[ubuntu-za] nvidia graphics

[Deon Spengler]

On Tue, 2009-11-03 at 15:59 +0200, miles sharpe wrote: 
> Hi guys. I downloaded what I  think was the correct graphics driver for
> nvidia riva tnt2
> When I went to system preferences display it said run nvidia-xconfig
> which I did. sudo nvidia-xconfig then it says restart your xserver.
> I dont know how so restarted pc. now it says there is a graphics error
> and wants to run in low definition mode.
> I am lost.
> Can you please help me

Hi Miles

I will try and help you out, firstly I assume you are using Ubuntu 9.10
and secondly Raoul Snyman is correct about the following;

> Firstly, you don't need to install Envy, it just makes things worse in the 
> long run. Stick to using Synaptic for installing display drivers.
> 
> Secondly, let's get you back to some usable graphics:
> 
> 1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F2 and you'll get to a login prompt.
> 2. Login with your normal username and password.
> 3. Type in: sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf (type in your password when prompted).
> 4. Type in: sudo reboot
> 5. Hopefully now you should be back to a normal login screen.

The nvidia TNT2 is very old card and is referred to as legacy. Now there is away to get hardware accelerated drivers installed,
but I have not done this yet for the TNT2. Here is the link for the legacy drivers from nvidia's site.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_71.86.11.html

These drivers are for 32-bit Linux. I will attempted to help you install these drivers but I need to highlight some problems
that you will most likely run into sometime down the line.

1.) You will have to reinstall the driver after kernel updates.
2.) You will have to reinstall the drivers if you do a dist-upgrade.

Ok now that you know what the risks are here is what you can do.

1.) download the driver and make it exacutable
2.) press Ctrl+Alt+F1, then login
3.) now we will install needed software with the following "sudo apt-get install build-essential" 
4.) after the above command completes type the following "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop"
5.) navigate to where you downloaded the driver to
6.) now type the following "sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.11.pkg1.run
7.) follow the on screen instructions, you will to a point where the installer will ask you if it should try and
build the drivers for you (or something along those lines) answer yes to this.
8.) now the drivers should be installed, now type the following "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start"

That should be it and you should be back to a graphical desktop.

If you have any more question or need further help, just ask and I will try and help.

Regards

Deon