These links really should be in the permanent how-to forum. If y’all think this post is good enuff, then ask the mods to move it there. If not, I’ll be utterly humiliated. Also, this post date is Friday, December 04 2009. Give me a week to update this post, since I’m reviewing stuff as I rebuild my know-how. I don’t do this often enough to remember it off the top. But, I repeat - this should be in a sticky or a how-to easily come by. I just searched the forums for something like it, and came up with 12 pages. Way to much to sift thru. Mods - if you like what I’m giving you here, say so. I’ll finish updating it within the week, and you can have something to post (and I’ll be recorded for all posterity, muahahahaha!)
FIRST: Nvidia Installer HOWTO for SUSE LINUX users
This gives y’all newbs the basics on how to get Nvidia cards installed in SUSE (and you semi-newbs, like me). Nvidia and openSUSE have been nice enough to collaborate and make our life easier through science.
FAILING THAT: you can pursue the manual nvidia install. The page above covers that method too, but you might want this link:
Drivers - Download NVIDIA Drivers
AND, these pages give you a very nice how-to for manual nvidia installation NVIDIA Accelerated Linux Graphics Driver README and Installation Guide
**SECOND: **Moving right along, here, you may have issues. One of these issues that some ppl have has to do with MONITOR recognition. The acronym EDID (Extended display identification data) is the first reference we will cover. DDC is the second. EDID is supposed to be recognized (found) by the Nvidia drivers/utilities you run nvidia-xconfig. I’ll say that most times, this works. When it doesn’t? This link discusses such a case, and a solution using Windows:
G210m Blank Laptop Display - Page 2 - nV News Forums
**THIRD: **DDC (Display Data Channel) and EDID are related. Check Wikipedia if you really want to know more. DDC can give you issues also, if for some reason you have incomplete communication between your monitor and computer. I found this problem when using a KVM switch. KVM switches were, once upon a time, dumb mechanical devices. Today, and for the past several years, they have been more sophisticated. Since the advent of plug and play, they have needed to keep the computer thinking that it is displaying on the monitor, even when it is not! The resulting monitor/kvm/computer communication is often incomplete, and can cause issues. Wikipedia used to have an excellent article covering these issues, but it deleted them as they were “how-to’s”, not encyclopedia articles. I saved them, and within the next week I will add that work to this posting. *
Last: I beg your pardon for this not being exactly a “How-To”. However, I have given you links to How-To’s that are far better than what I could give you! So you’ve got what you need (I hope), and life can go on.*