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Posted: 2008-09-06 05:11
by Eck
As long as you have an /etc/apt/apt.conf setup with the default release being testing you will only need the nvidia stuff from unstable installed with the t unstable switch after module assistant does its thing. I've been doing it and don't consider mine a mixed system. I'm all lenny except for that.

But don't worry. The modules are already all built as NVidia stands right now in Sid. Only a matter of time before it's all cleared and put into Lenny. There's some bug delaying it but from appearances it sure looks like they're working on getting it into Lenny.

Posted: 2008-09-06 15:44
by slowcoach
Just a mention that Xen is not enabled in the 64bit kernels. :D

Posted: 2008-09-06 15:58
by rickh
slowcoach wrote:Just a mention that Xen is not enabled in the 64bit kernels. :D
I'm not sure, but I don't think that's true. 64-bit kernels certainly had the "Xen error" before the Debian Nvidia drivers were fixed.

Posted: 2008-09-06 17:13
by lolanoob
Lavene wrote:I have come up with a method that will, with 100% certainty, end all your Nvidia problems:
  • 1) Grab your Nvidia card
    2) Place the card on a hard, stable surface
    3) Grab a hammer
    4) Whack the Nvidia card with the hammer.
I'm seriously contemplating applying the above method to my own Nvidia hardware. Since I use laptops exclusively it might leave me without a computer all together but what the heck... I might even get a life...
AMEN! :twisted:

Posted: 2008-09-07 14:42
by slowcoach
rickh wrote:
slowcoach wrote:Just a mention that Xen is not enabled in the 64bit kernels. :D
I'm not sure, but I don't think that's true. 64-bit kernels certainly had the "Xen error" before the Debian Nvidia drivers were fixed.
I have been using the nVidia proprietary drivers originally with Etch and for the past few months with Lenny without problems, but what I remembered reading actually turned out to be referring to the vanilla AMD64 kernel which has no Xen support but has currently to be patched by the distributions to add Dom0 and DomU. This work is apparently being done upstream by the Fedora Dev's but is proving problematic at the moment, but obviously it will be sorted eventually and the the nVidia proprietary drivers will be borked, unless nVidia change their driver.
Hopefully everything will resolve eventually one way or another.

Posted: 2008-09-07 15:11
by rickh
On my weekly full-upgrade to Sid this morning, I noticed that everything Nvidia got an upgrade to 173.14.09-5

I predict that will make it to Lenny within the next 10 days.

Posted: 2008-09-07 20:08
by Qoppa
Wait, what's wrong with nVidia? My 9600 GT works fine with the drivers available from the nVidia site. It's not like it's a fatal flaw, and given that Debian isn't built for complete n00bs, having to get the drivers from a 3rd party website and then install them manually shouldn't really be that big of a deal. Sure, it's a bit inconvenient, but getting Debian to work with an nVidia card is far from impossible.

Posted: 2008-09-07 20:52
by hkoster1
Wait, what's wrong with nVidia? My 9600 GT works fine with the drivers available from the Debian Sid repository. It's not like it's a fatal flaw, and given that Debian isn't built for complete n00bs, having to get the drivers from the Sid repository and then install them the Debian way shouldn't really be that big of a deal. Sure, it's a bit inconvenient, but getting Debian to work with an nVidia card is far from impossible.

Posted: 2008-09-07 21:04
by rickh
Qoppa wrote:Wait, what's wrong with nVidia? My 9600 GT works fine with the drivers available from the nVidia site.
Depending on Nvidia to provide Debian drivers is like expecting the Democrats to be an improvement over the Republicans (or vice versa).

Posted: 2008-09-07 21:13
by slowcoach
Qoppa wrote:Wait, what's wrong with nVidia? My 9600 GT works fine with the drivers available from the nVidia site. It's not like it's a fatal flaw, and given that Debian isn't built for complete n00bs, having to get the drivers from a 3rd party website and then install them manually shouldn't really be that big of a deal. Sure, it's a bit inconvenient, but getting Debian to work with an nVidia card is far from impossible.
I think that the problem is that the 32bit kernel has now got Xen included which the nVidia drivers don't like and refuse to install until you recompile the kernel with the Xen flag switched off. I use the 64bit kernel (with Lenny) so I haven't actually had the problem myself but from what I have read I gather that this is the problem.
No doubt Microsoft is sponsoring Xen via Novell.

