Installing new Nvidia Drivers

by Nicholas Hillsdale on February 11, 2004

First off, go to the following site: http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html

Download the right Nvidia installer. More than likely it'll be the IA32 file, unless you have a 64bit processor, or FreeBSD. Also, if you're running any kernels released after January 26th 2004, make sure you have the kernel source downloaded and installed correctly. The installer will need it to compile the drivers correctly.

Once you have that all setup you'll want to login as root.

Step 1 - Editing Module section in XF86Config:
Open up /etc/X11/XF86Config in your favorite editor. Make sure to save a backup of the file before editing it. XF86Config.backup, or something easy to remember. Once you've done that, open up /etc/X11/XF86Config again then browse to the section that looks similar to this:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "dri"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

If you see Load "dri" or Load "GLcore" you'll want to remove them and add Load "glx". After you've done that it should look similar to this:

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Step 2 - Editing Device section in XF86Config:
Once you've got the Modules section setup correctly you'll want to scroll down to the device section, which will look somewhat like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nv"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce FX (generic)"
EndSection

All you have to change here is the Driver line. You'll want to change it to look like this:

Driver "nvidia"

Once you've changed the line save your XF86Config file and close it.

Step 3 - Shutting down X Server:
Now we have to shut down the X server so we can install the drivers. This will bring you to a black screen with a terminal prompt. To do this hit Ctrl-Alt-F1 and login as root.

Once you've logged in as root type the following:

[root@localhost *****]# init 3

This should shut down the X Server.

Step 4 - Installing the drivers:
Now you'll want to switch to another terminal by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F2. Login as root again and browse to the directory you downloaded the driver file to

Once you're in the directory all you have to type is:

[root@localhost *****]# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-****-pkg1.run

The install should start, it'll run you through everything. If everything was setup and installed correctly it should remind you to edit your XF86Config. But you shouldn't have to do this, since we already did it.

Step 5 - Restarting X Server:
You'll want to switch back to the first terminal you used to shut down the X Server by hitting Ctrl-Alt-F1. At the prompt type the following:

[root@localhost *****]# init 5

It should now boot back in to X Server, greeting you with a Nvidia logo. Test out the new drivers by playing Tux Racer, or any OpenGL enabled game. If you run in to any errors check out the help files on the Nvidia website at the top of this article.