Applicable to Fedora Versions

• Fedora 16+

Requirements

Checklist - These are the steps that must be taken

1. Remove any previously installed nVidia driver. If you installed the drivers that were provided from the nVidia site (e.g. the .run file), you will first need to remove those drivers, failure to do so will cause issues when attempting to utilize the packages provided by RPMFusion. Remove the nVidia binary driver by performing this HOWTO.
   
2. Your yum configuration must be configured per this HOWTO.
3. Fully update your system.
1. Open a Terminal.
2. In a terminal run the command:

   su -c 'yum update'
   

   At the password prompt, enter the password for root, then press return.
4. Determine graphics card type.
1. Open a Terminal.
2. In a terminal run the command

   /sbin/lspci | grep VGA

   Then press return. It should look similar to this:

   01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 8600M GS (rev a1)

3. View the output generated to determine which card you have, then check the nVidia Drivers to see which driver supports the card you have installed.  
4. The follow the steps for installing the kmod-nvidia version that supports your card in the Doing the Work section of this procedure.
   
5. If your card is not listed or the driver is not present in that list for you have installed, you are out of luck and must use the default "nv" driver provided with your base install.
5. Next, Determine the kernel type which you are using.
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

4. If the output does not end in PAE you will need the standard kernel module. If it does end in PAE you will need the PAE kernel module.
6. Install the kmod for your kernel type:

1. Standard Kernel Module Installation (for nVidia cards GeForce 6 and higher (260.0+))

2. Open a Terminal.

3. For Standard kernel type:

   su -c 'yum install kmod-nvidia'

   For PAE kernel type:

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

4. For installations other than the Standard Kernel Module (i.e. cards other than the GeoForce 6 or higher) see the section labeled Alternate nVidia Card Installations. NOTE: Just because you installed the kernel module you are not yet done, continue with the following steps for your installation!!
   

7. Now if you have completed all the steps applicable to your installation you will need to reboot.
8. If you would like to have a fancy bootup menu still, append the following to your kernel line:

   1. vga=ask

9. Then reboot the machine, on booting a screen will display the modes your video card is capable of utilizing. Select the mode that is most optimal for your viewing pleasure.
10. Upon completion of of the boot, edit your grub.conf file and append the mode that you found optimal to your kernel line as shown in the example below:
    

    vga=0x318

Alternate nVidia Card Installations

RPMfusion no longer has these following packages if you have one of these cards you must use the Nvidia 173 Binary 

Troubleshooting

All Versions: 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

All Versions: 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

glxinfo | grep direct 

All Versions: 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:

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.

Common Bugs

Special Notes

akmod-nvidia

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.

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