How to get NVIDIA 3d acceleration working in RedHat 8.0....

[Jeff Bolton]

i finally managed to get a copy of RedHat 8.0 and after getting it connected to the internet, the first thing i wanted to do was get the nvidia drivers installed. it turned out to be easy enough thanks to a thread i found at the nvidia linux forums (in the thread, it says to spread the word around to other forums, and thats what i'm doing, so i take NO credit for these instructions.) if this were to be a sticky, i think it could be beneficial to redhat 8.0 users.

the dilemma started because i didn't see any nvidia drivers for rh8 (only up to 7.3 have been released so far). so i went to the forums there and the first thing i saw was a thread dedicated to the subject, so here are the instructions. (pretty much verbatim)

1. download the following from NVidia's site. (Note that the NVIDIA_kernel is the **src.rpm** rpm file and the NVIDIA_GLX is a **rpm**):
NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm
and
NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm

2. make sure you have the kernel headers installed along with all other development tools. these are needed along with other dependencies. to ensure that you have all dependencies just go to the panel menu -> system settings -> packages -> and in the development section choose the kernel development packge and install the whole thing.

3. do this in a terminal window:

rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm to create drivers for the RH 8.0 kernel

(This will create the binary RPM in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.i386.rpm), but you better confirm it just to make sure.

Note: "rpm --rebuild" does not work with newer versions of rpm so use "rpmbuild --rebuild".
Also do the rebuild in "X" in a [gnome] terminal. I dont know why but I had problems doing the rebuild and especially installing the kernel on command line. when I did this in a [Gnome] terminal in a runing Xserver it works fine. So do it in a [gnome] terminal.

4. install the new file that you just created:

rpm -ivh /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.i386.rpm

Note: It is important that you do this step also in a [gnome] terminal in a xserver session and not on command line. When doing through a command line the rpm install hanged and did not complete, I had to restart my computer. (I dont know why). But it works great in a terminal window in gnome and completes fine.
The rpm after installation may complain that the nvidia_kernel is export tainted. This is OK ignore it. To read more on export tained and what it means:
http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted

...I didn't have a problem with this at all.

5. now log out of whatever GUI you are using and go to the command line. Install the GLX driver that you downloaded.(NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm):

rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm

Note: I did this on the command line outside of gnome and it works so just do it guys the same way

Note from Jeff: I did this from gnome and it worked fine. i don't think it really matters at all.

6. edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file and make a backup copy of the original:

- Remove the Load "dri" line.
- Change the Driver line from "nv" to "nvidia"

Note from Jeff: I didn't have to remove any "dri" line. all i did was replace the driver 'vesa' with 'nvidia' and it worked perfectly.

Now i'm running 1024x768 with 24bit color and full 3d acceleration.

I hope this at least helps someone.

here's the link for the original thread, but i like mine better

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=2563

jeff