What if you only have a nVidia Video Card?

[malfist]

If nVedia(sp?) and ATI drivers are not included out of the box, how do you install the distro? What packages (from the commandline I assume) would you have to install to make them work?

[MikeTbob]

If nVedia(sp?) and ATI drivers are not included out of the box, how do you install the distro? What packages (from the commandline I assume) would you have to install to make them work?

You just download them from their respective website, installing Nvidia drivers is pretty easy, you have to make it executable
chmod +x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run
Then install it from the command line.
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9755-pkg1.run
I'm not too sure about ATI products, since I don't have one, but I'm sure there is a ton of info avail on this forum to help you.

[devils casper]

If nVedia(sp?) and ATI drivers are not included out of the box, how do you install the distro?

Installers dont configure Graphics Cards sometimes and throw blank screen. in that case, you can install Linux in Text Mode and install driver after Linux Installation as suggested by MikeTbob.

[malfist]

Then how would I set up X and the DE I wanted (GNOME or XFCE 4)?

[devils casper]

Which Linux Distro are you planning to install?
Graphical and Text Mode installers install same set of packages and provide exactly same options. if GNOME or Xfce is available in your Linux Distro's Installation CD/DVD, you can select that during installation.
Text Mode doesn't use Graphics Card and you fix Graphics Card after Installation completes.

[malfist]

PCLinuxOS or Slackware, although I'll still keep Ubuntu around

[ryptyde]

I have 3 different nVidia cards and have never had a problem with any of my Fedora Core installs. The only problem that is encountered is when you want to have 3D desktop effects enabled, you will then just yum the nVidia driver and kernel module from a 3rd party repo such as Livna.

Stay away from ATI cards as they will most likely cause you grief.
If you plan on installing a distro you might want to consider Fedora 7 as it should be released MAY 31st.
I have a desktop running Fedora 7 Test 4 at the moment with a nvidia card and it works fine and I'm looking forward to the final at the end of May.

[malfist]

I have Fendora 6 but it didn't install (kernal panic) and I couldn't fix it. I may try with my good computer (I just moved, and my good computer came with me).
The card is GeForce FX 5200 256MB

[MikeTbob]

I have Fendora 6 but it didn't install (kernal panic) and I couldn't fix it. I may try with my good computer (I just moved, and my good computer came with me).
The card is GeForce FX 5200 256MB

This card works well with FC 6, even without the NVIDIA drivers. I use the same card. Let us know if you have more troubles installing it.

[TheBigPhish]

with nVidia, you can usually get pretty good results with the standard "nv" series X drivers that come with XFree86 / X.Org, i can usually hit the max resolution with them, but i don't often go to the bleeming edge for colordepth...

As for ATI? Meh, not much help from me...sorry.