Installation with Nvidia quadro video card

GammaPoint · #1 24th March 2008, 03:07 AM

Hi, I have a new Thinkpad T61 with a nvidia quadro nvs 140M videocard. Apparently the drivers on the LiveCD are not compatible with this card. This results in me not seeing anything in the GUI for the installation obviously.

There are a couple of solutions for this posted on the web, but I wanted to see what the FedoraForum community thought the best solution was for this issue. I've read about installation via VNC mode. Does anyone know how I would enter this mode? Would this allow me to see the installation GUI from another computer (with a different graphics card) and install fedora, from which later I could install the 'kmod-nvidia' package from yum (which presumably fixes this problem, I just need to install first).

Or alternatively, how do I enter 'text' mode and install from there? Where can I found the options for the partitioning for use on the command line?

If the VNC mode would work, I would prefer to be able to use that of course so that I could see what I was doing. Or are there other good solutions?

Thanks in advance!

***Hlingler*** · #2 24th March 2008, 04:42 AM

I don't understand why the built-in open-source video driver(s) would not work with that chipset/card - what LiveCD are you using (Fedora release version and architecture)? Did you verify the CD image to make sure that it's not corrupt? If the T61 is new, I assume that you have enough RAM for a graphical install. Exactly what and where are you getting any error or other messages?

That chipset/card is on the list of cards supported by the latest nvidia driver for linux (ver. 169.12), for both i386 and x86_64, so Livna's driver packages should work, once you get Fedora installed.

You can install in text-mode by starting the installer with: linux text

Happy Easter,
V

GammaPoint · #3 24th March 2008, 05:01 AM

It's the Fedora 8 Live CD (I downloaded it a couple of days ago: I verified the image and successfully installed Fedora to my desktop a couple of days ago with the same CD). It's the i686 architecture. I have 2GB of RAM, so that shouldn't be the issue.

On bootup, right after it says 'starting udev' the screen goes black. If I press 'tab' during the bootup I can switch into runlevel 3 (text-mode) and login to root, change the driver using ' # system-config-display --reconfig --set-driver=vesa' and then restart x. This allows me to see the GUI and go through the installation process. However, once I install Fedora I don't know how to reboot into text mode. Also, am I really supposed to install the CD as root? I see the word 'root' upon bootup a couple of times and that makes me nervous.

And Happy Easter to you too V

LordMorgul · #4 24th March 2008, 05:16 AM

Yes the installer absolutely MUST run as root, do not be nervous about that.

You can boot into runlevel 3 by adding a single ascii three character at the end of the grub config line starting with kernel. You can edit that just before booting, so press 'e' to edit your config (while looking at the boot menu and selecting the kernel you want to boot), select the line starting with kernel /vmlinuz and press 'e' to edit it, then add a 3 at the end of the line. Click enter, then press 'b' and you'll boot. Now it will go directly to text mode.

***Hlingler*** · #5 24th March 2008, 05:21 AM

Yes, the install must and will be done as root. To start Fedora in text-mode, you would need to edit /etc/inittab, and change this line to read:

Code:

id:3:initdefault:

Code number 3 is multi-user text mode with networking, etc. Code number 5 is GUI.

V

Oops! Too slow on the keyboard...You can do what LordMorul said for one-time boots, or the edit thing for permanent changes.

GammaPoint · #6 24th March 2008, 07:43 AM

Thanks for the help guys. I was able to boot into text mode from the installed fedora. My plan was to yum install the kmod-nvidia drivers. However doing this gives me an error of the sort I might expect if my internet were down, although I'm definitely plugged in. I also never went through the initial setup that you usually go through upon reboot after you install fedora (choosing username, etc). There was actually some options the first time I went in (and I'm guessing that's what that was) but I didn't see if on the second time around. Maybe not going through that stuff prevents me from getting internet......

Perhaps tomorrow I'll reinstall and see if going through those configuration options helps me any.

GammaPoint · #7 24th March 2008, 10:43 PM

Okay, I've got it working now. Thanks to jdeslip for helping me to get it up and running.