose 3 instead of 4. Maybe you can see if you can downgrade to a lower version of XFree?
Another way is to maybe get KNOPPIX, boot from KNOPPIX and use that to move drivers around and to install it on Mandrake.

Anyone!?

Can you locate the driver with command line by typing "cd /windows/C" ?

Provided your driver is on /windows/C/temp/driver, and you want to copy it to /tmp
All you have to do is to type "cp /windows/C/temp/driver /tmp" (There's space between cp & /windows... and driver & /tmp)

I had to run the rpmbuild command on my redhat 9.0 system to get this to work
because redhat 9.0 had some issues with the rpm database.

The rpm -ivh method may work for mandrake.

See:

http://www.brandonhutchinson.com/NVI...Hat_Linux.html

Are you trying to install the drivers for:

1. a graphics card

2. Nforce drivers for a chipset?

My post was a pointer to instructions for installing the drivers for the
chipset which adds a nvnet driver to give you networking support.