• rich
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  • Registered: 2009-01-26
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Topic: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

*NOTE* Before you read this Howto:
Graphic card driver installation is not an exact 100% science. There are many different graphics cards which require different drivers. Some will work with the Linux reverse-engineered versions, others need the proprietary Nvidia drivers from the Nvidia web page. This guide may not work for your card.
If this guide does not work for your card, saying so in this thread helps a little, but posting another Howto on how you got your card working helps A LOT MORE.

For older Legacy Nvidia cards, see this post (Nvidia Geforce fx 5200):
http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic … e-fx-5200/

This is something that Squeeze users currently have to do to get Nvidia working. At the present moment (Statler Alpha1) this howto is still relevant, so I thought i'd post for the benefit of Nvidia users. This may change as Statler development progresses and when Squeeze becomes the latest Debian "stable".

Nvidia in Squeeze needs sid dependencies.

Change to root in the terminal

Add sid Unstable to your sources.lst

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add

# Unstable Sid
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free
# Unstable Sources
deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib non-free

*Note*
On Tota and Vanilla Debian Squeeze, you would normally PIN the Squeeze repo so that all future updates only come for Squeeze and NOT sid.
omns pointed out that Crunchbang already has Statler pinned as the default repo, so this step isn't necessary.
*Important*
Once you have updated and installed the Nvidia source, comment out the sid repo by adding a # in front of each sid line, or better still remove it completely. This way any future updates/upgrades will come from the Statler and Squeeze repos.
*Extra Note*
One extra thing to remember is that in general, mixing repos is a no-no and can cause severe breakage. However, when using non-stable releases such as Debian Testing and Unstable, you sometimes need to mix and match for a quick solution until the testing release becomes stable.
I and others have tested this method for Nvidia and other individual applications, and it works fine, with no adverse effects. Obviously mixing repos for applications with a large amount of dependencies such as Desktop Environments is not a good idea and could make your system go Crunch Bang! smile

Update

apt-get update

Install Nvidia kernel source

apt-get -t unstable install nvidia-kernel-source
m-a a-i nvidia-kernel-source

Install Nvidia Glx

apt-get -t unstable install nvidia-glx

Then Xconfig and Nvidia Settings

apt-get install nvidia-xconfig nvidia-settings

Then run nvidia-xconfig

Last edited by rich (2010-04-17 20:33:39)

| ultimate crunchbang howto everything | debianandi | g+ |
  • From: London
  • Registered: 2009-07-19
  • Posts: 96

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Works like a charm! Thanks richs-lxh.

Can we sticky this post?

Registered Linux user #503837
  • From: norway
  • Registered: 2009-01-16
  • Posts: 272

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

great stuff! thanks again big_smile

  • From: Colorado Springs, Colorado USA
  • Registered: 2009-05-20
  • Posts: 238

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

This should be pinned! Alot of people have Nvidia cards (they're quite nice)....... like me on my other laptop.

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  • From: Rural Georgia, NA
  • Registered: 2010-03-22
  • Posts: 23

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Thanks again, Rich! It worked here just like it worked in Tota Linux. And this time I remembered that I needed to reboot and not just logoff to get it working. tongue

Lane

Last edited by LaneLester (2010-03-22 17:27:31)

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  • Registered: 2009-10-08
  • Posts: 92

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Any chance of finding out how to do this for my geforce fx5200? I use the 173 driver but I'm new to Debian and its always been the graphics drivers that have held me back from using it. sad

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  • omns
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  • Registered: 2008-11-25
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

A word of caution with this technique. The step to Pin Sqeeze as the default won't stick because of the default set in /etc/apt/apt.conf which pins 'statler' as the default. At your next upgrade many of your packages will upgrade to the sid repos.

There is no need to create the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/default file. Just leave this step out as the default has already been set.

edit: I've added a note (to the howto) referring to this post  until rich has a chance to look at it and edit if he feels it is necessary smile

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  • rich
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Thanks omns, I thought the default was the Squeeze repo.

Ok, so i'll ammend the Howto to say that the sid repo should be commented once the Nvidia driver has been installed.

Thanks for the heads up!

rich

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  • omns
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

richs-lxh wrote:

Ok, so i'll ammend the Howto to say that the sid repo should be commented once the Nvidia driver has been installed.

You shouldn't have to do that. Leaving Statler as the default stops the sid repos taking over.

Edit: No that's not right. Remove the sid repo after use as suggested in post 1.

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  • rich
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Well, better to be safe than sorry smile

| ultimate crunchbang howto everything | debianandi | g+ |
  • From: Hamburg
  • Registered: 2008-12-20
  • Posts: 103

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

For some reason this didn't work for me. neutral

But the "normal" way I always install my nvidia worked as expected. (Installscript from the nvidiapage)

  • rich
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

What is your make and model of card?
What error messages did you get?
Can you provide an lspci?

Precise information is helpful to others. Then they will know in advance that they may also need to use the same drivers as you.

| ultimate crunchbang howto everything | debianandi | g+ |
  • From: RIT
  • Registered: 2009-03-02
  • Posts: 14

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I'm having trouble installing it, but maybe it's just a current problem in Sid that'll go away.

