Installing drivers

Jeff7477

Member

​

Joined

Feb 18, 2003

Location

Lincoln, Ne

• Apr 2, 2003

• #1

ok, in order get any internet access in Mandrake 9.1, I need to install the nvidia chipset drivers for my NIC to work. The problem is that I am so used to windows I am clueless as to what to do. Can anyone give me some tips? The file comes as an RPM? heh

 

Christoph

JAPH Senior

​

Joined

Oct 8, 2001

Location

Redmond, WA

• Apr 2, 2003

• #2

Do you have a motherboard with an nforce chipset? You can grab nvidia's nforce ndrivers nhere.
If you just need the nvideo drivers for Linux, you can get them here. They just switched to a very newbie-friendly driver installer. You still have to edit /etx/X11/XF86Config-4 by hand, but it's a very easy and well documented change to make. Check the page for details.

 

OP

Jeff7477

Member

​

Joined

Feb 18, 2003

Location

Lincoln, Ne

• Apr 2, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #3

It doesn't say anything about editing any file? Im pretty confused and not too happy. I ran the rpm like it said and it installed.....but my NIC still doesn't work. Is there something else I gotta do?

 

Christoph

JAPH Senior

​

Joined

Oct 8, 2001

Location

Redmond, WA

• Apr 3, 2003

• #4

What hardware are you running? (NIC and motherboard)

 

OP

Jeff7477

Member

​

Joined

Feb 18, 2003

Location

Lincoln, Ne

• Apr 3, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #5

Abit NF7-S with the on-board realtek LAN

 

OP

Jeff7477

Member

​

Joined

Feb 18, 2003

Location

Lincoln, Ne

• Apr 3, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #6

has anyone ever installed the nvidia drivers? or any for that matter? Tell me about changing this file?

 

moorcito

Member

​

Joined

Sep 19, 2002

Location

Chicago, IL

• Apr 3, 2003

• #7

It's actually pretty easy to do.

When you install the drivers, after it installes the modules it tells you to go to /usr/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/ directory and read the README, under sec-03 you'll find the information about how to edit you XF86Config file. The basically you have to open the file (/etc/X11/XF86Config) with a text editor go to the part where it says Driver "nv" or possibly says Driver "vesa" and replace that with Driver "nvidia". And then in the modules section of the config file you have to make sure that this line exists Load "glx", and removes these two line Load "dri" and Load "GLcore".

Read the README, and post back if you have any problems.

 

S

SickBoy

Inactive Moderator

​

Joined

Jan 13, 2001

Location

Minneapolis, MN

• Apr 3, 2003

• #8

OK, there are 2 seperate sets of drivers here.

#1. There should be an RPM for the nForce/2 chipsets of MDK9.1. Install this first. this is your chipset driver. Includes functionality for sound, LAN, SATA, etc.

#2. Then install drivers for video just like you would for any nVidia video card.

You only need to do #1 with the NF7-S unless you are also using a nVidia video card. Should be a simple RPM install and your LAN, sound, SATA, etc should work.

 

K

klingens

Member

​

Joined

Apr 3, 2002

Location

Xanadu

• Apr 3, 2003

• #9

the nvidia chipset and NIC drivers (NOT the videocard drivers!! no nonsense with XF86Config and such!) are installed manually by a "modprobe <driverfile>

You most probably have to edit a file in /etc usually /etc/modules (I only know the debian way, dunno about other distros) to make it a permanent thing which gets loaded automatically on startup

 

mirko_3

Member

​

Joined

Oct 27, 2002

Location

Italy

• Apr 3, 2003

• #10

there's a sticky...

 

OP

Jeff7477

Member

​

Joined

Feb 18, 2003

Location

Lincoln, Ne

• Apr 3, 2003

• Thread Starter
• #11

bah. I decided to install Redhat instead of Mandrake for the hardware support. The damn thing won't even load into a graphic interface. I keep getting this screen with very wierd characters on it. Im clueless.

 

K

klingens

Member

​

Joined

Apr 3, 2002

Location

Xanadu

• Apr 3, 2003

• #12

Linux is Linux.
It doesn´t matter which distribution you use: Redhat, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware or whatever else. All distros use the same code or if they use different patches or forks than the usual ones, so can the other. There is no better hardware support with one kind of distro

 

Christoph

JAPH Senior

​

Joined

Oct 8, 2001

Location

Redmond, WA

• Apr 4, 2003

• #13

klingens said:

Linux is Linux.
It doesn´t matter which distribution you use: Redhat, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware or whatever else. All distros use the same code or if they use different patches or forks than the usual ones, so can the other. There is no better hardware support with one kind of distro

Click to expand...

You're correct in some cases, but not in this one. You're correct that all distros are equal if you're talking to a person who knows all the ins and outs of getting hardware to work, but (no flame intended to Jeff7477) I don't think that you are. Either $DRIVER exists or it doesn't, but some distros are better at figuring out that they need $DRIVER and installing it than others are.
There's no reason for Jeff7477 not to try other distros to see if they're better at detecting his hardware. If they are, then he can get used to Linux now, and learn the finer points when he's ready.