Personal tools
You are here: Home → Fedora Solved → Video Solutions → Configuring a nVidia Card and Kernel Modules
 

Configuring a nVidia Card and Kernel Modules

by scott_glaser — last modified Jun 16, 2009 09:47 PM
Contributors: Robert 'Bob' Jensen, daMaestro, Mark Watts
— filed under:

There are kernel modules provided by RPMFusion that are specifically designed for Fedora. If you're using yum, and you're using our suggested yum configuration, you should be able to install the drivers easily. If you need support for the nVidia drivers, check out the nV News "Linux and nVidia Graphics" forum.

Applicable to Fedora Versions

  • Fedora 9
  • Fedora 10
  • Fedora 11

Requirements

  1. Your yum configuration must be configured per this HOWTO.
  2. In a terminal run the command "/sbin/lspci | grep VGA" to determine which card you have, then check the nVidia Supported Products List to see which driver your card is supported under. If your card is not listed or the driver is not present for your card you are out of luck and must use the default "nv" driver provided with your base install.
  3. Your system should be fully updated via the "yum update" command.

Doing the work

Preparation

  1. Complete the above stated Requirements
  2. Before attempting this howto please run "yum update" (no quotes) as root to completely update your system. If the kernel is updated you *will* require a reboot after this howto is completed. If the kernel is not updated you will need to run the following command: "chkconfig nvidia on && service nvidia start" (no quotes) as root and restart your current X session (not reboot the system) for the driver to be fully implemented.
  3. You can find the current running version of your kernel from the command prompt by running the following command: "uname -r" (no quotes), or query the rpm database for a list of all kernel related packages that are currently installed on your system by running the following command: "rpm -qa | grep -i kernel" (no quotes). A history of yum package installs, removals and updates can be found on your system here: /var/log/yum.log*
  4. NOTE: If you previously installed the drivers that were provided from the nVidia site (e.g. the .run file), you will first need to remove those drivers by utilizing this procedure. Failure to do so will cause issues when attempting to utilize the packages provided from RPMFusion.

Determining Your Kernel Version


You will need to determine which kernel you have installed on your system. To do so perform the following:
  1.  Open a Terminal.

  2. In the terminal enter the following:

    uname -r

  3. A display similar to the following will be shown:

    2.6.29.3-155.fc11.i686.PAE
    4. If the output ends with .PAE you will need to install follow the steps for a PAE kernel type. 
  4. If the output does not end in PAE as in this example: 
    2.6.29.3-155.fc11.i686
     You will need to follow the steps for the standard kernel type.

Installing kmod-nvidia for you particular kernel type

NOTE: Be sure to follow the steps for your particular card and kernel type.


Standard Kernel Module Installation (for nVidia cards GeForce 6 and higher)

  1. Open a Terminal.

  2. For Standard kernel type:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia'

    For PAE kernel types:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-PAE'

  3. Log out of your current session.

  4. Once the X-server restarts, log back in.

173xx Kernel Module Installation (for nVidia cards GeForce 5 (FX series))

The 173xx Kernel Modules are for cards that are no longer supported in the STANDARD (Unified) nVidia Driver. If you are using one of these cards, you can install the Module by performing these steps:

  1. Open a Terminal.

  2. For Standard kernel type:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-173xx'

    For PAE kernel types:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-173xx-PAE'

  3. Log out of your current session.

  4. Once the X-server restarts, log back in.

96xx Kernel Module Installation (for nVidia cards GeForce 2 through GeForce 4)

The new 1.0-97xx series from nVidia drops support for any card with a chipset below NV30, such as all GeForce2 and GeForce4 cards. However don't worry! RPMFusion has forked the original xorg-x11-drv-nvidia and kmod-nvidia packages to create ones named xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx and kmod-nvidia-96xx. These will be kept at the 96xx series of drivers and the original driver will be updated to the 97xx series. If you are using one of the cards named above, you can install 96xx by performing these steps:

  1. Open a Terminal.

  2. For Standard kernel type:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-96xx'

    For PAE kernel types:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-96xx-PAE'

  3. Log out of your current session.

  4. Once the X-server restarts, log back in.

Beta Kernel Module Installation

This installs the Beta Kernel Module as packaged by RPMFusion. Beta drivers are provided by NVIDIA as preview releases for quick bug fixes and access to new features. Beta drivers are under qualification testing, and may include significant issues. It is the end user's responsibility to protect system and data when using Beta drivers with NVIDIA products. It is strongly recommended that end users back up all the data prior to using Beta drivers from this site.

  1. Open a Terminal.

  2. For Standard kernel type:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-beta'

    For PAE kernel types:

    su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia-beta-PAE'

  3. Log out of your current session.

  4. Once the X-server restarts, log back in.

Troubleshooting

No 3d after using nvidia-xconfig or nvidia-settings

If you're experiencing problems with the drivers (in particular, lack of 3D after using nvidia-xconfig or nvidia-settings), try executing these commands:

In a terminal perform:

nvidia-config-display disable
nvidia-config-display enable
This will re-configure xorg.conf for use with the RPM Fusion drivers.

X does not Start

In some instances X may not start due to issues with the xorg.conf to fix that issue do the following:

 In a terminal perform:

su -c 'nvidia-xconfig'

  How to test

Log back in and verify that the kernel module is functioning properly by opening a terminal window and running the following command.
su -c 'glxinfo | grep direct'
At the password prompt enter the password for root and then press enter.

Multiple video cards, in SLI configuration

If you have two video cards (in SLI mode, for example) you might find that you get presented with a flashing cursor and no X when you reboot.
This seems to be because X is getting itself in a twist due to the presence of more than one card.
Running "system-config-display" won't help - it'll try and start an X server on both displays, and fail each time.
The solution is to explicitly specify the BusID of the primary card in xorg.conf.

First, backup any existing xorg.conf and then use "nvidia-xconfig" to create a fresh one:

su -c "mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.SLI-Backup; nvidia-xconfig"

Now, add the BusID of your primary card to the Device section:

For example, lspci may list the following:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8800 GT (rev a2)

In this case, make your Device section in xorg.conf look like this:

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

You can change the VendorName to match your video card, it you like.
You should now be able to run "startx" to get into X, or reboot into the graphical login.

Special Notes

 akmod-nvidia

To install the akmod-nvidia package read the following Using akmods. The akmod package can be installed alongside the kmod package,

the difference being that if there is not a kmod package for the kernel you are running akmod will attempt to build one for you.

x86_64 (64bit) users

If you wish to have 3D acceleration in 32bit packages such as Wine, be sure to install the xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386 package for your driver variant. For example, if you installed kmod-nvidia then you will require xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386, but if you install kmod-nvidia-96xx, you will need xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx-libs.i386.

More Information

Disclaimer

We test this stuff on our own machines, really we do. But you may run into problems, if you do, come to #fedora on freenode.net

Added Reading

 
Document Actions
Log in


Forgot your password?
New user?