NVIDIA DRIVERS ON 10.2 Mandriva

[speeduhh]

ok, done it.

[AlexK]

ok now what you need to do is become root in the terminal with the "su -" command.
then to edit the inittab file

kate /etc/inittab

replace kate with kwrite or xemacs if an error occurs.
save this file as inittab.old (just for insurance)

now close the saved file and revert back to the normal inittab file, search for this line

# The default runlevel is defined here
id:5:initdefault:

change the 5 to a 3 and save (just hit the save button) and quit the editing program

in the same way, open the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Save this file as xorg.conf.old (again for insurance)
scroll down to the section which looks like this:

Section "Device"
BoardName "GeForce4 MX"
BusID "2:0:0"
Driver "nv"
Identifier "Device[0]"
VendorName "NVidia"
EndSection

replace the nv or similar in the above line with "nvidia"

scroll to the section which looks like the following:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "dri"
Load "GLCore"
Load "v4l"
EndSection

replace the Load "dri" and Load "GLCore" with Load "glx", i.e. replace the above section with the following

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "v4l"
EndSection

save this file (just hit the save button).

if the xorg.conf file doesn't need changing, then do not worry, there is absolutely nothing wrong.

now restart the computer, remembering the location of where you saved the nvidia driver. Once you restart, you will not be able to get back into X (the GUI) for the purpose of installing the nvidia driver. You will face something which looks like a DOS prompt, don't worry it is just temproary.

now once the computer boots up, it will ask for a username, enter root and enter your root password when prompted to do so.

now cd to the directory where you saved the nvdia installer. type

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7667-pkg#.run

replace the # with either 1 or 2 (I think the latest is 2), but the one available on the nvidia site is 1. The difference between 1 and 2 is that 2 adds support for the 7800GTX.

this will launch a nvidia installer and it will ask you a few questions and then install itself. Once that is done, to be on the safe side and to ensure that the new driver is being used, reboot the system.

Again it will come to the command prompt, enter your normal user name and password and then type

startx

this will take you into the GUI. Once you are in the GUI, go back to the 1st step where the inittab file was edited and change that 3 back to a 5. This will tell the system that the next time it boots, it needs to boot to the GUI rather than to the console.

hope this helps.

[speeduhh]

thanx a lot... it worked. it gave me a little error but.. it'll do

[AlexK]

just out of curiosity, what were the errors? And Im glad that it worked.

[speeduhh]

it gave me an error, in the end.. it was like a flash, i couldn't really see what it was. it wasn't ok but... I'l accept it.