Since you said you're using Debian, do this to install the NVidia 4xxx drivers.

Make sure you have /etc/apt/sources.list downloading from the unstable repository before starting. Here's an example sources.list to download from only the unstable repository:

# See sources.list(5) for more information, especialy# Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs# CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.# All unstable repositories:deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib# For source:# deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib

Now open a terminal (or, if you're already in one, stay there ), and enter the lines that follow without the beginning "$ ":

To get some preliminary information:
$ uname -r
This will tell you the kernel version you're running. Make a note of this.

Now we'll login as root (superuser):
$ su
Enter you password there when it asks for it.

Now, we'll make sure we have an up-to-date package list, and download the Debian wrapper packages for the NVidia drivers as well as the kernel headers (so that we can build the drivers):

$ apt-get update$ apt-get install kernel-headers-version$ apt-get install nvidia-kernel-src nvidia-glx-src

Replace version with the version that we found earlier. Depending upon the kernel version, the headers package can be relatively large.

Now, we'll setup environment variables for the Debian wrapper packages to be built with:

$ export KSRC=/usr/src/kernel-headers-version$ export KVERS=version

Replace version with what you found earlier.

Note: the following instructions can be found in /usr/share/doc/nvidia-kernel-src/README.Debian.gz.

Enter the following into the terminal:

$ cd /usr/src$ tar xzvf nvidia-kernel-src.tar.gz$ cd modules/nvidia-kernel-*$ debian/rules binary_modules

That will build the first package.

Note: the following instructions can be found in /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx-src/README.Debian.

Enter the following into the terminal:

$ cd /usr/src/nvidia-glx-*$ dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc

That will build the second package.

Now, we'll install both of them. Enter this in the terminal:

$ cd /usr/src$ dpkg -i nvidia-*.deb

Now, we'll edit the X configuration file to make it use these new drivers. Open /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 in some editor (vim, for example), and follow these instructions:
In Section "Module":

1. add Load "glx"
   
2. remove Load "dri"
   
3. remove Load "GLcore"
   

In Section "Device"

1. Change Driver "nv" to Driver "nvidia"
   

When you are done editing XF86Config-4, do this in a terminal (just incase):
$ modprobe nvidia

Now, try to start X ($ startx).

That was all documented in /usr/share/doc. That's the correct 'official' way to do it in Debian, by hand, without screwing up the system .

The 3xxx drivers are a little different than the 4xxx drivers (and the 3xxx drivers work MUCH better in my opinion). If you want me to modify that for the 3xxx drivers, just ask.



[edited by - Null and Void on January 27, 2003 12:45:03 AM]

quote:Original post by elendil67
Thanks so much for your help Null. You have been very persistant. The only thing is that I don't get your last post--I feel like a newbie, but I am one, so it kind of works out.

Don't worry about it. Debian is different from other distro's, it's best to get into its mentality to use it fully, which takes a while .

I went back and (tried to) fix the post to be more useful .

Edit:
If you're wondering why the NVidia drivers are such an annoyance to install, here are some reasons:

• The NVidia drivers don't use most of the common graphics acceleration driver framework that Linux and XFree86 provide (DRI). So, they need to replace your OpenGL libraries as well as have their own kernel module (DRI has its own kernel module, which is used by all DRI drivers).


• The NVidia drivers are almost completely closed source, so there's no way to really incorporate them in an existing project (like the Linux kernel, or XFree86, or DRI). They have an open source 'stub' so that the binary code can be compiled to work with more than one kernel revision reliably. If the NVidia drivers were incorporated into each version of those projects, you wouldn't have to compile it yourself.


• Debian runs on something like 16 architectures, and the NVidia drivers only run on two (IA-32 and IA-64), so there's no way Debian will recognize them as part of the "official" Debian distribution (notice the "non-free" part of the line in the repository text I had above?).

[edited by - Null and Void on January 28, 2003 1:01:19 AM]

quote:Original post by elendil67
When it was building the kernel, it got the exact same error as I got before...

Did you download the kernel headers package (kernel-headers-version) and set the environment variable (KSRC) to point to the correct directory?

quote:Original post by elendil67
By the way, do you think the fact that I turned off UseFBDev and erased DPMS is somehow bad with NVIDIA cards? I just had to do that to get my ATi card working. Should I change these back? Thanks.

I don''t know, I''ve never messed with those settings. I''d try to leave the settings as close to the defaults as possible though.

BTW, Off Topic: If you have used the DRI ATI Linux drivers and/or the closed ATI Linux drivers, what would you say about their completeness and quality? I''m thinking of getting an ATI card in the future, but I''m worried about driver quality.

You''re not doing anything wrong. Install those deb files, I used the asterisk that early in the name due to laziness. The glx-dev one is more or less optional (I don''t install it).