[sclug] Nvidia and Ubuntu.

[Will Dickson]

Neil Haughton wrote:
> Has anyone installed the 'proprietary' nvidia drivers in Ubuntu? I've 
> recently installed Ubuntu 5.1 on a box with a Geforce 4 card, and any 3D 
> graphics apps run like a dog. The drivers from apt-get have been 
> installed but aren't giving me 3D acceleration - I can't find anything 
> more to install in the 'multiverse' non-free repository, so I'm a but 
> stumped.


FWIW I've got (K)ubuntu 5.10 (I assume that's what you mean, since 
there's no such release as 5.1) w/ an nVidia. In my case, it Just 
Worked. This probably isn't what you want to hear :-(

AFAICT the nvidia drivers are in base/restricted and count as 
linux-restricted-modules.

Have you tried redirecting the output of startx into a file, and looking 
through it for error messages? This can be useful.

Abbreviated copy of my xorg.conf - yours ought to look somewhat similar.
{my comments are in braces, like this}


# /etc/X11/xorg.conf (xorg X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the /etc/X11/xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man /etc/X11/xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Files"
	{snip lots of fonts}
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"GLcore"
	Load	"bitmap"
	Load	"ddc"
	Load	"dri"
	Load	"extmod"
	Load	"freetype"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"int10"
	Load	"type1"
	Load	"vbe"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	{snip entry for bog-standard keyboard}
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	{snip entry for mouse}
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"NVIDIA Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800 Ultra/GeForce 6800 GT]"
	Driver		"nvidia" 	{this is probably important}	
	BusID		"PCI:2:0:0" 	{my mobo is PCI Express, this may be different for AGP}
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"CM811"
	Option		"DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"NVIDIA Corporation NV40 [GeForce 6800 Ultra/GeForce 6800 GT]"
	Monitor		"CM811"
	{I guess that these two strings must match exactly with the Identifier 
clauses in the device sections}
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		1
		Modes		"1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	{snip lots of similar subsections for different depths: 4, 8, 16, 16, 24}
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier	"Default Layout"
	Screen		"Default Screen"
	InputDevice	"Generic Keyboard"
	InputDevice	"Configured Mouse"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
	Mode	0666	{ no idea }
EndSection


Hope this is of some use.

Best of luck,

Will.