• Registered: 2011-01-10
  • Posts: 1

Topic: Help with NVIDIA driver

hello, this is my first post here, but i've been lurking for a couple of weeks.  I'm fairly new to Linux, and very new to crunchbang, and I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I followed these instructions to install the drivers for my Nvidia FX 5200 and got it to work, but then buggered my partition and had to reinstall crunchbang.  The subsequent times I tried to install the driver (fresh #! install each time) it either cuts VGA output when it gets to the login screen (I assume this is when X starts?) or it reverts do a driver that only goes up to 600x800.  I'm guessing this means it's not using the nvidia driver.

I tried the install method with the  173.14.25 and  173.14.28 versions of the driver from the nvidia website with the same result.  I've also tried investigating my xorg.conf by generating it with X -configure and then adding nvidia as the driver AND by using the nvidia generator.  Neither seems to fix my problem. 

Lastly, I thought I should mention that I'm using the liqorix/zen kernel.  I got a compile error from the nvidia installer with the default statler kernel, and tried this one on a whim.

I know driver installation is not an exact science, but any help would be appreciated.

PS
if this belongs in its own help request thread, I'll delete and repost smile
-rafghan

edit: typos and clarity

Last edited by rafghan (2011-01-15 18:20:10)

  • Registered: 2009-02-09
  • Posts: 555

Re: Help with NVIDIA driver

Crunchbang comes with the Nouveau driver,,Its the opensource driver for the nvidia card.
You might need to disable it to get the driver youd like to work properly.

In the terminal run this command.

lspci -v

The output will be long,It list everything.
But the graphics driver will look something like this.

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT218 [ION] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device 045e
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
    Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
    Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at ce000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
    I/O ports at dc00 [size=128]
    Expansion ROM at fcf80000 [disabled] [size=512K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: nouveau

Post what you have and hopefully we can figure it out.

P.S, In the Terminal,On a blank spot on the terminal window click enable scrollbar.
It will make it easier to scroll threw and read all the stuff there.

Heres a link to the nouveau driver info,
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/

Last edited by charlie01 (2011-01-17 02:27:24)

  • iann
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2010-09-10
  • Posts: 223

Re: Help with NVIDIA driver

You might also try the 96 driver.  Newer drivers are incompatible with some older hardware, but the 96 driver will run almost anything in almost any setup, certainly the FX5200.

The nVidia drivers always seem to be a pain, but they install perfectly if you can get yourself a clean system with no conflicting drivers and then install from there.

Remember to use nvidia--settings to configure your card.