Linux - Nvidia 6629 installation done

[Davegod75]

Originally posted by: carldon
I just installed Ubuntu but just when the login prompt appears, the screen flickers a bit and then I get the error message about Xfree86 and that it has been disabled. I have 6600gt and I went online and found this to install the drivers.

$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx
$ sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings
$ sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
$ nautilus applications:///System

Now a complete noob question. Do I have to download the drivers before I do this and if I do where do I have to download them to? Any help is appreciated. Thanks,

CD.

this takes care of everything for you...downloading /installing/setting up

 

[carldon]

Can you guys elaborate a bit more, say, from the bash shell prompt ( is that what its called?). The Xfree86 interface dosent even load once and error message says that its unable to load the "gdm" module whose settings need to be changed I guess. So now from that prompt I tried those commands and to no suprise, it didnt work. I tried the Ubuntu started guide and all that it says are those four lines. The nvidia driver manual isnt very noob oriented either.

I can get around the file system with ease, but even a simple thing like getting out of vim is something I have to lookup. So thats as much commands as I know.

CD.

 

[Nothinman]

Care to elaborate on "didn't work"?

 

[carldon]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Care to elaborate on "didn't work"?

Just got back gave it a try again and here's the whole thing.

1. Everything loads up fine and when it has to start the X server, it flickers and then tell me that it cannot start X-server cause its not setup properly. Disabling X-server now and then asks me to restart GDM when its configured properly.
2. So I login and enter those commands for setting up the nvidia drivers, but I get this message now. Package nvidia-glx is not available but is referred to by another package. This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted or E: Package nvidia-glx has no installation candidate.

Hope this helps,

CD.

 

[Nothinman]

I take it you're following the directions from http://www.ubuntuguide.org/#installnvidiadriver right?

Did you do step #2 and add the extra repositories?

 

[carldon]

No and didn't see that until now. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks again, Nothinman.

CD.

 

[carldon]

Ok, now the update worked fine and the nvidia screen shows up after which the display gets garbled and system hangs. And, Nothinman, the "$sudo gedit ......." didnt work, so I did it with vim instead. Hope that wasnt a problem.

CD.

 

[Randabis]

Also, you may want to try using a Hoary install CD. I'm not sure if your card is even supported with the 61.11 drivers shipped in warty.

The "nautilus applications:///System" is a command to launch the Gnome file browser to your 'System' folder in the applications menu. It has nothing to do with the nVidia drivers so I'm not sure why that's there, but do install those packages. Hey if they don't just "apt-get remove".

The reason that is there is to give instructions on how to add a launcher to the nvidia-settings program.

 

[carldon]

Randabis, could I just use the upgrade given in the starter guide? "$sudo spt-get upgrade"

CD.

 

[rmrf]

to upgrade to hoary from warty, you will have to put the hoary repositories in you sources.list and run 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'

 

[carldon]

I did the upgrade to Hoary, but the display still corrupts and hangs right after the nvidia logo screen. I dont know where to go from here. I'm contemplating installing Debian, but I dont know if thats going to do any better. Any help is appreciated.

CD.

 

[djdrastic]

Is Ubuntu not able to use /etc/modprobe.preload ?

I kinda had the same problem in Mandrake and drag suggested that you put the nvidia module in there .

 

[Nothinman]

Is Ubuntu not able to use /etc/modprobe.preload ?

No, Debian uses /etc/modules.

I did the upgrade to Hoary, but the display still corrupts and hangs right after the nvidia logo screen

What version of the nvidia driver is installed now? You need 6629 to support the 6600GT.

 

[codemills]

my fav's are http://www.slax.org for live-cd , http://www.knoppix.com for full os livecd and http://www.ubuntu-linux.com for Installation Linux Distro.

if you are noob go for fedora or ubuntu. damn still cant put finger on one.

go to http://www.linuxiso.org for all download Mirrors.

 

[carldon]

I changed the Xfree86 conf file from "nvidia" to "vesa" and I was able to get Gnome to boot at last. First post from Ubuntu.Now the nvidia driver 6629 said that it needed gcc and cc path and said that I could find the installation help in its readme, but there wasnt much there. I'm looking for it now, but if anybody can help that'd be great too.

It's great to see it up and running. I felt like kicking myself for not having done this earlier, and saved myself the trouble of having to switch between Windows and Ubuntu everytime I needed to post.

