View RSS Feed

James' openSUSE Bash Scripting (and other things) Blog - Your Comments are Welcome!

Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way

Rating: 15 votes, 5.00 average.
49 Comments
by
jdmcdaniel3
, 18-Jun-2011 at 12:03 (56816 Views)
If you have an nVIDIA video card, do you have 3D support enabled? If you look into the "My Computer" icon, what does the display info say there? Here is a look at mine:

Code:
            Display Info

   Vendor:  nVidia Corporation
    Model:  GK104 [GeForce GTX 660 Ti]
2D driver:  nvidia
3D driver:  NVIDIA 331.20
I always install the nVIDIA driver the Hard Way, which is not very hard using the most recent driver and I always run the 64 bit version. I go here and get the most recent driver and download it to my PC:

nVIDIA driver 331.20 (64 bit) has been released you can find here: NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.20.run (README)

OR

nVIDIA driver 331.20 (32 bit) has been released you can find here: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-331.20.run (README)

Always take a look here for the present nVIDIA driver released versions: Unix Drivers Portal Page & Nvidia Installer HOWTO for openSUSE users

Here is the article I would look at about installing the nVIDIA driver the hard way: SDB:NVIDIA the hard way - openSUSE

In order to allow the nVIDIA driver to compile, I suggest that you do the following:

Open YaST / Software / Software Management - Select the View Button on the top left and pick Patterns. Now, you will see several Patterns listed and you want to select:

Code:
   Development 

[X] Base Development
[X] Linux Kernel Development
[X] C/C++ Development
Then Press the Accept button on the bottom right and allow these applications to install.

I always add the nomodeset kernel load option to my grub menu.lst file (openSUSE 12.1) or grub.cfg file (openSUSE 12.2) for use by my normal openSUSE OS selection menu. I always restart openSUSE from the OS selection menu, I enter the kernel load option 3 to load the kernel and then switch to Run Level 3, thus not loading the desktop. The nomodeset command was already added to my grub menu before I did a reboot.

For information on How To switch to Run Level 3 to install this driver, have a look at the following Link:

How to Start openSUSE 12.3 with Grub 2 into Run Level 3 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

I have a bash script file that can be used to install the nVIDIA proprietary video driver. You can find it here in my blog:

LNVHW - Load NVIDIA (driver the) Hard Way from runlevel 3 - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

For anyone wanting to use DKMS to install the NVIDIA driver automatically on a kernel update, have a look here:

S.A.N.D.I. - SuSE Automated NVIDIA Driver Installer - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

For all users of nVIDIA video cards and who are installing the nVIDIA Proprietary video driver, consider using YaST to find and install the nvidia-settings package and use it to setup your nVIDIA video card. I have found a very interesting site that listed all of the nVIDIA chips code names and Video cards used with here:

nouveau Wiki - CodeNames

Let me know if you have any other questions with this procedure I have prescribed. For anyone who would like install the nVIDIA drivers using a different method, have a look here:

SDB:NVIDIA drivers - openSUSE

I highly recommended you go with the The repository way in the link provided above and stay away from the 1-Click install if you do not wish to use the "Hard-Way" as described above.

For anyone who has upgraded or installed openSUSE 12.2, now using the Grub 2 OS boot selector, may want to look at my bash script here:

GNU Grub2 Command Help/Config Editor - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Good Luck!!!!

Thank You,

Blogs: asroot : Bash : Packet Filter : C.F.U. : DKMS : Grub2Cmd : Grub 2 & Run Level 3 : GPU's : fewrup : F.S.M. : H.I. : nVIDIA : LNVHW : N.S.F. : S.A.K.C. : MMCHECK
S.A.S.I. : S.A.C.T. : S.A.N.D.I. : S.C.L.U. : S.G.T.B. : S.K.I.M. : S.L.A.V.E. : S.L.R.C. : S.T.A.R.T. : S.U.F.F. : SYSEdit : SysdCmd : UTC or GMT Time : YaST Power : Zypper Command

Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to Digg Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to del.icio.us Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to StumbleUpon Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to Google Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to Facebook Submit "Installing the nVIDIA Video Driver the Hard Way" to Twitter

Updated 09-Nov-2013 at 08:27 by jdmcdaniel3

Categories
openSUSE Hardware

Comments

Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
  1. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    I just found nVIDIA driver 285.05.09 on the nVIDIA Web Site. I have added in the latest versions to this blog.

    Thank You,
  2. LTCj's Avatar
    Hey, thanks! Works as advertised with no problems on the day of release for openSuSE v 12.1!
  3. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    I just found nVIDIA driver 290.10 on the nVIDIA Web Site. I have added in the latest versions to this blog.

