Ubuntu nvidia guide(explanation how to install)

[MRD]

i wouldnt really know how to do that since the package is just in the form of a .run file on nvidias website.

Well, Ubuntu is a Debian derivative, and it uses apt as a package manager. apt can install anything that it has listed in its repositories. You can select whether to enable the stable (default), testing, or unstable branches, which allow you to access more packages, but with more likelihood of bugs. You just have to point apt to the right repositories.

Portage is a bit different. There is only really one major repository, and while it tells you which packages are stable and which are testing, you can install whichever you wish. Also, they basically just download the nvidia driver scripts from the nvidia site to the Gentoo mirrors and then modify them slightly and write ebuilds for them so that they work automagically for Gentoo users.

I've often maintained that while Gentoo is a hard distro to install, it's a really easy distro to use day to day.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

i understand how installing packages and repositories work, but i was unaware that because something existed somewhere in no specific format on the internet, that you could just add that location to your repository and downlad and install it.

i though there had to be a certain location for that file to be added to the repository, and that has to be somehow approved by ubuntu or something, and that the package has to be in a certain format. which would make sense to me considering the latest stuff is usually NOT in the repos.

like, the nvidia drivers that i want are on nvidia's download page in a .run file. i cant just add nvidias site to my repo list and expect it to find all the drivers on the site. or can i?

do you understand what i mean?

 

[MRD]

No, you can't add the nVidia site to your repositories. You have to add the testing or unstable branches of the Ubuntu repositories to your list of accepted packages. You can also add the debian repositories or private repositories. You are right that they have to be a certain format, but they do not have to be approved by anyone. I could make my own ubuntu repository and put packages up for a piece of software I wrote. If you add that to your list, it will be installable via apt. This is actually very common... there are many, many private repositories out there. (Gentoo doesn't really work this way, it's all in the same repository, although there are overlays... even so, they are not used in the same way.) Basically, there are lots of potential packages you can install, and by default, Ubuntu is only set up to access a small minority of them.

However, the more usual solution is to use testing and unstable branches of the ubuntu or debian repositories. (All the debian based distros use .debs, so they will *mostly* work, but they aren't all 100% compatible in the way they specify dependencies.) I've found debian stuff generally does work in Ubuntu.

 

[Enablingwolf]

Here is a guide how to set up a Ubutu repo on a host. The principle is about the same on any paid hosting. Most folks just use a local machine for the repo. Some choose to make the repo public. Like that author did.
http://www.drelmo.net/2007/09/17/setting-up-your-own-ubuntu-repository-on-dreamhost/

 

[MRD]

I'd be VERY surprised if there aren't already extensive repos out there with the drivers you need. That being said, I think the above is useful from the point of view of helping understand how repositories work, which is probably what EW was after anyways.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

well if the driver exists in a repo somewhere i dont know where it is, since everywhere ive searched about installing the latest drivers tells me to download the package from nvidia, shut down X, and use the command line to do it all.

 

[Enablingwolf]

That being said, I think the above is useful from the point of view of helping understand how repositories work, which is probably what EW was after anyways.

Yuppers

 

[MRD]

What is contained in your /etc/apt/sources.list file? Can you post that for us?

 

[FudgeNuggets]

That doesn't even make sense Fudge. There are things that are hard in Linux (or Windows, or OSX), but installation of nvidia drivers is extremely easy, and there's complete feature support.

Now if you want to talk wireless (not so bad now, it's gotten much better) or gaming (still a mess), then I can see having some issues with Linux. nVidia drivers couldn't be simpler though. I can do it faster than any windows user, and I don't have to reboot either.

Dude, I NEVER got my NVIDIA drivers to work right in Ubuntu. Even after getting them successfully installed, I think, 3D acceleration still never worked. I tried manual install and I tried installing from the automated package manager. Oh, and in 2 years, I've NEVER had a single lockup, failure or anything not work or install correctly in OS X.

 

[jayfella]

maaaan... how i would love to know what you lot are talking about... I installed ubunto once, and i just found it extremely tough.. Plus i missed my games.. I just dont find enough substance for it to pull me towards it.. I hope they come out with some exciting stuff in the near future.. I would so love to be rid of Microsoft....

 

[Enablingwolf]

What is contained in your /etc/apt/sources.list file? Can you post that for us?

My Ubuntu machine is down right now, I am using XP until the new release 8.10 is out. No reason to install the LTS when in a week I am planning on reinstalling anyways. Why waste the effort, even though the in place upgrade usually works fine for me. Plus I am holding out they fix that tray bug.
I am not comfortable like i used to be in Windows. Plus the NT cmd feels weak to me.

Usually I add only a few other sources anyways. To get awn in and Cinelerra. On the occasion I will temp add external repos to check stuff out. I am picky what I connect to. Besides me finding the fastest servers. I mostly do svn.

