Help Installing NVIDIA Drivers Plz

[olivermwarner]

I have an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200. I'm trying to installing the proprietry drivers following the tutorial on The Debian wiki page but it won't work. Plz help

[olivermwarner]

Oh yeah. I'm currently using THE VESA drivers.

[deltaflyer]

what doesn't work ? which version of debian are you using ? which DE ? bit more info would be useful. i have a geforce 5200 working perfectly on wheezy using dkms

[olivermwarner]

I'm using Debian wheezy with gnome. I've installed the driver now but whenever boot I get a command line.

[DebianGeek]

You need to configure xorg.conf...alt+f1 type your username and pw than type su and pw,than
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf (you gonna see blank screen ready to write)
you must write this lines just like this:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

[vbrummond]

You might need to install and run nvidia-xconfig to enable the driver.

[DebianGeek]

somebody know how to fix this ? http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=103981

[MisterJones]

To install the nvidia-drivers you need to add the contrib and non-free repos to your /etc/apt/sources.list mine is this

Code: Select all

# contrib && non-free #
deb http://ftp.uwsg.indiana.edu/linux/debian/ wheezy contrib non-free

After this i run these commands in this order

apt-get update

apt-get install nvidia-glx nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings (this will usually pull in all you need)

After that finishes up I run

nvidia-xconfig(as root - this creates a basic xorg.conf for the nvidia driver)

Then reboot

Now the fx5200 card may require the older drivers i know my fx5200 does so be sure to check the debian wiki nvidia page to make sure what drivers you will need
this wiki page will help you a lot

http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

also after reboot if you are setting up multiple monitors or need to change other settings for your card you can now use the nvidia settings gui, which was installed earlier.

[kmathern]

The wiki's nvidia dkms instructions (http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers#Use_DKMS) need to be updated for Wheezy because they don't work (at least they don't for installing the nvidia legacy 173xx driver that the fx5200 uses).

For a fx5200 the wiki's dkms method will have you install the "nvidia-kernel-legacy-173xx-dkms" package. The "nvidia-installer-cleanup" and "nvidia-kernel-common" packages will also get installed. But X fails to start with only those 3 three packages. (I can post or pastebin the Xorg.0.log if someone want's to take a look at it)

Instead you should install the "nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx" metapackage. (for a fx5200 card)

Code: Select all

apt-get install nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx

That pulls in several other nvidia related packages (shown below) and X will start as long as there's a xorg.conf file with the driver set to "nvidia".

Code: Select all

glx-alternative-mesa
glx-alternative-nvidia
glx-diversions
libgl1-nvidia-alternatives
libgl1-nvidia-legacy-173xx-glx
libglx-nvidia-alternatives
nvidia-alternative-legacy-173xx
nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx
nvidia-installer-cleanup
nvidia-kernel-common
nvidia-kernel-legacy-173xx-dkms
nvidia-support
xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-legacy-173xx

Btw, I also use a fx5200 card. I'm using the minimal xorg.conf shown below. {just those 4 lines}

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "GPU"
        Driver          "nvidia"
EndSection

I prefer to not use nvidia-xconfig for creating the xorg.conf file. I've found that sometimes there will be problems trying to get the correct display resolution and/or refresh rate because of the HorizSync & VertRefresh timing values nvidia-xconfig places in the Monitor section. Shown below is the monitor section that nvidia-xconfig creates:

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Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Unknown"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 33.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

{ my monitor uses: HorizSync 30.0 - 70.0 / VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0 }

[olivermwarner]

Thanks I'll try that. I have the wrong driver installed.

[jlambrecht]

in case you would still be i need for this, let me know if this article is of any good

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=110292