Installing Or Updating to the latest Nvidia Forceware Drivers!
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===Installation===
This hint is for recent versions of the NVidia driver with Freespire 1.0.13
The new NVidia drivers are part binary and part source, which must be compiled into a module to suit your Linux kernel. Heres a step by step process.
1. You will need to add some things from CNR if you haven't already. These are the 2 products in the Compile Tools. They are the Freespire Kernel source code (hich is los-kernel-source-2.6.14 in cnr) and a C compiler.
Once downloaded, you will need to do three things.
2a. For gcc-3.3 browse to /usr/bin, press F4 for a console prompt. As root or sudo user, ln -s gcc-3.3 gcc (this creates a 'shortcut').
2b. For the kernel source, browse to /usr/src, press F4. As the root user, tar -xzf los-kernel-config-2.6.14.tar.gz (these include the headers)
2c. In the same location, /usr/src, you should also have a packaged file for the source. If not, go back to CNR and install it (Search los-kernel-source-2.6.14). Then tar -xzf los-kernel-source-2.6.14.tar.gz
This will set up the basic environment for compiling. Okay, lets start on the NVidia driver.
3. Download the driver from NVidia. This link link will give you the Latest Driver
Download this to a directory like /root or /tmp or your home directory. (tmp is emptied after a reboot so use a different place if you want to keep the file). If you download the driver to My Documents, you may need to move the NVidia file up one level to a directory without a space in it. The NVidia script may not like having a path with a space in it.
4. Now the driver will have to be installed without the graphical environment running. Press Ctrl-Alt-F2. This will bring you to a login prompt. Login as root or your user account and then use sudo before all commands. Stop the XServer by typing /etc/init.d/ldm stop
5. I'm going to assume you have downloaded the driver into /tmp. If not, then you need to # cd yourdirectory
6. Now the good stuff. Install the driver
- sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8776-pkg1.run which is the filename at the time of this writing.
Follow the prompts. You should be able to accept all defaults.
7. The easiest way to get back to the graphical environment is to use the reboot command. However, you could also do /etc/init.d/ldm start.
8. NVidia readme;
Quote: If you have a working X config file for a different driver (such as the "nv" or "vesa" driver), then simply edit the file as follows.
Remove the line:
Driver "nv" (or Driver "vesa")
and replace it with the line:
Driver "nvidia"
Remove the following lines:
Load "dri" Load "GLCore"
In the "Module" section of the file, add the line (if it does not already exist):
Load "glx"
9. Checking. Once freespire has rebooted, use a console prompt and try out the following 2 commands.
glxgears to test frame rates and glxinfo to provide info on the driver. You should find a line like
OpenGL version string: version here
Once that is complete you should be using the latest drivers from Nvidia.
