help a linux newbie out please

[boi]

I wanted to install Slackware Linux 8.1 but I couldn't get into the KDE desktop. I have a Geforce4 and whenever I type startx, theres an error saying "Cannot find display" or something like that. I tried xfree86setup but its says theres a previos config file. When I use xf86config, my video card isn't listed. Help me out please This is my first time working with linux.

 

[Hullboy]

boi

I had the same sort of problem when I installed slackware on my box at home.

I'm at work now so I can't give you details on the solution I used. What I will say is search google groups, it's a fantastic wealth of information on virtually every problem you can think of.

Good luck with your install - please persevere as slack is very nice once you get X windows started. Then you can move onto stuff like taking ages to configure and run sendmail (a mail transport agent)

I'm sure someone else here can give more help than I have. I will try to reply to this again when I get home and can look up the file that configures X on startup. Unfortunately I'm on MS at work

 

[drag]

unfortuanatly you will have to edit the XF86config file manually. you could try xf86config command that may work better.

otherwise go /etc/X11.......
vi XF86Config (or what ever text editor you use)

goto the part were it sez:

Section "Device"
Identifier "?"
Driver "?"
etc etc.....

and change whatever is in the " " behind the DRIVER part to "nv" and then exit. don't change enything else this may work depending on how screwed up you config files is

 

[drag]

btw: Slackware is a very good OS and I use it, however if you are a newb with no linux experiance Slackware is a bad choice.

You may be better off with Mandrake or Redhat......

also Gentoo is looking very sexy.

GENTOO, baby

 

[LNXman]

In Slackware you will not find the native NVidia drivers bundled with its distribution, but rather the drivers hacked by XFree86 upto some of the early NVidia TNT2 cards. Even if you used the ones provided by XFree86, you would not be able to take full advantage of your video card's hardware, since the gl module of XFree86 uses Software render for OpenGL, and not hardware "thanks" to NVidia's closed source on its gl module for XFree86. In other words,if you just use native XFree86 drivers, it will be pretty, but WAY slow.

In order to install the new drivers (at this time the latest drivers are version 1.0-2960), you have to download (1)the glx binary provided by NVidia, and (2) the kernel module source (it's Open Source - which means you are going to need to compile it).

First, you need to uncompress the glx module package, and run the makefile. It will wipe out all references of glx, and OpenGL libs, it knows will prevent your card from working properly. Then it will install the new ones meant for your card. JUST REMEMBER THIS, if you end up switching to a non-NVidia card, you will have to re-install the XFree86 modules, since the one's replaced by NVidia do not work with any other card.

Then, uncompress the kernel module, and run the makefile, it will create the kernel module, install it, and create the necessary devices for the module to work properly. They should be something like /dev/nvidia0, /dev/nvidia1, etc. And the module's name is NVdriver, and should be under /lib/modules/<your_kernel_version>/kernel/video.

Once you have completed the above task, you can edit your XF86Config file, and add your card in it. Something like this:

.
.
.
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVidia GeForce 4"
# REMEMBER to replace the nv Driver by the new nvidia Driver.
Driver "nvidia"
VideoRam 65536
# Option "Rotate" "CCW"
# Option "ShadowFB" "on"
# Option "NvAGP" "1"
# To get rid of the logo at start, uncomment below
# Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "IgnoreEDID" "True"
Option "NoRenderAccel" "False"
Option "NoDDC" "False"
Option "UseEdidFreqs" "True"
#Option "BusID" "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "crt"
EndSection
.
.
.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "NVidia GeForce 4"
Monitor "NEC LCD 1810X"

DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
EndSubsection
EndSection
.
.
.



And that should be it. As long as you have not touched the kernel that came standard with the distribution. Just read the README that comes in both packages you have used to get more info on this setup.


GL

/edit: added one more info.
/edit: fixed sentences.