terminal command question

thomas175 · 01-13-2008, 01:04 PM

I am trying to install a Nvidia 100 driver for my Geforce FX 5200 and get a message to use root to type nvidia-xconfig and then restart x server.

I know how to start a terminal as root and type in the nvidia-xconfig. I believe I then hit enter? Correct?

But I have no idea what I type in to restart the x server?

TIA for any suggestions.

Thomas

Tinkster · 01-13-2008, 01:23 PM

Hi Thomas, welcome to LQ!

That'll depend on your distro, mostly. I suggest you edit your
profile so people won't have to ask you that question.

Cheers,
Tink

jay73 · 01-13-2008, 02:00 PM

Quote:

I know how to start a terminal as root

Wait, are we talking about the same thing? I think that you need to drop out of the graphical runlevel and work from there. Is that what you have done?

thomas175 · 01-13-2008, 02:49 PM

Tink I am using PCLinuxOS Gnome 2007 version within VMWare Player 2.0.2

jay I have done nothing yet as I don't know what to do. I have used Synaptic to download and apply the Nvidia 100 driver. When I try to access the Nvidia settings I get the message to use root to install nvidia-xconfig and restart x server.

jay73 · 01-13-2008, 02:54 PM

Well, if you can install it from the PCLinux repository, it shouldn't be too difficult. Just install it and then hit Ctrl + alt + backspace to restart X.

thomas175 · 01-13-2008, 03:45 PM

Well I am hosed now. I opened the Terminal, typed in su, enter, typed in the password, enter, typed in nvidia-xconfig, enter, got a message that xorg.conf was backed up in etc/x11 and a new xorg was loaded (I think the word was loaded but not sure).

Then I exited the Terminal and hit ctrl-alt-backspace and that was the beginning of the end. After a number of command line like pop ups I was told I had a fatal server something or other. Tried to shut down VMWare and restart and ended back at the same place.

Back to square one. I will reinstall the system and try again.

AceofSpades19 · 01-13-2008, 03:57 PM

AFAIK, vmware uses a virtual generic video card, and doesn't support 3d hardware acceleration

thomas175 · 01-13-2008, 04:19 PM

Thanks Ace. I was trying to install Nvidia drivers to improve the Linux font faintness in the vmware Linux appliance to the same quality as my XP.

Is there any way to do this with the vmware virtual generic video card?

Or even if there was a way to increase the font size it would help. (I can increase the font size in my Firefox within the Linux appliance which makes Firefox easily readable.)

jay73 · 01-13-2008, 05:59 PM

Hmm, I saw the reference to vmware under your name but I assumed you were installing to bare metal. Well, yes, Ace is right about the video driver. VMware has its own. By the way, it does support directx on windows but that is a recent and still highly experimental feature.

Have you installed the vmware tools for Linux? It has some extra drivers that will often dramatically improve performance. I recently created an xp vmx and it was a real slug - until I installed the tools.

thomas175 · 01-13-2008, 06:07 PM

Jay, how do you install the vmware tools for Linux? That would be great to have.

Emerson · 01-13-2008, 06:13 PM

No need to reinstall, restore your previous xorg.conf and all will be dandy again.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Xorg_and_Fonts

jay73 · 01-13-2008, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Jay, how do you install the vmware tools for Linux? That would be great to have.

That would depend on what you are using: vmware player, vm server, vm workstation, ...? If it's the player, then you should begin by downloading vm workstation. There is a demo version for free. You won't be installing it, you just need it to extract its vmware tools so you can use them on your vm player.