Nvidia/Geforce

Support knowledgebase (mbanse_nv)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 7.0
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

XFree86: Version 4.0

Symptom

You used the article Continuing problems with Nvidia to setup your X-Server configuration but a setup of XFree86 was not possible.

Reason

Incompatibility of the differnt driver versions.

Solution

For setup a nvidia chip based card, is the following driver is required:

Package nv_glx - Series x3d

A new driver is available on our ftp-server, URL

You can also use the original nvidia driver, available on http://www.nvidia.com

After the manual installation of the drivers with the following commands:

rpm -ivh nv_glx.rpm
rpm -ivh nvdriver.rpm

or by the help of YaST with Choose/Install packages->Install packages the following entry at the file /etc/modules.conf is needed:

alias char-major-195 NVdriver

Afterwards you should SaX2 start as follows:

sax2 -m 0=nvidia

The nvidia driver is needed especially for the Geforce 256 and Geforce GTS chipsets, the TNT or TNT2 cards are running with the nvidia driver as well as with the nv driver. SaX2 should be started without additional options, if not please have a look for the available options with sax2 --help. If you want OpenGL 3D-Acceleration, the only performant solution is to use the nvidia module.

To setup mouse, keyboard, cards, monitor and screen, please choose the profile Custom style. To get along with the configuration please take a look at the configuration manual, chapter "configuration with SaX2". You can find a step by step description of the installation process in here.

If you reached the point searchpaths please select the pointExpert. Please select the following options

Alternativly you can also choose the point Easy style:

Here the configuration starts with the video card, this configuration variant is recommended if you want a fast configuration or if you only want to change the video card or monitor data.

If SaX2 is not startable, you have the possibility to do your X11 configuration with the following programs:

XFree86 -configure

Here is a manual configuration required.

Or with

xf86config4

To work with the programs above it is needed to install the package xloader - series x.

Notice:

If you use an AGP video cards is it recommended to install the package agpgart - series x3d. To check wether your AGP port works correct please enter:

testgart

It seems that not the newest drivers are the best ones. If you do not succed with one driver please try also an older one.


Keywords:

SDB-mbanse_nv, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 03. Nov 2000
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 03. Nov 2000 by mbanse (sdb_gen 1.40.0)