I'm not quite sure where this belongs so I'm posting it here for now and the mods can move it around where they see fit.

Introduction:

If you're wondering about my system configuration and etc. you should check out my previous two threads:
One new user's comments
Switch to Debian stable for KDE3.1

The following info is just a regurgitation of Nvidia's own help file on the subject but I've made it a bit easier to follow for a newbie (I hope) and have tailored the instructions for someone who has done a Knoppix hard drive install. You can find the original help file I used here: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-4191/README

It is assumed you're using the KDE Konsole and logged on as root when executing commands.

Step 1: Get the sources

Nvidia is kind enough to offer official unified kernel and X drivers so that you can take advantage of the hardware acceleration features of your TNT, GeForce, etc. Unfortunately, no .debs are offered as of yet so you'll have to compile the source yourself. I know this sounds threatening to linux newbies (I know it did to me) but it's actually quite pain free.

Some would suggest that you use apt-get to download the source files, but in my case this didn't work (no makefiles were included!). Instead, I'd recommend getting the latest driver builds here: http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_display_archive

There are about 100 different variations of the same two files on this page, most of them for different RedHat installations. The files we need, however, are the GLX Tar File (should be named NVIDIA_GLX-[version number].tar.gz) and the Kernel Tar File (should be named NVIDIA_kernel-[version number].tar.gz).

For example, I downloaded the version 1.0-4191 drivers so the files would be NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191.tar.gz and NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.tar.gz.

Download the two files to the /usr/src directory.

Step 2: Unpacking

Open up a shell using the KDE program Konsole (found in the K-Menu or on the taskbar by default) and navigate to the /usr/src directory with the command:

Code:
cd /usr/src
Next you want to unpack each of the files that were downloaded. To do this, type the following into the command line:

Code:
tar xvzf NVIDIA_GLX-[version number].tar.gz
then
Code:
tar xvzf NVIDIA_kernel-[version number].tar.gz
Using the example files I gave above, the exact commands would be:

Code:
tar xvzf NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191.tar.gz
then
Code:
tar xvzf NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191.tar.gz
Now the sources will be unpacked into subdirectories and ready to be compiled.

Keep that Konsole open, though, because we'll be using it for the rest of the installation.

Step 3: Setting the CC enviroment variable

This is where it gets interesting. I found, like many others, that my default version of gcc was 3.2 instead of 2.95 (which the kernel was compiled with). Why this makes a difference is a matter of technical mumbo jumbo but suffice it to say we have to change it back for this shell session. Don't worry, though, it's really easy. Just type in:

Code:
export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-2.95
Now when we run the make install on the next step we won't get any compiler warnings!

Step 4: make install

Move into the first subdirectory that was created back in Step 2 with the command:

Code:
cd /usr/src/NVIDIA_GLX-[version number]
Now just type:

Code:
make install
This will automatically compile and install the GLX module!

Move into the other directory we made with Step 2 with the command:

Code:
cd /usr/src/NVIDIA_kernel-[version number]
Now type:

Code:
make install
This will automatically compile and install the kernel module! We're not done yet, though...

Step 5: Editing configuration files

This is always my favorite part of working with linux

At the command line type in:

Code:
kate etc/X11/XF86Config-4
This should open up a nice friendly KDE text editor for us to work in. Look for the section called Section "Device" and then change the line that says Driver "nv" to instead read Driver "nvidia".

Okay. Now find the section called Section "Module". We want to remove the following two lines:

Load "dri"
Load "GLcore"

and add this line, if it's not already present:

Load "glx"

When you're done with that you can save the file and close kate. The Konsole command line should still be open, though.

Step 6: Final alterations

You'll probably need to edit one or two files more on your system before you get X to function correctly. Type:

Code:
kate /etc/modules.conf
Add the line following line to the file if it's not already present:

alias char-major-195 nvidia

Save and close the file. Then, back in the command shell, type:

Code:
kate /etc/modutils/aliases
Add that same line to this file as well if it's not already there:

alias char-major-195 nvidia

Save this file and close it.

You can now close the shell, shutdown X, and restart your system.

Voila! You're done!

Epilogue

This worked for me! Post any questions or corrections in this thread.

Hope this helps someone out there...