I have just recently installed Suse 11.1 from DVD I downloaded, I am running a pentium 4 machine. I was using 11.0 and after a total wreck at trying to install Nvidia drivers and crash I installed 11.1. Now I’m having a meriad of problems again trying to get nvidia drivers installed. To begin with Yast keeps getting “can’t resolve host” errors when I try to update? Shouldn’t I update online before I try to install nvidia drivers? Also I have read about 50 differant posts on how to go about installing nvidia drivers (thru Yast, thru command line,etc) don’t know which one I should use? Anyone with any suggestions I would appreciate your input please. Thanks in advance for your time and advice to getting me on my way.BTW my install of 11.1 was an upgrade from DVD not a clean install. Thanks again
I think you find the servers are down:
Downtime/2009-09-11 - openSUSE
You can alternatively download the nvidia driver from nvidia and install, however you may have issues doing all this at the moment, due to current enabled repo’s and installed packages on your system. I would wait it out until next week.
If all you have is what installed from the dvd and NO updates then just disable all repo’s except the dvd media and follow this:
Alright so here is how to install the nvidia driver manually, in case the one in the repo doesn’t work or u just want to use the latest.
Go to Yast>Software>Software Management
Search for and install if you don’t have these:
make
gcc
kernel-source
Now download the latest Nvidia driver:
Place the file in your /home/username
Now restart and at the boot screen, pause the boot by moving the down button, then move back up and clear any text in the boot arguments by holding backspace. Then just type the number: 3At the login
Type “root” then enter and then your root password and press enter.
now type
cd /home/username
*Now remember you can use the {TAB} key to auto complete
so type:
sh NVIDIA{TAB}
and the whole file name should auto complete
eg: sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.36-pkg1.run
Follow the installer and let it compile the kernel module for you.
Say Yes to everything
Use TAB to move around
reboot
Hi
Wonder if you having problems because of the planned power outage, see
the Announcement at the forum beginning.
You need to install the ‘hard way’ just some different steps at the CLI
and extra packages to install. Following is my canned response to the
‘hard way’
Have you installed the nvidia driver via 1-click? If not I recommend
the hard way, else follow the easy way here;
Nvidia
If you have installed nvidia rpms via the easy way, I suggest removing
the rpms installed and disabling the nvidia repository first.
You can download the driver for your arch from;
Nvidia Unix Drivers
On the download page, check that your card is supported by the driver
your about to download by using the following command;
echo -n "0x" && /sbin/lspci -nv |grep VGA|cut -f4 -d ":"|cut -f1 -d "("
From the above output use the numbers from the output to look at the
Supported Products List (link on the left) to verify your card is
supported by the driver.
You may wish to ensure your system is up to date. The first command
refreshes the repositories, the second lists any updates, the third
will apply the updates.
sudo zypper ref
sudo zypper lu
sudo zypper up
NOTE: If the kernel updated, please reboot before continuing 
If you don’t have the kernel source and tools etc installed then
sudo zypper in kernel-source linux-kernel-headers kernel-syms
module-init-tools make gcc
Press ctrl+alt+F1 and login as your user
su -
init 3
cd to the Nvidia Unix Driver you downloaded (Not on your Desktop
either, your home directory for example)
sh NV*.run -q
sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia
init 5 && exit
ctrl+alt+F1
exit
ctrl+alt+F7
The ctrl+alt+F7 gets you back to the GUI (X session).
Now after a kernel update, you don’t need to run the sax2 command, just
the others to get to run level 3, rebuild the driver and exit.
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.29-0.1-default
up 3 days 20:26, 2 users, load average: 1.05, 0.47, 0.26
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 190.18
Thanks so very much for the rapid response-- you all are awesome. I waited until I could update system before taking your advise. A couple of things though…after running the NVIDIA. run pkg and typing init 5 && exit, the system restarted and the console was closed so I didn’t finish the other two steps( ctrl-alt-F1, ctrl-alt-f7)? did I miss something?, Also when I choose configure Nvidia server from the menu it says I’m not running the nvidia the nvidia server and need to type xconfig-nvidia, and the selection has dissappeared from the menu? Have I done everything as I should and where do I go from here?
Open a console type su then root pass then
nvidia-xconfig then nvidia-settings set you resolution and save to xconfig.
Works Perfectly!!! Thanks again for all your help. Still a little confused about all the kernel versions, xen, pae.etc but I am learning alot thanks to everyone here. Is there a way to back up all this so I don’t lose it down the line?? Thanks ever so much again
xen is only used if you use xen VM, probably not!
PAE is for 32 bit OS with more than 3GB RAM