Sorry, I have to say this is not true anymore:

I noticed kwrite was crashing (with SIGSEGV) whenever I closed it (when launched from start menu, not when starting kwrite command in console - curious -). After cleaning all non-pure-slackware packages I found that just having those (nvidia) packages installed caused the problem (despite using default nv module instead of nvidia, in xorg.conf).

I am not sure why (perhaps xorg server was taking some glx library from nvidia-driver package, or something, and that caused a bad interaction) but the problem is gone with the 177.82 version.

I read a few comments in this thread about using the slackbuilds for newer nvidia-drivers. I am the maintainer of those and as such have to discourage anyone doing this, because the scripts will probably create a bad package. Please be careful when you have already done this, especially when upgrading to the official ones soon to be submitted to SBo.
The main problem here is that 180.xx introduced new files, which are not yet handled by nvidia-switch (though they may not have to).

For those who already installed such a package, do the following to get a clean update:
Please do NOT use upgradepkg to upgrade to the new package.

NOTE: This is ONLY affecting the 180.xx builds generated by the current SlackBuilds. There is no problem in using upgradepkg for those still running the 177.82 version from SBo.

Thanks Heinz. And may be you could visit this thread too

Hello,

I have noticed that the slackbuilds.org site now offers a new slackbuild for version 180.29. I have uninstalled previous drivers, installed this new slackbuild, but suffer the same problem stated before:

I should recommend reverting to previous version. Unless I'm doing something wrong now :-/

I just spent a week getting the 180.29 driver to work in my box.
Note: kwrite functions fine for me also.

I have a Geforce 7300GT which is compatible with the 180.29.
For more info, I have a:
1. Seagate 120 gig sata [slack 12.2 only installed]
2. 1.5 gigs of ram
3. intel 486
4. I use 4 gigs of swap set as hda1

I have a friend who is a long time slacker to pump for info as I'm still new to slack.
All the credit goes to him,, muaythaimaster.

To answer the question of how to utilize slackbuilds.org,, here's a link to a tutorial that's detailed.

http://hackmy.pclosbe.org/index.php?topic=102.0

The only thing I do differently is when I change folders is to type the full path and when I install I cd to /tmp.

1. First, compile/install the nvidia-kernel.
Exiting from su seemed to make a difference after the kernel module install.
2. Install the nvidia-driver.
3. Using the switch was useless and caused problems for me for some reason, dunno why so use it at your own risk.
4. Now the really,really confusing part for those of us who make mountains out of molehills, edit xorg.conf.
su to root and type nanao /etc/X11/xorg.conf >enter

Scroll down to graphics devices and"

# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "nvidia" < change this line only
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

ctrl x, strike y for yes, then type reboot,,, and pray really hard this worked for you as well.

Ok, this seems to confuse a lot of people. I will try to clarify this in the README for the next update a bit better. So here's how it goes:

You need nvidia-switch in three possible scenarios:
1: you want to COMPLETELY uninstall nvidia-diver, with no intention of installing it again
2: you want to switch back from the nvidia driver to the xorg one.
3: you want to then switch back to the nvidia driver (after you switch to xorg before)

You DO NOT need nvidia-switch for installing / upgrading the package!!! If you execute it, it won't change anything, and of course will not hurt your system either. So just leave it be if you don't know what you are doing.

About the problems you mention, can you elaborate a bit more on them? Otherwise I won't be able to fix them

@ppr-kut

Regarding the nvidia-switch:
As I stated I'm new to slack so any errors are just as likely to be caused by me as opposed to a possible bug.
One can't learn until one has totally hosed ones system.
The first time I had installed the driver and kernel, I followed what I thought were instructions for switching to the nvidia-driver, then edited xorg.conf, precisely like I wrote in my previous post.

On reboot, lilo made it as far as loading the x server text, and that's it.
I ended up doing a complete reinstall as I'm not slack literate enough to fix x,, trust me, I tried.
I repeated the process and didn't touch the switch and everything loaded fine.

About 6 hours after my above post though I experienced freezing and corrupted font, then the entire screen looked like the old twilight zone intro.

edit:
I've made some more changes to my xorg.conf file and for about an hour now things seem t be doing ok.
I'll post back later if things start messing up again.

here are the total sum of the changes to xorg.conf:

# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

Section "Device"
Identifier "VESA Framebuffer"
Driver "nvidia" <<<
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection

# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "VESA Framebuffer"
Monitor "My Monitor"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"<< all options starting here
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "NoLogo" "true"
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "TripleBuffer" "True"
Option "BackingStore" "True"

Add the following entire section to the end of your list:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

edit: I've ran for over 24 hours now with the above edits and have experienced zero glitches.

Thanks for the dlsym vsnprintf error fix, I commented libsafe out of /etc/ld.so.preload, now Penumbra (the game) works

I'm still wondering why people are having issues installing the Nvidia driver. I've NEVER had an issue.

I just:

• Download latest Nvidia driver from Nvidia.com
• Make sure my kernel headers/sources are installed
• Make sure I'm NOT running X and am logged in as root
• Run the downloaded *.run file from Nvidia, Saying "No" to when it asks if I want to download a file.
• Run xorgsetup
• Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for options, like composite.
• Run startx

Doing things this way, I've NEVER had an issue w/Nvidia.
That's why I haven't updated the Nvidia portion of my sticky on DRI.

IT WORKS.

And I'm running the dreaded '180' series on a NV6200 on 12.2

Because you're not using libsafe (it comes in extra/). But apart from this recent libsafe interaction problem, I never had an issue either.

I've had no problem even with the new beta nvidia drivers. I'm using Xfce so I can't comment on KDE issues.

I downloaded the latest version from nvidia
NVDIA-Linux-x86-180.44.pkg1.run
I have an nvdia geforce 9200M and
I use kde.

I ran the script with some options
(--accept-license ... -x-config etc)
and it went ok.

I wrote a script (based on a heavily edited SlackBuild) to
just build the kernel module in case I build a new kernel
I just built linux-2.6.29.1
I ran my script to build the module
Next time I booted I had no problem launching kde

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback, for those who report no problems at all, but I would like to make sure you have tested this:

That is: start kwrite from menu, close kwrite, and SIGSEGV (no problem when starting from console).


It may be just a stupid annoyance, but it was the problem I was talking about in posts before. It also seems that I'm not the only one: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...180.29-704422/

I reported here because it may cover some more serious problems...

I don't have that issue at all.

Ok, thanks.

Nice poltergeist then