Home

Invidious Nvidia - FX5200 installation on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron

Submitted by Patrick on Tue, 01/06/2009 - 12:15

After installing 8.04 on my daughter's machine, I realised that the ATI Radeon 9200 128Mb RAM AGP video card was not going to pass muster.

Though it could manage some of the simpler eye candy in Compiz, it was not able to run Celestia or GoogleEarth without serious image problems.

Installing an Nvidia FX5200 I thought would be a breeze. I'd installed it previously in Dapper 6.06 and had no problems. It is a twin-head card on which I ran two 17" monitors.

I installed the card, booted back in to Ubuntu and selected the Hardware Drivers option in the menu, selected to install the drivers and on rebooting...I had a black screen!

I ran:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

from the command line. Surprisingly, this did not give me an option to configure the X-server!

Booting back into the GUI I was told I wasn't using the Nvidia drivers. Each time I ran through the same solution and struck the same problem.

Checking the Ubuntu forum and other places, I was told that using Synaptic or the GUI built in to the menu should solve the problem.

Finally after trying various xorg.conf editing possibilities, it occurred to me that I might be coming at this from the wrong viewpoint.

The new drivers from Nvidia may claim to support my card, but what if they were the problem?

I transported myself via Firefox to the Nvidia site and found the driver for my card here:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_173.14.12.html

After downloading this file:

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg1.run

I restarted the machine, waiting for the GRUB option to come up and hit 'esc' to access the GRUB menu option. Here I selected the 'safe' mode and logged in to the command line.

I then changed directory to my desktop:

cd /home/patrick/Desktop

and ran the following command

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg1.run

After following the prompts and with the Nvidia installer restarting the machine, there I was...a new, 3D-capable Nvidia-driven desktop.

Finally!

So after spending far too long on what should be a very simple install, I decided I would make this the subject of a 'Cooking With Linux' entry in the event it may prove to be useful to someone else.

I sincerely appreciate all the efforts of people who have got Nvidia to release drivers for Linux. I also believe instances like this are indicative that greater effort is required by the packagers and software developers/companies to more adequately assist Gnu/Linux distros to meet the needs of their users.

It's the little things like this that can delay or put people off using or converting Gnu/Linux.
#1Submitted by john100998 on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 09:57.

Dear Datuk Seri I guess a

Dear Datuk Seri I guess a congratulation is in order. A small one 642-873 until the people responsible for this scandalous thing are punished. It is a tribute to you to take the cover off this thing. I think this sent a message of what People First, Performance Now means. Action is better 83-640 than words. And I think it will sent message that you mean business. This will be good for you and for MCA. As a member of the public, I am interested to find out who planned the scam and who were involved. There will not be any closure until these people are punished and punished severely. This must be done quickly else the anger will mount. As it is we see one law for the rich and powerful and another law for the ordinary people. I hope you can emphasize to MACC not to drag its feet. Otherwise the stigma of cows and cars will bear home. The government 646-363 have a lot of thing to do correctly to gain back credibility and trust. I hope you will not let this be one of the thing that got lost along the 642-524 way. It should not be an item in the next election. The faster this get disposed the better it will be. a small congratulation

#2Submitted by socialflea (not verified) on Sun, 08/02/2009 - 00:26.

Try sudo nvidia-xconfig

Try sudo nvidia-xconfig

#3Submitted by nextwave1980 on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 12:50.

Agreed..

I have a spare system that was using a geforce 5600 vid card, and found that installing Mandriva 2009.0 picked up my video card without any configuring.

Although.. In my AMD Dualcore system I have a geforce 7300, and getting dual monitors to work took over 5 days. I had tried to install nvidia's drivers from their website, and still, nothing.Finally after reinstalling Mandriva about 10 times by this point, I had decided "maybe Mandriva IRC chat would have a solution."

After logging into the IRC channel, I asked my one question, the question that has been causing me so much hair loss. In a matter of 10 seconds I had my answer. "Install dkms-nvidia-current"

I loaded up the Install and remove software and typed it in. To my amazement, there it was. I checkmarked it, clicked apply,then restarted the X server. BINGO! nvidia-settings now sees I have dual monitors.

I must agree that little things like this can definateky put people off from using or converting Gnu/Linux. A nice addition would be to install these drivers via a RPM installation to make it easier for Mandriva, and all other distros that use RPM's. Any person that is new to linux would have no idea where to go, and would undoubtedly migrate back to Windows. IMHO

#4Submitted by nextwave1980 on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 12:50.

Agreed..

I have a spare system that was using a geforce 5600 vid card, and found that installing Mandriva 2009.0 picked up my video card without any configuring.

Although.. In my AMD Dualcore system I have a geforce 7300, and getting dual monitors to work took over 5 days. I had tried to install nvidia's drivers from their website, and still, nothing.Finally after reinstalling Mandriva about 10 times by this point, I had decided "maybe Mandriva IRC chat would have a solution."

After logging into the IRC channel, I asked my one question, the question that has been causing me so much hair loss. In a matter of 10 seconds I had my answer. "Install dkms-nvidia-current"

I loaded up the Install and remove software and typed it in. To my amazement, there it was. I checkmarked it, clicked apply,then restarted the X server. BINGO! nvidia-settings now sees I have dual monitors.

I must agree that little things like this can definateky put people off from using or converting Gnu/Linux. A nice addition would be to install these drivers via a RPM installation to make it easier for Mandriva, and all other distros that use RPM's. Any person that is new to linux would have no idea where to go, and would undoubtedly migrate back to Windows. IMHO

#5Submitted by nextwave1980 on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 12:53.

error

I posted and then came to a blank screen..clicked refresh twice and this is what happened...
sorry for the multiple posts