Need help to install NVDIA GeForce driver

spongehead · #1 17th March 2006, 07:37 AM

Hi there,

I want to install cedega so I can play games. But a 3D test shows that my video card (Nvidia GeForce FX52000) only produces from 330 - 360FPS, way below the required thredshold of 500FPS.

Following the installation instruction, I did a probe on the locations of libGL and found it in two places: /usr/lib and /usr/X11R6/lib.

I want to go ahead and install the NVDIA driver, but it requires that I need to logout of X. So far, I've tried Ctrl+Alt+F1, kill process ID (of X and startKDE) but it seems like I was on the wrong track.

Can anyone help?

Spoon! · #2 17th March 2006, 01:00 PM

A better way to install the Nvidia driver is:
1. add Livna
2. do "yum install kernel-module-nvidia-$(uname -r)"

jhetrick62 · #3 17th March 2006, 02:07 PM

If you want to install the Nvidia driver from source, reboot your computer and open the GRUB menu choices and it allows you to edit by pressing "a".

Then change the "5" in the boot line (right before the "rhgb quiet") to a 3. This will boot you into runlevel 3 w/o xserver.

Install the driver following the instructions and when complete, startx will then load the X server.

If you prefer to use the yum method above, it should work I would imagine, although I installed mine from source, it's up to you.

Jeff

***bob*** · #4 17th March 2006, 02:11 PM

And, if you want to log out of 'X', sign into a terminal as 'su -' (that minus sign is important) and then type:
'telinit 3'. Telinit 5 will get you back.

I used the Nvidia drivers with the 'sh Nvidia, etc' method for years until I had a problem with the last kernel and asked Bugzilla for help.. Apparently, if you don't use Livna, that option is closed. The response was something like "complain to Nvidia".

sailor · #5 17th March 2006, 03:33 PM

I just installed the lateset nVIDIA binary installer(the old way) and they worked fine. You will have to do this with each new kernel. I forget that the livna repository has the modules available.

If you install the binary drivers from nVIDIA do not forget to edit the xorg.conf file, please read the README file on their site.

spongehead · #6 17th March 2006, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spoon!

A better way to install the Nvidia driver is:
1. add Livna
2. do "yum install kernel-module-nvidia-$(uname -r)"

Did just that, no work.

(already have livna)
[root@localhost ~]# uname -r
2.6.15-1.1833_FC4
[root@localhost ~]# yum install kernel-module-nvidia-$2.6.15-1.1833_FC4
Setting up Install Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Parsing package install arguments
No Match for argument: kernel-module-nvidia-.6.15-1.1833_FC4
Nothing to do
[root@localhost ~]#

(try to add livna...just to make sure):
[root@localhost ~]# rpm -ivh http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release4.rpm
Retrieving http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release4.rpm
Preparing... ########################################### [100%]
file /etc/yum.repos.d/livna.repo from install of livna-release-4-0.lvn.7.4 conflicts with file from package yum-fedorafaq-4-2006.02.03

spongehead · #7 17th March 2006, 04:06 PM

Quote:

And, if you want to log out of 'X', sign into a terminal as 'su -' (that minus sign is important) and then type:
'telinit 3'. Telinit 5 will get you back.

I used the Nvidia drivers with the 'sh Nvidia, etc' method for years until I had a problem with the last kernel and asked Bugzilla for help.. Apparently, if you don't use Livna, that option is closed. The response was something like "complain to Nvidia".

Tried this method, too. Here's the log. Got hang at...

Starting pcmcia: OK
Starting lm_sensors: OK
Starting evsupd: OK
...
Starting anacron: OK
Starting wine: OK

(then got hang, waited for 5 mins, then rebooted and proceeded using jhetrick62's (Jeff's) method)

spongehead · #8 17th March 2006, 04:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhetrick62

If you want to install the Nvidia driver from source, reboot your computer and open the GRUB menu choices and it allows you to edit by pressing "a".

Then change the "5" in the boot line (right before the "rhgb quiet") to a 3. This will boot you into runlevel 3 w/o xserver.

Install the driver following the instructions and when complete, startx will then load the X server.

If you prefer to use the yum method above, it should work I would imagine, although I installed mine from source, it's up to you.

Jeff

Tried this one, too:
Pressed 'p' to get into GRUB. then 'a' to edit. What was shown to me was:

Quote:

grub append > ro root = /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgh quiet

There was no '5' to edit. So I tried the 'e' option:

Quote:

root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.15-1.1883_FC4 ro root = /dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rh->
initrd /initrd-2.6.15-1.1883_FC4.img

Edited line 1 from 5 to 3. When booted, error message shown:

Quote:

Booting command list
root (hd0,3)
Error 22: No such partition
Press any key to continue...

Did I miss something?

spongehead · #9 17th March 2006, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailor

I just installed the lateset nVIDIA binary installer(the old way) and they worked fine. You will have to do this with each new kernel. I forget that the livna repository has the modules available.

If you install the binary drivers from nVIDIA do not forget to edit the xorg.conf file, please read the README file on their site.

I would do it ANY way, as long as it works.

So far, looks like I need to page lady luck immediately. Or maybe pop a ratalin pill in hope to boost my intelligence.

***bob*** · #10 17th March 2006, 04:34 PM

Not sure what happened when you tried to use the telinit 3 method. It should just kill x and drop you to a blank screen/login, where you'd log in as root, cd to where you have squirrelled away that Nvidia.pkg.run and then just do the 'sh *.run' and agree to the stuff until it finishes, reboot and you're done. Hopefully, you'd have already done the /etc/X11/xorg.conf changes to # out 'load dri' and change 'nv' to 'nvidia' so it will load?

spongehead · #11 17th March 2006, 05:00 PM

Hoooray!

bob,

I went back to try your method one more time. It got hung at the same spot. Only the mouse was working. Out of curiosity, I pressed a million keyboard buttons and suddenly voila! the login prompt appeared. I guess it was working all along, just need some processing time (some long time that is). To make it short, yesss! I was able to installed the nVidia driver. It tells me that I missed some precompiled kernel interface and the installer attempted but failed to download one from nVidia website. I dont know the ramifications of that, if any. The installation was proceeded anyway. And it seems to work. Right now, the video card can produce an average 1400FPS, as oppose to 330FPS before the installation.

Thank you, Everyone!

***bob*** · #12 17th March 2006, 05:10 PM

Yes, it's ALWAYS going to fail to find the precompiled kernel interface and will always build one for you. No problem there. Congrats and enjoy it!

spongehead · #13 17th March 2006, 05:11 PM

Good day to you, Bob.

RobertL · #14 22nd March 2006, 01:25 AM

Hi folks,
Im having sort of the same problem with my nvidia driver install on FC5 x86
after finally figuring out how to drop out of X server i do my sh *.run on the nvidia file
get the prerequist cant find kernel screens
then i get a msg saying i need to add < --kernel-source-path > to my command
Im a real newbie so i dont know what this means. or where to even locate this info to append my command

please help if you can

jhetrick62 · #15 22nd March 2006, 02:33 AM

Robert, you will have to have the kernel source downloaded. See this thread for howto and location is included at the bottom of the thread: http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mj...html#kernelsrc

Goodluck. I will have to do the same thing. Please post your results for all.

Jeff