driver rpm I had to reboot, else restart of X would freeze the box.
Bernd
Daniel Borgmann wrote:
Hello,
I wrote this little guide at osnews.com and thought it might be usefull
for some people. I would be happy if it would be copied to some places
to help more people with the same problem. You don't need to ask me for
permission. ;) I wrote this in a different style than usual Linux
howto's because I think there is a market for Linux howto's which don't
make the issue worse or more complicated than it is. :) I also tried to
cover every possible error so an unexperienced user won't get lost
during the process.
Here it is (please tell me if something is wrong, inaccurate or
confusing):
1.) Go to http://www.nvidia.com, click on "download drivers", then click
on "linux display drivers", select the topmost driver (currently 3123).
2.) Download the GLX RPM (the first one), then scroll down to the bottom
and download the kernel source RPM. Save both in your home folder. IMPORTANT NOTE: If they already offer a kernel RPM for Red Hat 8.0, you
can get this instead of the kernel source RPM and skip the next four
steps marked with a star (*).
*3.) If you didn't already, fire up the package manager (System Settings
-> Packages) and install the package groups "Development Tools" and
"Kernel Development".
*4.) Launch a terminal (System Tools -> Terminal).
*5.) Type "su", then hit enter and enter your root password, you should
be root now.
*6.) Type the following command: "rpmbuild --rebuild
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm". Of course the version number of your
src.rpm might differ. You can use tab completion so simply hit TAB once
you wrote a part of the filename down. Capitalization does matter.
7.) If this worked, you can close the terminal now. Open a file manager
window (or your homefolder) and navigate to "/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386".
You should find your new NVIDIA_kernel RPM here (of course if you got a
precompiled NVidia kernel RPM you will find this whereever you saved
it). Doubleclick and install it. If you did this, go back to your home
folder and install (doubleclick) the NVIDIA_GLX RPM.
(Feel free to remove the RPM's after installation as they aren't needed
anymore. You won't be able to remove the kernel RPM (if you built it and
it was saved in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/) as a user though without the
terminal, su and "rm" command. This is IMHO a critical usability bug in
Red Hat 8 or I missed something.)
8.) Go to "System Settings -> Display", open the "Advanced" tab and
click the "Configure..." button for your video card. At the "Driver:"
input box, write down "nvidia" as this is most probably not in the list
(only "nv"). "nv" is the 2D driver, "nvidia" is the original 3D driver
(the one you just installed). You will not be able to activate the
"Enable Hardware 3D Acceleration" checkbox, don't worry. Click OK two
times and it should tell you to log out and restart.
9.) Do exactly this (log out) and log in again, you should see the
NVidia logo shortly. If X doesn't work anymore, GDM will ask you to
launch the configuration program. Answer yes (or just hit enter in case
the buttons show unreadable text like they did for me, probably a bug in
Red Hat 8) and it should show you the configuration program from step 7.
Change "nvidia" to "nv" at the very same location, now X should work
again (at least). But if you did everything right, this shouldn't
happen.
10.) Launch Tux Racer (Extras -> Games -> Tux Racer) or Chromium (Extras
-> Games -> Chromium). Have fun! :)
