I recently upgraded to Mandriva 2006 free edition, I have two box , both have nVidia card. One with a fx 5200 and the other an 6600gt.

I always used nvidia driver with their card. I dont really care about the proprietary binary only driver, actually i am glad Nvidia support the Linux kernel and other open source Os. This is how I installed the driver on both of my box, I hope it will help follow Mandriva user who are more newbie as I.

On my first install, I tried the “generic fx” at the X configuration with the fx 5200, when I rebooted after the install the screen was messed and unusable. I heard that the driver provided with the cd are bugged (not sure about it). So my first recommendation is to not start X automatically but boot in command line.

I didnt configured my monitor during the installation, so I needed to do it at command line too.

Im not sure if it required to configure the display before installing the driver, but I did it and it worked for me.

To configure the display at the command line I used DrakeConf, off course all of the next command you should be as root (to do so : su) :

DrakeConf
I toke generic FX (I know it will not work but I needed to chose something)
I toke a generic lcd 1280x1024 @60 since mine screen isnt lised in the vendor list
I did not test the configuration, then I saved and quit

I downloaded the latest driver with my other box and I copied on a usb drive

The driver installation package need to compile a module for your kernel, If I understood it correctly, this module will link with the binary only driver... To compile it you need your kernel source code. Of course it not installed by default with the Mandriva installer. To install it :

At command prompt :

urpmi kernel-source-2.6

Now I changed the perm of the driver :

chmod u+x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756.pkg1.run

Run it :

./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756.pkg1.run

It prompt for license, compile the module and ask if X must be configured, I chose yes.

After it done, logout root to avoid starting X as root, Anyway if you do so you will have a nice red background and a warning message telling you how insecure is to be logged as root.

If you did the “su” command : type : exit

And now start x :
startx

It worked for me for the two box, I hope it can help some other people, if so please informe me ;-) Also you are welcome to comment on my mini-howto.

Isn't it easier to just install the nvidia packages from plf?

hehe, maybe but the mini-howto is about installing the driver fron nvidia.com ;-)

What is great about Linux, is the choice, if someone believe plf is better for him, I have no prob about it (Actualy I never think about it) for me I always used the official driver from nvidia ;-)

But the best argument is that you get the latest driver

Add to the fact that some ppl may take plf as terrorist, a penguin with 2 machine gun in front a commie star... think about it man !

hehehe (cracked me up!)