How are you supposed to enable nvidia graphics?

pepsifx357 · June 27, 2010, 1:01am

Hi guys, I’m just coming from Ubuntu(don’t hate me) and realized that there are no Nvidia drivers in the repos. I had trouble even getting the repos to respond on the live cd or after installation; is opensuse having network problems? I changed the repositories to the GA tech libraries because they are closer and now they work, However I can’t get any Nvidia drivers to install. Now, I’m not a super linux guru that can fly around linux like super man, but I’m also not a newbie to linux. Or at least I think I’m not.

I need to get Nvidia drivers installed…what is the easiest way to do that, considering the “http://downloads.nvidia.com” repo doesn’t seem to want to connect either. I don’t know what the deal is, but Internet is rather clumsy with opensuse or with KDE, I’m not sure yet. I’m using 11.2 by the way and:

Linux linux-yele 2.6.31.12-0.2-default #1 SMP 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

malcolmlewis · June 27, 2010, 1:36am

pepsifx357:

Hi guys, I’m just coming from Ubuntu(don’t hate me) and realized that
there are no Nvidia drivers in the repos. I had trouble even getting
the repos to respond on the live cd or after installation; is opensuse
having network problems? I changed the repositories to the GA tech
libraries because they are closer and now they work, However I can’t get
any Nvidia drivers to install. Now, I’m not a super linux guru that can
fly around linux like super man, but I’m also not a newbie to linux. Or
at least I think I’m not.

I need to get Nvidia drivers installed…what is the easiest way to do
that, considering the “http://downloads.nvidia.com” repo doesn’t seem to
want to connect either. I don’t know what the deal is, but Internet is
rather clumsy with opensuse or with KDE, I’m not sure yet. I’m using
11.2 by the way and:

Linux linux-yele 2.6.31.12-0.2-default #1 SMP 2010-03-16 21:25:39 +0100
i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Hi
Download your driver from here;
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/256.35/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35.run

Then install the stuff to build it via a console (terminal) session;


sudo zypper in make gcc kernel-source kernel-syms linux-kernel-headers

Now once you have done that you need logout and to drop to runlevel 3
by pressing ctrl+alt+F1, then at the console login, login as root and
run;


cd <to where you downloaded the run file>
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35.run -qa
sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia
init 5 && exit

You need to configure your monitor etc in sax2 etc and after the -m
it’s a zero not an O.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.12-0.7-default
up 1 day 6:54, 3 users, load average: 0.07, 0.08, 0.02
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 256.35

pepsifx357 · June 27, 2010, 5:33am

Thanks, I was missing the part where you run level 3, and the zypper command. I wasn’t sure how to install stuff via console. I kept using yum or yast install. lol

So there’s no Nvidia console to mess with settings?

caf4926 · June 27, 2010, 5:39am

In kde
Menu - Applications - Configuration -

Or in a su - terminal

nvidia-settings

etch · June 27, 2010, 5:52am

One click from the web is the bomb. NVIDIA drivers - openSUSE Kernel updates are painless this way.

However, Nvidia is a few releases ahead of the repo. Why isn’t the Nvidia repo being updated with the lastest? It has been some time now.

malcolmlewis · June 27, 2010, 5:58am

Also if you want to overclock (AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!), you need to
manually edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and add in the Section
“Device”;


Option       "Coolbits" "1"

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.12-0.7-default
up 1 day 11:19, 6 users, load average: 0.07, 0.17, 0.12
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 256.35

pepsifx357 · July 1, 2010, 5:14am

Why is it, that every site i have tried with OpenSuse in the name, cannot be reached? I tried that one click method and it could not resolve the host. The same thing happened with the stock repository when I installed OpenSuse. I had to manually change all of the repositories to the one at a college near me. What is the deal with that, a bug or something?

DenverD · July 1, 2010, 11:38am

pepsifx357 wrote:
> Why is it, that every site i have tried with OpenSuse in the name,
> cannot be reached? I tried that one click method and it could not
> resolve the host. The same thing happened with the stock repository
> when I installed OpenSuse. I had to manually change all of the
> repositories to the one at a college near me. What is the deal with
> that, a bug or something?

sounds like a DNS problem…
or, maybe you are on a campus with a proxy blocking something??

any case, you should post that problem into the networking forum as it
is not a hardware question…

etch · July 1, 2010, 8:34pm

Sorry the one-click didn’t work for you.

I am still wondering why the Nvidia repo is 2 or 3 releases behind the Nvidia ftp site.???

Who keeps the repo up to date, Nvidia or Suse?

Thanks.

oldcpu · July 2, 2010, 7:33am

I read a post once saying it was nVidia and not openSUSE. I can’t find that reference.

I always install ‘the hardway’ which is not hard, and hence one does not have to wait for someone to package an rpm.

Nite_0wl · July 30, 2010, 3:57pm

The Nvidia repository is operated by Nvidia, I had seen that mentioned several times and if you still aren’t sure take a look at the URL for the repo “download.nvidia.com”.
As to why it is always behind the .run version from the website, I don’t know myself but I would speculate that it would be some combination of the following: priority of packaging for specific distros, priority of those projects in the company, and that the repo is probably primarily aimed at SLED users.

felnel · August 7, 2010, 4:22am

malcolmlewis:

Hi
Download your driver from here;
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/256.35/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35.run

Then install the stuff to build it via a console (terminal) session;
sudo zypper in make gcc kernel-source kernel-syms linux-kernel-headers
Now once you have done that you need logout and to drop to runlevel 3
by pressing ctrl+alt+F1, then at the console login, login as root and
run;
cd <to where you downloaded the run file>
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-256.35.run -qa
sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia
init 5 && exit
You need to configure your monitor etc in sax2 etc and after the -m
it’s a zero not an O.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
…

Thanks for your help. I faced a few problems. The building of stuff worked as also I downloaded the Nvidia drivers and logged out, went to console - init 3 but then when I tried to install the package, it tried to connect to the net and kept failing. another problem was that sax command was not found - that is a first since I first started using Suse 7.3

What I then did was to get back to the GUI - uninstalled the Nvidea driver already installed by default when I installed the system.

On the page for SDB:Nvidia drivers, right at the beginning is this

"Warning: On openSUSE 11.3 (and only on openSUSE 11.3) nomodeset needs to be added to the kernel boot command line before installing the driver. To set this permanently, add it to the kernel command line in /boot/grub/menu.lst.

In case there is still a problem set the NO_KMS_IN_INITRD sysconfig variable to yes via yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and reboot.

In addition the legacy nvidia driver for Geforce 4 (and older) as well TNT is not provided for openSUSE 11.3. You should use either the nouveau or nv opensource drivers."

So I did the second mentioned and then installed with one-click method and it worked flawlessly.

Just mentioned in case it helps somebody.

oldcpu · August 7, 2010, 8:29am

Thats because sax2 is no longer included with openSUSE, as of openSUSE-11.3. To try to help in such cases, I created a wiki with some guidance: SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE

Glad to read you got this working, and thankyou for sharing your experience.