Posted: 2008-09-07 22:45
by rickh
I think that the problem is that the 32bit kernel has now got Xen included which the nVidia drivers don't like and refuse to install until you recompile the kernel with the Xen flag switched off.
You've said that before. I think you're wrong. I seriously doubt that there is a difference in the way kernels are compiled for 32 and 64-bit systems. The difference between the Nvidia scripts and Debian's is that Debian has debugged the drivers ... not changed the kernels.

Posted: 2008-09-08 15:15
by slowcoach
rickh wrote: You've said that before. I think you're wrong. I seriously doubt that there is a difference in the way kernels are compiled for 32 and 64-bit systems. The difference between the Nvidia scripts and Debian's is that Debian has debugged the drivers ... not changed the kernels.
This is the link http://www.squad17.org/node/28 that a previous poster referred to regarding the error when compiling the nVidia module. Using the same nVidia file and kernel as mentioned in the article I never had the error using Lenny 64bit which is why I assumed that the 32bit and 64bit kernels had been built differently.

Posted: 2008-09-08 15:49
by rickh
I never had the error using Lenny 64bit which is why I assumed that the 32bit and 64bit kernels had been built differently.
At this point (4-30-2008), all Nvidia drivers, both 32 and 64-bit were broken.

At this point (5-26-2008), all Debian drivers were fixed and have been ever since. The kernel builds were not changed the Debian drivers were.

I don't know if the Nvidia scripts are fixed yet.

Posted: 2008-09-08 23:42
by slowcoach
rickh wrote: I don't know if the Nvidia scripts are fixed yet.
I appear to have missed having problems with the nVidia drivers, mind you I think that the fastest cards used have been GeForce 6200, that may have something to do with it, although I always use the latest drivers.
I did an install last weekend for a friend using the Daily Build AMD64 net install and again had no problems with the nVidia driver installation.
I was just worried that someone would bring a 32bit system to have Debian installed and that they would have problems if they screwed up the system especially as there were no 3D Debian drivers in the Lenny repo's but now I see that the Debian drivers have arrived in the 64bit repo's so I presume that the 32bit drivers have been added as well.

Posted: 2008-09-09 22:33
by daft
never had any problems with Sid and nvidia other than the normal Sid problems :roll:

Posted: 2008-09-11 03:38
by slowcoach
FWIW I have been trying the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.67-pkg2 beta drivers, so far there have been no problems whatsoever and 3D rendering speed is noticeably better.

well

Posted: 2008-09-14 05:31
by sir fer
FWIW I'm using the nvidia 96.43.07 drivers on my GeForce Ti4200 and it works awesomely...Compiz-Fusion0.7.7 rox hard.

IMO it's better to leave it to the user as to whether they want to use binary blobs or not..

Posted: 2008-09-14 14:06
by jboss1995
slowcoach wrote:FWIW I have been trying the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.67-pkg2 beta drivers, so far there have been no problems whatsoever and 3D rendering speed is noticeably better.
So can you tell me howto install it? I do the fowling and it crashes on compile.

apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
cd /usr/src
ln -s linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux
wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... 3-pkg1.run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.23-pkg1.run
no ok no yes ... crash.

Posted: 2008-09-15 19:30
by slowcoach
jboss1995 wrote: So can you tell me howto install it? I do the fowling and it crashes on compile.

apt-get install build-essential linux-headers-$(uname -r)
cd /usr/src
ln -s linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux
wget http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/L ... 3-pkg1.run
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-100.14.23-pkg1.run
no ok no yes ... crash.
After installing build-essential and the correct linux header I download the binary from nVidia, Alt+Ctrl+F1 login as root, change to the downloaded binary directory and enter
/etc/init.d/gdm stop (if you are using KDE replace gdm with kdm) then enter
CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1 sh NV then press the Tab key to autocomplete.

After the build, restart Gnome/KDE with /etc/init.d/??? start (where ??? = gdm or kdm as before)

Posted: 2008-09-17 15:13
by Eck
Guys, for Lenny and its Kernel the NVidia packages in the Sid repo, even for the legacy cards, work around the problem that the official NVidia installers have with Debian's inclusion of Xen in their official Kernels.

I just hope that the maintainer gets his version mis-match problem between the rest of the packages and the modules fixed up before Lenny actually comes out without NVidia included. It appears to be the only thing holding it up. Freeze would be lifted for it if the version of the modules would be updated to match everything else.