    Thank You,
  4. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    For anyone wanting to install the nVIDIA [B]beta[/B] version[B] 295.09[/B] of their proprietary video driver, you can find them here for download:

    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-295.09.run"]Linux-x86[/URL]
    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.09-no-compat32.run"]Linux-x86_64-no-compat32[/URL]
    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.09.run"]Linux-x86_64[/URL]

    If you install one of them, you must let us know how they worked for you.

    Thank You,
  5. nanecles's Avatar
    Hello mi name is fernando
    I install suse 11.4 with kde 4 and driver nvidia 290, but it has errors
    when i enable compiz the computer crashes in any moment
    Updated 14-Jan-2012 at 19:16 by jdmcdaniel3
  6. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    [QUOTE=nanecles;bt354]Hello mi name is fernando
    I install suse 11.4 with kde 4 and driver nvidia 290, but it has errors
    when i enable compiz the computer crashes in any moment[/QUOTE]


    I suggest you post a problem report in the forums with a request for help. Make sure to tell us all about your video hardware.

    Thank You,
  7. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    I wanted to post some more information on Bumblebee with my nVIDIA driver blog ...

    [QUOTE]Many recent notebooks with a discrete nVidia card in it and an i3/i5/i7 processor use the nVidia Optimus technology to improve battery life. Unfortunately, this software solution is only available in Windows 7 and later. While work is going on in the kernel and drivers to support these notebooks, Bumblebee is a temporary solution allowing you to disable the discrete card if unused and run programs on it if requested.
    [/QUOTE]

    Here are several links on the subject you can read:

    [URL="http://hybrid-graphics-linux.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Bumblebee"]Bumblebee - Hybridgraphics[/URL]
    [URL="https://launchpad.net/%7Ebumblebee"]
    https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee[/URL]

    [URL]http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/laptop/468325-bumblebee-nvidia-blob.html[/URL]

    [URL]https://lists.launchpad.net/hybrid-graphics-linux/msg02091.html[/URL]

    Please let us know if this was helpful to you.

    Thank You,
  8. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    [QUOTE=jdmcdaniel3;bt352]For anyone wanting to install the nVIDIA [B]beta[/B] version[B] 295.09[/B] of their proprietary video driver, you can find them here for download:

    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-295.09.run"]Linux-x86[/URL]
    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.09-no-compat32.run"]Linux-x86_64-no-compat32[/URL]
    [URL="http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.09/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.09.run"]Linux-x86_64[/URL]

    If you install one of them, you must let us know how they worked for you.

    Thank You,[/QUOTE]

    I am seeing reports that there are problems using the 295.09 driver with the KDE desktop and actually had my desktop just blow up while using this version, so I have dropped back to using 290.10 for now.
  9. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    Using openSUSE 11.4 and compiling kernel 3.3-rc1 using my bash script sakc, I found the following terminal command to work if you use kernel-desktop & driver 290.10 or 295.9 and just finished compiling/installing the new kernel, but before you have tried to run it:

    [CODE]cd /lib/modules/3.3.0-rc1-0.9-desktop/source/arch/x86/include ; sudo cp generated/asm/*.h ./asm[/CODE]

    OR

    [CODE]cd /lib/modules/<kernel name>/source/arch/x86/include ; sudo cp generated/asm/*.h ./asm[/CODE]

    Copy and paste this command into a terminal session, less the quotes. The example I saw was wrong for this command if you wanted to use the asm files from where the nVIDIA script was looking as opposed to modifying the nVIDIA script to work properly with kernel 3.3 asm. I assume this will be fixed in a future nVIDIA driver release for kernel 3.3 and the next nVIDIA driver to work together properly.

    Thank You,
    Updated 31-Jan-2012 at 19:14 by jdmcdaniel3
  10. nanecles's Avatar
    hello i have intel quad core
    and a video card nvidia zotac geforce 8400 gs
    y install driver in opensuse with gnome but it ctashes any moment
    but in the logs don have (EE) messages
  11. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    [QUOTE=nanecles;bt369]hello i have intel quad core
    and a video card nvidia zotac geforce 8400 gs
    y install driver in opensuse with gnome but it ctashes any moment
    but in the logs don have (EE) messages[/QUOTE]

    So, make sure to install the development files in YaST as I suggest. Make sure to use the nomodeset command in the Grub OS selection menu and make sure you are in run level 3 to get the nVIDIA driver to install. Don't forget to blacklist the nouveau driver. Always download the correct nVIDIA driver somewhere before doing anything else. I have not had the driver to fail to install when these tasks are performed.

    Thank You,
  12. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    I find new beta drivers are now posted for download using FTP.

    The [B]295.17[/B] [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/"]NVIDIA[/URL] Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for [B]Linux/x86[/B] is available for download via [URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.17/"]FTP[/URL].

