Install Nvidia driver with openSUSE 11.3 while there is no repo

From JoBaPedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

HOWTO install Nvidia native driver on openSUSE 11.3

Introduction

As it is now available, please first check if the community repository for Nvidia drivers works for you. This is the recommended way! To check and add the Nvidia repository

  • start yast
  • open module software repositories
  • click on button "add repository" ("Hinzufügen" in german)
  • select community repositories and click "Continue" ("Weiter" in german)
  • look for Nvidia in the list of repositories.
  • Add it and confim. Then you can use it as described in the openSuse Wiki.

The good thing about this way of installing is, that it will ensure the driver keeps in sync with the kernel after kernel updates. Only if this does not work perfectly for you for some reason you might want to try this way and continue reading...

Preparation

  • download Nvidia driver (go to [[1]] for this) for me this downloaded the file
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.35.run
  • switch off KMS (kernel mode setting) since this interferes with the Nvidia driver:
    • start yast
    • open module /etc/sysconfig editor
    • click on system, kernel
    • set NO_KMS_IN_INITRD to yes
    • click on system, bootloader
    • add " nomodeset brokenmodules=nouveau" to DEFAULT_APPEND and XEN_KERNEL_APPEND
    • exit the editors and wait for the changes to be applied (will take a while)
    • reboot the system for the changes to take effect

Installation

Switch to runlevel 3 (no xwindows) by either...

  • adding a 3 at the boot menu prompt if you reboot anyways from previous step or
  • issue sudo /sbin/telinit 3 in a console (no need to reboot for this if you were too fast...)

then login as root at the console change to the directory where you downloaded the nvidia driver and call (obviously change the filename to what you actually downloaded) 

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-256.35.run

Now follow the instructions and let it create the xorg.conf for you. When the program is finished, check if it worked with command 

startx

If you get your xwindows environment, everything is fine. Exit the sesion and start the x login manager with 

sudo /sbin/telinit 5

If not, then troubleshootig the x config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf begins, but this is not the scope of this HOWTO.

Prolog

  • Keep the downloaded nvidia driver file since you need to repeat the installation after each kernel update.
  • If you need a more sophisticated monitor setup or want to tweak driver settings, then start (also available in the desktop menu)
nvidia-settings
  • If you havent tried this before, enable and configure kde4's 3d desktop effects through its control center
systemsettings

or, if this doesnt work (like for me in the beginning), start compiz configuration and enable desktop effects (I used profile ultimate). 

simple-ccsm
  • enjoy!
Retrieved from "https://banzhaf.chickenkiller.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=Install_Nvidia_driver_with_openSUSE_11.3_while_there_is_no_repo&oldid=1676"