Setting Up the Nvidia GPU driver

STEP 1

Visit the NVIDIA website and download the latest IA32 linux drivers. OpenSuSE users, there are instructions for suse on the NVIDIA website.

STEP 2

Place the driver package in a directory easy to remember and make sure that you have all the dependencies installed. You will need the kernel source or headers and in some cases, the xorg development files may be needed. If you have built a custom kernel as I suggest, you don't have to install the kernel sources or headers package as you have the sources from the kernel that you've built. If you are using the default kernel of your distro, install the package kernel-source or kernel-headers. Note that in some distros, this is not necessary as Nvidia provides ready-made binary kernel modules available to download from the internet at the time of installation. In debian, do: apt-get install linux-headers. To install the xorg development files in debian, do: apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev

STEP 3

Switch to virtual terminal 1 (vt1) by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1, login as root in the login prompt that appears (note that the password does not appear as you type it), stop the X server and then install the driver. Here is the code:

login: root
password:
# killall kdm || killall gdm
# sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run

Follow the instructions on screen. At the very last step, choose the NVIDIA installer to automatically configure the X server to use the new drivers.

STEP 4

Try to start again the X server to see if it works. (If you are a newbie, you'd better reboot)

If for any reason you mess up with your xorg configuration, here is my /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Just replace your own with this one. Note that in my xorg.conf I also have enabled the composite extension, so if you are running Xorg 7.1 and you are using Nvidia drivers >= 9625, then you will be able to run compiz or beryl without any special configuration (just like I do).

Special notes for this driver

  1. If you ever update or upgrade Xorg, then you need to reinstall the driver.
  2. If you want to set up the nvidia kernel module for a different kernel, boot with the kernel that you want to build the module for and run sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-9746-pkg1.run -K (notice the -K parameter).
  3. If you want to setup compiz or beryl, see the instructions here

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