Nvidia and Fedora 3-5

[alan]

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006, Steven Pasternak wrote:

> Hi! I have been using Fedora since core 1, and since core 3, nvidia has 
> always caused a problem. I always have to jump through hoops to get it to 
> work. How come? On SuSE 9-10 Nvidia has never caused a problem. It doesn't 
> complain that the kernel module can't be built or something weird like that. 
> I was able to get it to work with core 5, but I had to get a new kernel, 
> recompile an rpm, and install a boot-script (found out how on 
> fedoraforums.org)!! What is up with that?

It is a lot easier than that.  (With the exception of core 5, but I will 
get to that.)

First, make sure you have kernel-devel loaded for your current kernel. 
("yum install kernel-devel" should work.) You may also need xorg-sdk as 
well.

Download the nVIDIA driver from www.nvidia.com. 
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Next, set your default init run level to 3 in /etc/inittab and reboot. 
(The driver will not build if X is running.)

Run "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-8178-pkg2.run" as root. (Yeah, I know, but 
it needs to install modules.)  Answer the questions as you go. There is an 
option that will modify your xconfig for you.

Start X with the "startx" command to test.  Should work.  When you know it 
works, then change /etc/inittab to default to runlevel 5.  (Or not, if you 
prefer having a bit more control over X loading.)

I have not gotten the nvidia drivers working with the latest FC5 kernel. 
(I have not tried very hard, to be honest.)  There is a symbol that does 
not get built.  I will have to look on nvidia's forums to see if there is 
a workaround.  (I assume there is.)

Hope that helps.

-- 
"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over." - Frank Zappa