I tried doing the oneclick install from the openSUSE website, but it installed a bunch of stuff it didn’t really need to (ms fonts, fluendo etc.) and then my pc wouldn’t start after I rebooted. Wish it was as easy as it is on Ubuntu but 9.04 is very unstable imo. 
For nVidia, there are in essence 3 separate drivers available for openSUSE:
- vesa driver, known as “vesa”
- openGL / opensource driver, known as “nv”
- proprietary nVidia driver, known as “nvidia”
The first two (vesa & nv) come packaged with the openSUSE distribution packaging. The third driver which is proprietary (nvidia) has to be downloaded from the nVidia web site and then installed - guidance is here: NVIDIA - openSUSE
Typically, if one has a problem booting to X window (ie the GUI) one should then instead boot to run level 3 (ascii/text) by typing “3” (no quotes) as an option in the grub menu, and login as a regular user. Then type “su” (no quotes) to switch to root user (enter root password). Then run the program sax2 to configure one’s graphics, telling sax2 the driver to use as part of the command… is something like:sax2 -r -m 0=vesaorsax2 -r -m 0=nvorsax2 -r -m 0=nvidiawhere one must have the proprietary nvidia driver downloaded and installed (those are not the same things) for the nvidia proprietary driver to work.
One should test their config under sax2 before exiting.
From run level 3 one can restart the pc by typing: shutdown -r now
If things are desparate, one can try to use the installation gui configuration by typing:
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.install /etc/X11/xorg.conf
or also, in some cases, one has to force X to a lower resolution with something like:
sax2 -r -l -m 0=vesa
There has to be hundreds of posts/guides on this, so if there are details I am missing in the above, just surf a bit and you will find what you are looking for.
Good luck.
Instead of the 1 click install, I recommend you setup 4 repositories. Just 4. OSS, Non-OSS, Update and Packman. The 1st 3 are probably already setup. There is guidance here to set up those 4: Repositories/11.1 - openSUSE-Community Do not install any more than those 4, or if you do, remove them after installation. If you have more repos setup, then remove them.
Then once those 4 are setup, you can go to YaST > Software > Software management and search for, and install the applications you want.
Do this, step by step:
Open the software installer and select the pattern ‘Linux Kernel Development’ for install. Accept. This will install the kernel-sources and everything needed to compile kernel-modules.
Open a terminal window and type
on 32-bit: wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/180.51/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.51-pkg1.run
on 64-bit: wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/180.51/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2.run
This has downloaded the installer in your /home/USERNAME, now we’re going to install it. To do so, log out to login screen and hit Ctrl-Alt-F1. You’ll see the console. Log in using your username and password.
type: su -c ‘init 3’
Enter rootpassword when asked for
type: cd /home/USERNAME where USERNAME is your username
on 32-bit type: su -c ‘sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.51-pkg1.run -q’
Accept license and all premade choices.
on 64-bit type: su -c ‘sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.51-pkg2.run -q’
Accept license and all premade choices.
Now the driver has been installed, so we can configure the X-server (the graphic system) for your card.
type: su -c ‘sax2 -r -m0=nvidia’
click Change configuration
In the properties of the card, tick NoLogo and RenderAccel
Save and exit
Now the X-server has been configured to use the new driver, so we can go back to the login screen.
type: su -c ‘init 5 && exit’
Log back in to your dekstop and everything should be OK.
Looks hard, but done once or twice successfully it’ll be easy.
Good luck
The openSUSE drivers that the one-click install provides is version 180. The version that actually works is 185.
Go to the NVidia website to get their drivers.
Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers
Select your video card model (GeForce 9M Series), select Linux-32 or Linux-64 as your OS and click search. It will take you to a download page for version 185. They have link to the SUSE.de website with instructions for installing NVidia drivers (Nvidia Installer HOWTO for SUSE LINUX users). I tried using the openSUSE repository first, but it automatically installs version 180. Follow the manual installation instructions AFTER you download the 185 version from NVidia. The instructions are straightforward and NVidia’s installer is good and handles the setup for you. You must run the sax2 -r command after installing.
I ran into problems with “no suitable display found” after installing version 185 over the repo install of v180, this was very frustrating. Not much help out there in the forum for this problem. I found that you can run Yast from the command line allowing you to uninstall the v180 drivers which were installed via the repo. My recommendation, uninstall all nVidia drivers after you download the v185 file from NVidia. then install the Nvidia driver.
I installed the KDE Desktop when I installed openSUSE 11.1. I had problems with Power Management locking my screen every 4 minutes or so, even when it was plugged in. Based on the forum, I installed KDE 4.2 using the one-click install. It has worked well so far. The only problem that I have left to solve is the audio drivers for the Conexant HD SmartAudio 221 sound card on my Gateway FX notebook.
Hope this helps some. It took me many frustrating hours to get this resolved. Hopefully this post will help others avoid that frustration.
I’m a recent convert from Ubuntu Gnome and IMHO, openSUSE/KDE is far superior.
Good luck
Go here NVIDIA - openSUSE and have a read about the repository way that oldcpu suggested
@steven-ballagh the version in the opensuse repos is 185.18.14 same as on the nvidia site
Great news that the repo got updated already. Two weeks ago when I tried it it installed 180.
BTW, version 180 worked fine, but it doesn’t support the desktop effects for KDE 4.1/4.2
Thanks this worked perfectly. I have one minor annoyance now though. When I get to the login screen I see a flash of windows that were used in the past. That’s the only way I know how to describe it. It looks like the Sax configuration window got torn to shreds and then placed all around the desktop. Then after I put in my login name and password it flashes briefly again before loading my actual desktop environment. It wouldn’t bother me because it is just there for an instant both times, but it makes me worry that something is wrong with my setup.