Graphic Drivers

[Frank Tyler]

I have only just installed Linux and am very new to it so please excuse my ignorance. I have just installed Suse and have often been told that my graphics card is not activated. I followed the online installation instructions but I get to the last step and when I reboot the system it just wont start and I am told thhat there is some problem with the X server???? I have reformat the system and have a fresh copy installed. I have followed the instructions online 3 times now all with the same result. I am wondering if someone would be able to post an 'idiots guide' to installing Nvidia graphics drivers.
Thank you in advance. All the best;
Frank Tyler

[Storm Rider]

Check out this link.
Hacking openSUSE 10.2 - Software in Review

It has all the info you need to get SuSE 10.2 tuned for Nvidia, DVD playback mp3 support etc.

It's a very easy guide to follow.

[gogalthorp]

You can move back to the default VESA driver by logging on as root and typing

sax2 -r -m 0=vesa (0 is a digit, not a letter!)

then restart the x server

startx

But that only gets you back to where you started

Which video card, NVIDIA or ATI??? Which card or chip set???

If NVIDIA did you use the Yast method or the manual? The manual method does better but you must also install the kerenel source, gcc and make which are not installed by default. Install these via Yast-software-software management

[Xyphus]

The link to the guide that Storm Rider has posted is a great source of info for getting SuSE 10.2 up and running.

Depending on how old your nVidia card is however, you *might* need to install the graphics drivers manually. nVidia only supports recent chipsets via the repository. (I believe anything GeForce 4 and earlier are no longer supported through the automatic install and will need to be installed manually...)

First off, you will need to make sure that you have the source files for your kernel installed before you try to install the video drivers...

Next, If you go to nVidia's web site and click on the "Drivers" link. There should be a link to download the Linux drivers.

You will need to find the driver set that will cover your card. For instance, if you are using a card such as the TnT2 Ultra, you would want to download the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.09 version.

What I will normally do is to download the driver and place it someplace easy to find. Such as the "Documents" folder.

Once you download the file, you will need to shut down your X-server and switch to text mode. To do this, you can just pull up a terminal window and either switch to root by issuing a "su" command, or I believe you could probably do it with "sudo" as well, if you have it installed. (I usually just use su and log in as root). Then you will want to issue an "/sbin/init 3" command to switch to text mode.

Once you are back to a command line, log back in as root. Change to the directory that you downloaded the drivers to, (usually, just do a cd ~username) and then cd to the Documents directory.

Once there, you will need to run the driver by typing:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-driverversionnumberhere-pkg1.run -q

That should start the installer. Follow the prompts, it should say that it didn't detect the drivers and say that it needs to compile a version for your kernel...

Once that is complete, it should then say that you will need to run sax to configure and drop you back to a command line.

Next, you will want to issue the command:

sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia (note: 0=number, not letter)

This will start up sax and configure the xserver for you. You won't need to try to enable 3D acceleration because it will be enabled by default. Just adjust the screen size, etc., and save.

Next time you restart it should then display the nVidia logo and take you to the gui login screen.

If you do have a newer chipset, it is much easier since it is all configured automatically for you via YAST.

Good luck!

[gogalthorp]

If you do have a newer chipset, it is much easier since it is all configured automatically for you via YAST.

Good luck!

Except for the GO mobile chips these don't seem to use the newest driver ie the NVIDIA sites point you to the previous driver for these chips! I don't think that Yast resolves this little problem.