Im having some trouble installing a driver for my nvidia XFX GeForce 8500 GT.Ive tried twice to install the driver from nvidia ,but both times I got a blank screen after the installation.I should also add that I have the same problems when I try to to boot Sabayon live cd or either of my windows
xp pro/home cds.But for some reason it runs using the default driver in fedora 8.No 3d support though.

Fedora is probably running the nv kernel module, which provides 2d graphics only. To get 3d, you need the nvidia driver from the nvidia website.

My experience with installing the nvidia driver was that it installed ok, but didn't configure the graphics card. I had to do that using Suse's Sax2 from the command line. Then it worked.

So, it may be that the driver has installed successfully, and you just need to configure your graphics card to use it.

From the command line, do 'locate nvidia.ko'. If you find it in /usr/src, then it's installed. Do 'modprobe nvidia' to see what happens.

It's the dark side of proprietary driver/software ...

Well, ttry to locate nvidia.ko and try to modify your xorg.conf by replacing nv to nvidia, followed by a modprobe nvidia.

After that, startx should work.

In the case, you're already under X, restart X or reboot