Installing a video card from scratch

[Hal Burgiss]

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 9:38 AM, Rick <rickmorn at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm running on an IBM Thinkcentre M50, using the built-in video hardware.  I
> just ordered a GEFORCE 7600 GS video card and need to know what to do next.
>
> I know how to plug the card into the computer, but should I immediately switch
> the monitor cable to the new card or do I have to do the software configuration
> first to load the driver for the new card?  Will the card work at all without
> the driver?
>
> I've read about EnvyNG and plan to use it.  (Is this a good idea?)

Don't know anything about that.

I just went through updating an onboard Intel video system to I think
a Geforce 8600, and had no major problems. I just bit the bullet,
installed new card and monitor, and powered back up without doing any
pre-configuration.

What did happen was that Ubuntu recognized new hardware, offered to
help reconfigure X, etc. But every attempt at this seemingly failed
and looped me back to the initial screen. I could login, etc but was
at a VERY low res. I tried 'sudo dpkg --reconfigure xorg (not sure on
the syntax there) at a terminal, which did absolutely nothing. Just
returned to the prompt with no error messages. I then poked around the
menus, found something about hardware, and was asked about installing
new drivers. This downloaded the Nvidia (proprietary) drivers, which
got me back on the road to happiness.

-- 
Hal