 

[MRD]

I just can't understand where you are coming from Fudge. Granted my experience is more with Gentoo, but it's always been as simple as emerge nvidia-drivers (actually, I didn't even have to do that... I had set an nvidia use flag in my make.conf, which meant it automatically builty the X server with nvidia support and built the drivers as an automatic dependency).

jayfella, I do have to agree that gaming in Linux is not up to Windows (then again, gaming in OSX sucks too... Windows is really the best gaming platform in terms of availability / variety). It's all about market share, and the fact that Direct X games are not easily ported to OpenGL. They should just use OpenGL in the first place, but too many devs know directx already and people like to use what they know.

 

[Enablingwolf]

I find there is plenty of fun games in and under the Linux banner. I guess it is what games you want to play.

 

[MRD]

Almost no major games are produced for Linux but not for Windows, lots of games are released for Windows but not for any other OS's. Walk into the mall and go to a video game store. Good luck finding a single Linux game (and sometimes not a single Mac OSX game either). There will be hundreds of Windows games.

 

[gsrcrxsi]

yea, its linux and OSX both suck for gaming. ive tried it under wine and while you can get games to work, the performance is most of the time much less and not worth the effort. thats why i just dual boot. in linux i got 30-40 frames on CS:S, in windows, its like 200+.

if linux had the availability, it might be different. but such is life...

 

[MRD]

I've actually gotten very good performance in Linux under Wine/Cedega. The problem is that I can't get most games to work, and those that do rarely work perfectly (some do). Most nVidia users report comparable framerates (even higher sometimes), but compatibility and bugginess are major issues still, and it generally just isn't good enough for production.

That's also part of why it bugs me so much that Cedega charges you so much for their product... it works like 20% of the time.

 

[Firestrider]

Isn't Cedega also helping Wine though? I mean it is a derivative of Wine and some of the implementation was from Cedega's help.

The problem with Ubuntu at the moment is software development. What would really sway me is an easy to configure MythTV, DVD playback without extensive packages, and a fully working DX9 with Wine. Wine is working on DX10 implementation would could sway some XP users who hate Vista.

And don't get me started with Wine. I couldn't even get my CD-ROM loading to work after two days with a "Platinum" game.

Linux might be good for a home user once you get everything configured... but the configuration is the frustrating part. Almost TOO much freedom.

For ATI drivers it just worked out of the box for 8.04 and I needed the proprietary fglrx driver which I got from Envy for 8.10.

I wonder how the open RadeonHD driver is now?

The open source alternatives are getting better and better but IMO not up to par with Microsofts. Last time I checked OpenOffice can't open docx and accdb files which I need for school, Firefox has pixelated text for most websites, and Thunderbird has no calendar or "to do list". But Brasero, VLC, and Rhythmbox seem pretty good though.

 

[MRD]

Actually, openoffice can open docx. I don't know what accdb is; maybe it can open that too. I can't imagine anyone preferring IE to Firefox... then again I've used Netscape/Mozilla since the days of NCSA Mosaic. I do not think that MS software is up to open source levels in general (exception might be Excel, I rather like it if you don't count 2k7 and that horrible ribbon)... BUT I think third party support, especially gaming, is so much better that it keeps MS dominant. Also, Adobe makes some good stuff that remains unequalled. Gimp is pretty good; whether it's up to photoshop standards I can't say as I don't do anything with photos that is beyond the capability of either program. Scribus is not up to Pagemaker or Indesign and the difference is noticeable even to me, a casual desktop publisher. Nothing is close to Dreamweaver (playing with Quanta Plus tonight... maybe it will be good, but I doubt it will be up to Dreamweaver). IMO, Adobe, and not MS, is the company that makes the software that keeps Windows on top in a productivity environment. OSX could really challenge MS if Apple hardware wasn't so ridiculously expensive. Adobe also charges utterly absurd prices for their software. While MS thinks that $300 is a normal price for software, Adobe thinks $700-$1k is normal. Some of their suites of programs are well into the $2500+ range. Absurd! Especially when you consider they have product activation crippling them so you can only install on one pc, and on one OS, and if they go belly up, your software won't even work anymore. That's just swell.

 

[Outcast_Aussie]

Although this is a nVidia focused thread it would appear Canonical is making friends with hardware vendors

Whatever the official case is, Canonical is now providing an ATI Linux driver that isn't yet available to ATI's customers through their driver web-site. This driver is part of the fglrx 8.54 release stream, which makes it part of what should be Catalyst 8.10.

Sauce

So it looks like the snowball ( Ubuntu) is gathering pace
__________________

 

[FudgeNuggets]

They're using a WINE like program for OS X now called Cider and it sucks. Honestly though I could care less about games on my PC. I've got a 360, Wii and PS3 for games. My PC is my serious machine. It's amazing how many of you guys take such expensive, powerful and vesitile machines and reduce them to being all about games......

I'm going to reinstall Ubuntu or Yellowdog again on my PS3 just so I can screw around with it. Then again I'm not going to have driver issues with that like I did previously with my PC because they make special PS3 PPC packages for those two distros in which the drivers are automagically installed.