Thanks for all the help guys.

CD.

 

[Nothinman]

You'll need to install developer tools if you want to install the nvidia driver directly from nvidia, you'll also need the kernel-headers package that goes with the kernel you're running.

6629 should be available in hoary, if you have upgraded you should be able to get that working.

 

[carldon]

Nothinman, I found a great thread for 6629 install at the Ubuntu forums. Ill let you know how that turns out. I have WinXP on a SATA drive and Ubuntu on an IDE drive. Now everytime I need to boot in Ubuntu I have to go into the bios to change the startup sequence. Is there some way I can restore the MBR with the WinXP and also add the Grub entry to WinXP boot screen?. Right now, grub is in the MBR.

CD.

 

[Nothinman]

Why not just add XP to the Grub menu?

 

[Davegod75]

it sounds like your initial got corrupted somehow..since it is hanging on the initialization of X. You might want to try reinstalling. Make sure you are downloading and installing the stable warty 4.10 version

 

[Vad3r]

been following this post the past few days, seeing how it works out for carldon.

Just curious, Nothinman, maybe you can tell me. Why couldn't he have grabbed the nVidia drivers directly from the nVidia site ?.
In debian/ubuntu, is it best to get via apt-get so that they install properly ?.

I checked the site last night on latest nvidia drivers, and they do list the 6600gt as supported. I didn't post, as I didn't want to cause him more harm then good.

I changed the Xfree86 conf file from "nvidia" to "vesa"

Hate to ask, but will/does your 3d accel. work like this ?.

Good to see you at least got gnome up and running.

 

[Nothinman]

Why couldn't he have grabbed the nVidia drivers directly from the nVidia site ?.

He could, but it's more work because you have to compile them, which means installing a lot of packages that aren't installed by default in Ubuntu. Debian and Ubuntu provide precompiled packages for their distributed kernels.

In debian/ubuntu, is it best to get via apt-get so that they install properly ?.

I generally compile them myself (with the help of either module-assistant or make-pkg) because I don't run distribution kernels for various reasons.

Hate to ask, but will/does your 3d accel. work like this ?.

No and I would bet that 2D is extremely slow unless his resolution is like 800x600. But slow is better than nothing.

 

[carldon]

Three kernels and two versions later, Ubuntu is up and running with the 6600gt and 6629 drivers in Warty. There was a very helpful thread over at the Ubuntu forums in the how-to section and the solution, though it was long, worked like a charm. I'm about to try it on Hoary tonight.

Nothinman, I did grab the packages from Nvidia, but those dont work on Warty, so the only option for a nice clean install is compiling them. More details on that thread. You were right about the "vesa" mode. The desktop feels sluggish and sometimes unresponsive. Usable but only until you get everything else setup properly.

The only problem that remains is the dual boot of WinXP and Ubuntu. With XP on the sata drive and Ubuntu on IDE, its hard to get the Grub loader to boot into XP.

Thanks again.

CD.

 

[EmperorRob]

Setting up the boot is easy. First thing you need to do before you change your mbr is boot to Ubuntu. Whatever your root device is you want to grab the boot sector of that partition and put it on a floppy:

(just using hda as example; replace hda with your device)
dd if=/dev/hda of=/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

Then add this to your /boot/grub/menu.lst:
title Windows XP
root (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

Then you'll need to reboot with your XP cd to run 'fixmbr'. Once you boot into XP, copy the bootsect.lnx file from your floppy to your C: drive and add a line to C:\boot.ini like this:

C:\bootsect.lnx="Ubuntu Linux"

 

[carldon]

Thanks for the reply, Rob. Trying it now. Could you explain what the "dd if=/dev/hda of=/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1" does?

Let me see if I understood this correctly. I am adding a line to the mbr of XP (pointing to the "bootsect.lnx" in C drive) for Ubuntu to show up as an option. I am also adding XP to the Grub loader too. And the bios is set to boot to XP first, right?

CD.

 

[Nothinman]

Could you explain what the "dd if=/dev/hda of=/floppy/bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1" does?

It makes a copy of the MBR from hda and puts it in the file /floppy/bootsect.lnx. bs is block size and count is how many blocks to grab. Since NTLDR is ass, you have to supply it with an image like that to make it boot another OS.