i cant install my nvidia drivers

[Andrew12106]

hello, i am a complete newbie at linux and i cant seem to install my driver. i go into the terminal and type "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8762-pkg2.run" but it says nvidia installer must be run as root. How exactly do i do that?

[markjensen]

The easiest (and best!) way to install the nVidia drivers, in my opinion, is to just yum install nvidia-glx, that way it grabs and installs the nVidia module, and the kernel module for you. Plus, when you update your kernel, yum will see your nVidia module and update that for you, too! No need to deal with a broken kernel-video issue at kernel update time.

The nVidia module isn't in the 'standard' repos for Fedora (nVidia's driver is 'non-free'), so you will have to enable an extra repo, in order for yum to find it. Not sure which one(s) have this, but I am sure someone here can post and help you.

[l_parker]

Under the Applications menu click on Terminal to start a terminal window, then type

su -

to change to superuser (root), when it asks for password type your admin password, then rerun the nVidia install

L. Parker

[smfinley]

Originally Posted by Andrew12106

hello, i am a complete newbie at linux and i cant seem to install my driver. i go into the terminal and type "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8762-pkg2.run" but it says nvidia installer must be run as root. How exactly do i do that?

Please don't use NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8762-pkg2.run. Please read this post for an explanation, then go to the nVidia section here for instructions.

[Andrew12106]

after i get into the su how do i navigate back to the desktop where my driver is?

[Andrew12106]

Originally Posted by smfinley

Please don't use NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8762-pkg2.run. Please read this post for an explanation, then go to the nVidia section here for instructions.

ok, i did that but i accedentally typed this: rpm --import http://rpm.livna.org/RPM-LIVNA-GPG-KEY in the terminal before i saved all that text in gedit. will that pose a problem?

[bob]

Andrew, please follow SMFinley's instructions or the instructions here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#nvidia It's the recommended way with FC now and will make your life much easier!!!

[bob]

About the key, no problem. You can import them any time.

[Andrew12106]

when i restarted after doing all that stuff my montior wouldnt go on. i had to reinstall the entire os. what is wrong?

[bob]

Okay, you didn't really have to do that. The kmod-nvidia somehow was a bit messed and needed to be reinstalled is my guess, but you still could have signed into your older kernel successfully. So, for now, why not set your yum.repos.d up as described here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#installsoftware then do your yum updates, which are going to take awhile. Once you have two kernels, you're going to want to boot into the newest one and then do the kmod-nvidia as described here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#nvidia . That should make it all work.

[Andrew12106]

Originally Posted by bob

Okay, you didn't really have to do that. The kmod-nvidia somehow was a bit messed and needed to be reinstalled is my guess, but you still could have signed into your older kernel successfully. So, for now, why not set your yum.repos.d up as described here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#installsoftware then do your yum updates, which are going to take awhile. Once you have two kernels, you're going to want to boot into the newest one and then do the kmod-nvidia as described here: http://www.fedorafaq.org/#nvidia . That should make it all work.

i actually tried to install the driver twice and got the same thing which makes me think that it was more than just a corrupt file.

[bob]

Well, I used Stanton Finley's (SMFinley) instructions and had mine going pefectly. Of course I've also been using the rpmforge group of repositories that are mentioned in his site. Fedora's preferred way is to use livna (the other choice) from as explained in the FedoraFAQ , which is why I mentioned using the FAQ's instructions which automatically loads livna as 'enabled' , thereby allowing you to do an easy update when new kernels come along. Either way should work for you and in any case, your old kernel should still boot if you only do the kmod-nvidia on the new one. Reinstallation should not be necessary.

[JoeyJoJoe]

I'm using fedorafaq's yum config - you can just copy and paste it into the terminal and it does it all - and then I did just "yum install kmod-nvidia" and that did it for me (I restarted my system inbetween because I think it's easier than stopping X and restarting it) then it worked...

Oh, and you will need to do the yum update to get the new kernel etc... as described above, it would be best to do that and restart before installing kmod-nvidia.

As for SELinux, I've still got it running and my nvidia drivers work fine (as far as I can tell)

[d3viant]

If you install the driver again, and have problems running it, when you reboot the system, and the OS selection screen comes up, select the fedora core option, press a and then press space and then type 3 and press enter. This will take you into a terminal only mode - so it will still work without you're graphics drivers needed. Login and type

vi /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Use the arrow keys to look through this file and see if there are any error messages about the nvidia graphics drivers. To quit this press esc and then type :q and press enter.

PS If you still have SELinux enabled, make sure you put in the

setsebool -P allow_execstack=1
setsebool -P allow_execmod=1

Otherwise the nvidia drivers wont work anyway

[Andrew12106]

i downloaded the gui yum and i was browsing through the software. Is all of it actually free?