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
  nvidia-glx: Depends: nvidia-kernel-190.53 which is a virtual package.
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

Keep the following packages at their current version:
nvidia-glx [Not Installed]

Any suggestions, or should I wait and update another day?

  • From: RIT
  • Registered: 2009-03-02
  • Posts: 14

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Oh, my mistake - I was running "aptitude -t unstable install nvidia-kernel-source" - I didn't realize that you couldn't replace apt-get in that case. Running "apt-get -t unstable install nvidia-kernel-source" worked fine!

  • From: /home
  • Registered: 2009-01-20
  • Posts: 84

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I once had the Linux kernel 2.6.32-trunk-amd64, and had some issues with the nvidia drivers, but I tried the 2.6.32-4-amd64 kernel, and have no issues with the nvidia install.

I do not know if this information will be helpful, I am just letting you know that I had issues with it.

Computers do not have problems, they have users.
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  • Registered: 2009-10-09
  • Posts: 429

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I'm on legacy drivers (96xx) since my card is ancient (Geforce MX400) and I tried a few ways to get it working, and this thread helped me get it going:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … ny-634622/

Edit- oh yeah! It's not something you can follow along exactly (kernal and driver numbers are going to be different), but the idea is the same.

Last edited by chillicampari (2010-03-27 03:40:05)

  • Registered: 2010-03-25
  • Posts: 68

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

Hi I have a question.

I have not added the unstable repo yet. Before I saw this guide, I searched in Synaptic for nvidia, and it's there. Do I HAVE to use the unstable repo then?

  • rich
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Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

wishwish wrote:

Hi I have a question.

I have not added the unstable repo yet. Before I saw this guide, I searched in Synaptic for nvidia, and it's there. Do I HAVE to use the unstable repo then?

You don't HAVE to, it's just that a few of us found it was necessary to get our cards working. There are a lot of Nvidia cards and also the Nvidia proprietary drivers as another option.

As Squeeze is still "testing" there are still a few changes to come before it goes "stable", so this method may only be necessary at the moment.

You could look at it as a temporary quick-fix/work-around for certain cards.

| ultimate crunchbang howto everything | debianandi | g+ |
  • From: Ireland
  • Registered: 2008-12-17
  • Posts: 13

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

You can also get the driver from nvidia site and do it the manual way.

once squeeze is released it should be easy to do it all from squeeze/stable repos

  • Registered: 2010-03-25
  • Posts: 68

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

richs-lxh wrote:

You could look at it as a temporary quick-fix/work-around for certain cards.

Ah, I see. Thanks richs and habotool. I'll give it a try from the current repos first. *crosses fingers*

  • Registered: 2009-10-09
  • Posts: 429

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I found this script handy to identify which driver I needed to use:

http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDr … ersions.sh

As a side note- Nvidia's site didn't show my exact card under "supported products" after the card selection page, but the version numbers on the site matched the script (96xx) so I could tell I was using the right set.

Last edited by chillicampari (2010-03-27 20:06:01)

  • Registered: 2010-03-25
  • Posts: 68

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

chillicampari wrote:

I found this script handy to identify which driver I needed to use:

http://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDr … ersions.sh

As a side note- Nvidia's site didn't show my exact card under "supported products" after the card selection page, but the version numbers on the site matched the script (96xx) so I could tell I was using the right set.

Yeah, Linux always identifies my Nvidia Quatro as a Nvidia Geforce.

I ended up not installing nvidia with just the default repos included in crunchbang, because it said it would remove  xorg*. Yeah. LOL :-)


I'm going to take a look at that script. Edit, says I can use any version of the driver :-)

Last edited by wishwish (2010-03-27 21:01:57)

  • Registered: 2009-10-09
  • Posts: 429

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

wishwish wrote:

Yeah, Linux always identifies my Nvidia Quatro as a Nvidia Geforce.

That sounds pretty far off. yikes  My card series shows up right on the Nvidia site, but not that model number.

I ended up not installing nvidia with just the default repos included in crunchbang, because it said it would remove  xorg*. Yeah. LOL :-)

Yeek. I wonder if there is a way to tell if it's removing it to replace it with a different version of xorg, or just removing it alltogether.

I'm going to take a look at that script. Edit, says I can use any version of the driver :-)

Lucky! tongue

Last edited by chillicampari (2010-03-27 21:14:00)

  • Registered: 2010-03-25
  • Posts: 68

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I'm still apprehensive about using the unstable repos from what was said above. Hmm. Should I be?

Last edited by wishwish (2010-03-27 21:30:12)

  • Registered: 2009-10-09
  • Posts: 429

Re: Howto: Nvidia in Statler / Squeeze

I'm almost always apprehensive when it comes to the graphics drivers in general :-), but I grabbed the latest Midori browser from unstable and it's doing all right. Probably not much help since that's an entirely different category.

Last edited by chillicampari (2010-03-27 21:46:43)