And after weeks of struggle, and pages of info from you guys, there is finally a bit of success. Commenting out the loading of glx module gave me a WORKING version of X using the vesa driver. Now I have a few goals left. I would like to be able to use the best available drivers if possible [my knowledgable friend] tells me vesa is a bit snailish. I would also like to get my dual monitors working as "dual head" or "spanned" setup instead of both of my monitors reflecting the same information.

Now hopefully none of this sounds like im getting picky or expecting you to do everything for me (there has been a good deal of hand-holding already which I am very grateful for). Long story short if you don't feel like going through the effort to get this last bit of info that's fine. I don't mind digging on the net or perhaps starting a separate post for those smaller matters.

As far as the nvidia driver goes, I want to install the linux nvidia driver as listed above ^, edit my xorg.conf file to change the driver to 'nvidia' instead of 'vesa', and finally un-comment the Load "glx" line.. correct? If you could tell me whether I've got the process right there, that would be great before I go messing something up again.

After all this I would like to say with much giddy-ness YAAAY!!! X and Fluxbox!!! WEeEeeee!!:D

Yes, you'll want to do those things. You will also want to add the line: Load "nvidia" to the modules section at the top. Moreover, you will need to
modprobe nvidia before starting X.

As for getting two monitors working, I would suggest the nvidia readme: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L...DME/index.html

Good Luck.

shotwellj, forgive me, but I disagree that you will need to modprobe nvidia before starting X, OR add Load "nvidia" to the modules in xorg.conf - it should all be taken care of with the nvidia driver.

To install nvidia drivers:

1. download driver from nvidia's site (see previous post)
2. chmod +x downloaded driver file, then execute it as root ./<nvidiadriverfile>
3. follow onscreen instructions, then edit xorg.conf to have Driver "nvidia" and uncomment glx line

For twinview, i suggest looking ... at the official site as linked by shotwellj and also running a search here on LQ for keywords like "dual monitor", "twinview" and so on =)

A few questions for the sake of learning:

1.) Why do I need to do the 'chmod' command if I will be installing the nvidia driver as root? Cant root do anything?

2.) Although you two disagree on whether or not the driver will take care of adding lines to the xorg.conf file, can you both agree that after installing the nvidia driver they should definately still be there? I'm confused if you disagree that they should or shouldnt be in there, or if you are disagreeing on whether or not the nvidia driver will put them in or not.

3.) Also, if I run lsmod (after installing nvidia driver), can you both agree that whether or not the driver does it automatically I should have nvidia listed under my running modules? I believe I have a script somewhere that loads modules right before the login comes up.. remembering where it was now is the real task. Anyhoo nvidia should be listed when running lsmod, whether I or the driver loads it, correct?

Interesting that we have different experiences here. I absolutely must do those two things or X quits. I only have one computer with
an nvidia card and I only set it up once, so my experience is quite limited.

Ok I got it working. I've got the fast nvidia driver installed and working, twin view or "dual head" working with georgeous resolution.

What I ended up doing was as follows.

Installed the nvidia driver.
Within this installation I was asked if I wanted to let the installer try to configure x for me (it created a backup even if it messed up but it did fine). Here's what the installer did. It included FOR me the Load glx line which i had earlier commented out for trouble-shooting. So I just deleted the line I did have commented out for it (redundant useless info). Also the installer did change the driver line to 'nvidia' for me, but it was good to double check on it.

Finally I rebooted to check if the nvidia module loaded during boot by itself or if i would have to probe it manually. I then remembered I already had 'modprobe nvidia' in one of my startup scripts so it was all taken care of. I have a flawless X <=> Fluxbox system right now.

Afterthoughts:
I want to again thank you two for all your help on this issue. Especially to piete for writing such lengthy responses, it must have taken you a bit of time and I truly appreciate it. Thanks guys or gals for helping me so much. ;)