[Wolves] Using Binary(closed source) drivers for modern NVIDIA cards (9 series)

[Kris Douglas]

Hi, my newest computer is running on a 9600GT NVidia card. These are
brilliant in windows, but for Linux, Ubuntu 7.10 in my case, it does
not work, even with the open source drivers.

I just wanted to make this email for a quick tutorial, that works on
Ubuntu 7.10 and up, and almost all other Linux distributions with
little modifications, on getting this card working using the beta
drivers for the card. I'm doing this for the X86 driver, but the 64
bit works exactly the same way.

To begin with you need to change your runlevel, in this case to
runlevel 1 so type "telinit 1" into a root terminal, you will be
presented with a black screen and prompted for your username and
password.

Now we are in the correct runlevel, you need to install the build
utilities for Ubuntu 7.10 (works the same way for hardy- tested.) So
for Ubuntu you need to type "apt-get install build-essential" this is
for compiling the NVidia kernel modules, as there are usually none
available from their ftp.

Next we need to download the NVidia driver package. In this case it's
"http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/171.06/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-171.06-pkg1.run"
but there are more updated versions released intermittently, so I
recommend visiting
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_archive.html and
downloading the latest driver from the uppermost link. Now we know
where the file is located, we need to download it into our root
folder, so in the terminal type "wget
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/171.06/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-171.06-pkg1.run"
and press return. The download is about 17Mb so it could take a while
for it to download depending on your connection speed.

Once this has been downloaded the next thing you need to do is
actually begin the installation. To do this, baring in mind we are in
the root folder, which is "/root" where we downloaded the file to, we
need to type "sh 171.06/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-171.06-pkg1.run" now,
obviously that is a lot to type and the driver you have may not be the
same as the one I'm using here, it could be newer, so instead, just
type "sh NV" and then press TAB on the keyboard, this will fill in the
name of the file for you. Once you have done that press return on the
keyboard and the NVidia driver will begin loading the text mode
install.

When going through the install you will need to accept a license
agreement, you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard to select the
different options. Once you have selected accept, you need to press
return and you will be taken to the next screen, where the computer
will ask you if you want to find a pre-compiled module for the card,
which it won't, if you are on Ubuntu. So on this one i recommend just
pressing no and building one yourself, which is easy, when you press
no the installer will automatically compile a driver for the card, and
install it. After this is complete it will ask you if you want to
apply the changes to the X11 configuration, press yes for this and the
installation will finish. Once you have finished the driver
installation, I recommend rebooting your computer, by typing "reboot"
and pressing return on your keyboard, once rebooted, you should be
presented with a 3d enabled, working X server.

/end.

/Ok, the actual email.
Ok guys, I know this is a Mailing list with many linux savvies, and
some new users, but this is really just a beta of this tutorial, as I
have seen quite a few people moaning about installing drivers for
their card on Linux, especially Ubuntu, as some users aren't even
presented a GUI for the Live CD installer, just a command line. I
intend to add 2 versions of this, one to get the X server working for
a Live CD, which obviously wouldn't have a reboot. And the one above
for the desktop users, that have just got a new card.

I was wondering if anyone had anything to add to this, and whether it
is worth posting it at all.

-- 
Kris Douglas
 Softdel Limited Hosting Services
 Web: www.softdel.net
 Mail: kris at softdel.net