    Download 32 bit from terminal using wget (if you have wget):

    [CODE]cd ~/Downloads ; wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.17/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-295.17.run[/CODE]

    The [B]295.17[/B] [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/"]NVIDIA[/URL] Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for [B]Linux/x86_64[/B] is available for download via [URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.17/"]FTP[/URL].

    Download 64 bit from terminal using wget (if you have wget):

    [CODE]cd ~/Downloads ; wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.17/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-295.17.run[/CODE]

    Version 295.17 still requires the same fix as before to be installed with kernel 3.3-rc1, kernel 3.3-rc2 or kernel 3.3-rc3.

    Thank You,
    Updated 12-Feb-2012 at 12:24 by jdmcdaniel3
  13. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    nVIDIA driver version 295.20 have been released to the public.

    Thank You,
  14. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    The nVIDIA driver version 295.20 fully works with kernel-3.3-rcX and fixes the problem in which you needed to copy kernel source files to a different location to get the nVIDIA driver to compile properly with kernel 3.3.

    Thank You,

    Edit: I guess I must retract that statement. I found that with kernel 3.3-rc4 I had to still copy some kernel source files to a different location to get 295.20 to compile.

    [CODE]cd /lib/modules/3.3.0-rc4-0.9-desktop/source/arch/x86/include ; sudo cp generated/asm/*.h ./asm[/CODE]

    OR (Depending on your kernel name)

    [CODE]cd /lib/modules/<kernel name>/source/arch/x86/include ; sudo cp generated/asm/*.h ./asm[/CODE]

    Sorry about being wrong on this....
    Updated 18-Feb-2012 at 20:00 by jdmcdaniel3
  15. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    I have written a bash script to create the kernel 3.3 fix for loading the nVIDIA driver. Run it from runlevel three before you install the nVIDIA driver the hard way.

    [CODE] In KDE Alt-F2: kdesu kwrite /usr/local/bin/userfix[/CODE]

    OR

    [CODE] In GNOME Alt-F2: gnomesu gedit /usr/local/bin/userfix[/CODE]

    This is what you put into this file and save it:

    [CODE]#!/bin/bash

    #: Title : userfix
    #: Date Created: Sun Feb 19 12:24:18 CST 2012
    #: Last Edit : Sun Feb 19 12:24:18 CST 2012
    #: Author : James D. McDaniel
    #: Version : 1.00
    #: Description :
    #: Options :

    version=$(uname -r | cut -c -3)
    folder="/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/source/arch/x86/include"
    if [ "$version" == "3.3" ] ; then
    if [ -d "$folder" ] ; then
    cd $folder
    sudo cp generated/asm/*.h ./asm
    echo
    echo "Kernel Fix for nVIDIA driver was executed!"
    echo
    fi
    fi

    exit 0

    # End Of Script[/CODE]

    You need to make the /usr/local/bin/userfix bash script executable. Open up terminal and run the following command:

    [CODE]sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/userfix[/CODE]

    Just type in userfix, after kernel 3.3-rcx is loaded and the fix will be in.

    Thank You,
  16. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    Just found this tonight and its not even on the main server yet. You must use a FTP Client like Filezilla to download the file, which is what I used.

    The [B]295.33 nVIDIA [/B]Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for [B]Linux/x86[/B] is available for download via [URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.33/"]FTP.[/URL] ([URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/295.33/README/index.html"]README[/URL])

    The [B]295.33 nVIDIA[/B] Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for [B]Linux/x86_64[/B] is available for download via [URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.33/"]FTP.[/URL] ([URL="ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/295.33/README/index.html"]README[/URL])

    Thank You,
    Updated 22-Mar-2012 at 18:18 by jdmcdaniel3
  17. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    So I installed the latest nVIDIA driver 295.40 into stable kernel version 3.3.1. I still executed my old kernel fix for 3.3 to get the nVIDIA driver to install, but did not check to see if it really is required or not. I will make more tests using kernel 3.4, most likely after rc3 comes out. If you do any testing yourself with kernel 3.4, make sure to tell us how it went if you installed the nVIDIA driver 295.40 version.

    Thank You,
  18. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    NVIDIA Driver 295.49 has been released and does work for sure with kernel 3.3 and works with kernel 3.4 if you use the same patch Larry Finger supplied for NVIDIA driver 295.40 which is kind of interesting.

    Thank You,
  19. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    The 302.07 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86 is available for download via: [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-ia32-302.07-driver.html"]NVIDIA DRIVERS 302.07 (32 bit) BETA[/URL]
    The 302.07 NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver Set for Linux/x86_64 is available for download via: [URL="http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-amd64-302.07-driver.html"]NVIDIA DRIVERS 302.07 (64 bit) BETA[/URL]

    Thank You,
  20. jdmcdaniel3's Avatar
    NVIDIA Driver 295.53 has been released and does work for sure with kernel 3.3 and works with kernel 3.4 with no patch file applied at all.

    Thank You,
Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast