Re: cursed nvidia fedora my lack of knowledgeness

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On Tue, 2005-11-08 at 15:04 +0200, Gilboa Davara wrote:
> Please do the following:
> A. Download the drivers. 
> http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-7676/NVIDIA-Linux-
> x86-1.0-7676-pkg1.run
> B. init 3.
> C. Execute the installation script.
> D. Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf 
> 	Under section Device, Replace 'Driver "nv"' with 'Driver "nvidia"'
> E. init 5.
> 
> If this doesn't work, please post your:
> A. /etc/X11/xorg.conf
> B. /var/log/Xorg.0.log
> C. dmesg.
> 
> Cheers,
> Gilboa
> 

...<sigh>...

While this does work on one level, it's definitely NOT the best way if
you're using Fedora. The chances of screwing up other video related
things in your system are just about 100% even if this install process
works. Fedora NVidia drivers work *much* better when you use the RPM
files. The issue about upgrades is that, while Livna does provide the
latest NVidia driver versions, they don't always keep up with the latest
kernel versions, so you often have to rebuild the source RPM to get a
kernel module RPM that works. But this is still much better than using
the manual install from the script that NVidia provides because (among
other things):

* There's better fallback to a driver that actually works if a kernel
doesn't have the appropriate module installed or available.

* Automatic handling of the issues if you use a graphical boot.

* Plays much nicer with Mesa and OpenGL stuff. NVidia's script breaks
this. Ever wonder why some OpenGL things don't work correctly after
using NVidia's install script? It's because they step all over existing
Mesa stuff without regard for the integrity of the RPM database or the
files that other things depend on.

Here's how I keep NVidia drivers up to date from Livna and how you can
too:

1) Install Fedora RPM Dev Tools (yum -y install fedora-rpmdevtools)

2) Download the latest source RPM from Livna. At present that is at:
http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/fedora/4/i386/SRPMS.lvn/nvidia-glx-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.src.rpm

3) While running the new kernel (assuming the source RPM you downloaded
is in the current directory and you have current Pentium processor), run
the command:

rpmbuild --rebuild --target i686 nvidia-glx-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.src.rpm

If your processor isn't i686 class, use the appropriate flag for your
system.

As I have it listed, this command will rebuild new custom RPMs for your
currently running kernel and deposit all of them in the
directory /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i686. You can them move these new RPMs to
a directory of your choice for safe keeping. The files you will have
will include something like the following list:

* kernel-module-nvidia-2.6.13-1.1532_FC4-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.i686.rpm
* nvidia-glx-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.i686.rpm
* nvidia-glx-debuginfo-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.i686.rpm
* nvidia-glx-devel-1.0.7676-0.lvn.2.4.i686.rpm

3) You will only need to install the first two RPMs from the above list
to get things working. Once you have installed these, you can either
restart X or reboot and enjoy the new drivers.

When you upgrade the kernel, follow the same rebuild process. You will
then only need to install the updated kernel module RPM. Everything else
will already be ready to go.

I actually taught my mother to do this process in just a few minutes.
She keeps her Livna drivers and kernel upgraded with no muss or fuss.
She only calls me now to tell me she did it or if she has trouble
because of things like the Livna main server going down.

...of course, if you have installed drivers from the NVidia site using
the shell script, all bets are off. You will need to uninstall all of
that first, and deal with the Mesa implications along the way, before
trying this route.

Good luck!

Chris


-- 
======================
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."

-- Albert Einstein




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