[SCRIPT] Install nvidia-gfx-drivers while running from CD

**P2C2E** · 09-28-2003, 10:12 PM

Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 09-29-2003, 10:15 AM

o Boot Knoppix CD with ' screen=1024x768 ' code

o mount some-convenient-writeable-partition (could be your HDinstall root)

o ' cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 some-convenient-place-on-HD '

o Reboot into HD install, runlevel 2
o ' cd /etc/X11 '
o ' cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4-bkp ' == Make bkp so you can backout

o cp the XF...-4 file from some-convenient-place to /etc/X11
o Reinstall the NVidia drivers

o Post back here with results

Originally Posted by P2C2E

Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

**P2C2E** · 09-30-2003, 11:38 AM

Thanks for the suggestion and clear instructions. I gave it try but it did not fix the problem. The nvidia driver still will not allow 1024x768.

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

o Boot Knoppix CD with ' screen=1024x768 ' code

o mount some-convenient-writeable-partition (could be your HDinstall root)

o ' cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 some-convenient-place-on-HD '

o Reboot into HD install, runlevel 2
o ' cd /etc/X11 '
o ' cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4-bkp ' == Make bkp so you can backout

o cp the XF...-4 file from some-convenient-place to /etc/X11
o Reinstall the NVidia drivers

o Post back here with results

Originally Posted by P2C2E

Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 10-01-2003, 03:06 AM

--Check /var/log/XFree86.0.log and see what it says. Mine is needlessly verbose, but here's where I verified 1280x1024 res:

Code:

(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "2048x1536" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes for display device CRT-0:
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "1280x1024": 108.0 MHz, 64.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "1152x864": 97.2 MHz, 62.0 kHz, 68.8 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "1024x768": 86.3 MHz, 61.7 kHz, 76.9 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "800x600": 67.6 MHz, 60.8 kHz, 97.1 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0):      Mode "640x480": 47.9 MHz, 55.5 kHz, 110.7 Hz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 1024

**snip**

(II) NVIDIA(0): AGP 4X successfully initialized
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1280x1024"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture

--Here are some relevant sections from my config-4, I have a Sony 17" Multiscan monitor and Riva TNT2 card. Make sure you have timings for 1024x768 in these sections (my DefaultColorDepth is 16, and 1280x1024 is default res in that mode.)

Code:

Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
  Modeline      "1024x768" 61.19 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 775 802
  Modeline      "1024x768" 71.39 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
  Modeline      "1024x768" 81.59 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
  Modeline      "1024x768" 86.32 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
  Modeline      "800x600" 37.44 800 816 928 1072 600 600 605 626
  Modeline      "800x600" 43.68 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
  Modeline      "800x600" 49.92 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
  Modeline      "800x600" 56.16 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
  Modeline      "800x600" 62.40 800 816 928 1112 600 600 610 626
  Modeline      "800x600" 67.60 800 816 928 1112 600 600 610 626
  Modeline      "640x480" 23.96 640 656 720 864 480 480 484 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 27.96 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 31.95 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 35.94 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 39.94 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 43.93 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "640x480" 47.92 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
  Modeline      "1152x864" 77.55 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 871 902
  Modeline      "1152x864" 90.48 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 874 902
  Modeline      "1152x864" 97.24 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 874 902
  Modeline      "1280x1024" 108.00 1280 1360 1472 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066
EndSection

Code:

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Card0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultColorDepth 16
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     1
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     4
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     8
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     15
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     16
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     24
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Depth     32
                Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

--BTW, my knoppix config-4 is hacked together with some stuff from the results of Suse Livecd 8.2's ' sax2 ' configuration file. Had to do it that way to get Vmware working in all video modes. If you're interested, you can get it here:

ftp://ftp.uniroma2.it/Linux/suse/pub...live-eval-8.2/

Originally Posted by P2C2E

Thanks for the suggestion and clear instructions. I gave it try but it did not fix the problem. The nvidia driver still will not allow 1024x768.

**P2C2E** · 10-11-2003, 01:16 AM

Thanks again, Dave_Bechtel, for your helpful reply. I finally had some time to work on this screen resolution problem again. By mentioning your SuSE xf86 config files, you gave me a great idea. I have SuSE 8.2 with NVIDIA 3D acceleration working perfectly at 1024x768 on another partition so I used the xf86config files from it. There is not an xf86config-4 in SuSE 8.2 but the xf86config.sax is the exact same thing so I used it to replace my xf86config-4 in knoppix. My NVIDIA card works perfectly at 1024x768 now! Thanks for the great tip.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 11-17-2003, 12:24 AM

OK, this all sounds great. But I'm confused, is this only for the liveCD or can I use this script for my hdinstalls?

TIA,

**P2C2E** · 11-19-2003, 05:41 PM

Originally Posted by A. Jorge Garcia

OK, this all sounds great. But I'm confused, is this only for the liveCD or can I use this script for my hdinstalls?

TIA,

Yes, I have been using this script for hd installs and it works extremely well once I edit the xf86config-4 file as stated above.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 11-20-2003, 03:14 AM

OK, now let me get this straight. If I run this script from a liveCD along with the nvidia.tbz I will get a modified XF86Config-4 file. Now what? How do I use this with an hdinstall?

I can't just /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hda7/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 as I did to get the knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=60 boot string (cheat code) to work on my hdinstall, right? How do I actually compile and install the drivers to hda7 instead of the CD? Also, how do I know which nvidia drivers are being installed? I need series 4192 I think for my VANTA card at home.

BTW, I'm doing this for my kids at home to play bzflag. At school, my students would like to play bzflag too, but I don't have nvidia cards there. I have those pesky intel video on board chips.... Do I use DRI for these?

TIA,

**P2C2E** · 11-20-2003, 12:47 PM

[quote="A. Jorge Garcia"]OK, now let me get this straight. If I run this script from a liveCD along with the nvidia.tbz I will get a modified XF86Config-4 file. Now what? How do I use this with an hdinstall?

I can't just /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hda7/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 as I did to get the knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=60 boot string (cheat code) to work on my hdinstall, right? How do I actually compile and install the drivers to hda7 instead of the CD? Also, how do I know which nvidia drivers are being installed? I need series 4192 I think for my VANTA card at home.

BTW, I'm doing this for my kids at home to play bzflag. At school, my students would like to play bzflag too, but I don't have nvidia cards there. I have those pesky intel video on board chips.... Do I use DRI for these?

If you already have Knoppix installed on hda7 just boot up your hdinstall and run the script from your hda7 installation of Knoppix. Somewhere at the beginning of this thread, fabianx states which driver version is used.

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 11-20-2003, 05:05 PM

OK, I just reread this entire thread AGAIN. I suppose the drivers are in nvidia.tbz, but I still don't get what version is used.... Also, could I get step-by-step instructions for using the installation script on an hdinstall?

Could someone please tell me which version is used as there are several versions on the nividia website for different models of nvidia cards. Mine is the Vanta card and NVChooser.sh says I need version 4191.

BTW, I have the Vanta card on my home PC. At school I have the intel video onboard 810 series. How do I get graphics acceleration for these motherboard graphics chips? My students really deserve a day off (right before turkey day?) and I would like to give them a bzflag LAN party....

TIA,