I found that I needed to load and install the graphics driver from the nVidia site manually, this is not too hard, just do the following:
Goto the nVidia site
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_1.0-7174.html
Download the graphics driver and put it in the root directory, shut down any applications running and press <cntl><alt><f1> to get a text interface, then type the following bits shown in red:
linux login: root
Password: your root password
linux:~ # telinit 3
linux:~ # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-7174-pkg2.run -q
accept licence terms
linux:~ # sax2 -m 0=nvidia (0 is a digit, not a letter!)
The graphics should now work correctly when re-booted.
The rest of this page shows how I discovered that this was necessary:
Details of SuSE 9.3 nVidia graphics driver bug
On some occasions, when windows or parts of widows are drawn, they get drawn with random noise. It seems to be random when this happens, the system may run for a long time with no problems or it may happen quite quickly after booting up. Once it happens then most windows or background which are repainted then get the problem (sometimes certain components like drop down boxes will display correctly) and it becomes impossible to use the system. Here is a picture of what this problem looks like:
The software is SuSE 9.3 (64-bit) for information about how it is installed link here.
For information about the hardware I am using link here.
My graphics card is MSI GeForce 6600 and this has been correctly detected as shown here:
to see details click here.
The driver being used is the driver distributed with SuSE 9.3. I thought that it might solve the problem if I loaded the full 3D drivers so I started YaST Online Update as follows:
I started the nVidia Graphics Driver download and it appeared to work fine until it got to this point:
At this point (patch progress 99%, Total progress 50%) it stops indefinitely and nothing happens unless I abort it. This is consistent, it happens every time I try it, there is no problem with the Internet connection and all other patches work correctly.
Do you know why this might be happening?
It seems a strange coincidence that there are two bugs both concerning the graphics, could these bugs be related?
I noticed the following in the release notes:
From release notes:New GeForce Graphics Cards (6200 and 6600) and the nv Driver Currently, some GeForce 6200 and 6600 cards are configured with Option "XaaNoScreenToScreenCopy" in the device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Because this setting slows down graphics output considerably, you can try to remove or comment this option. However, this locks up some systems and you must boot your computer into runlevel 3 to revert the change. We cannot distinguish automatically between graphics cards that work with acceleration and those that do not. We set this option only for cards we were able to test and suffered from this problem. Other GeForce 6200 and 6600 based boards might be affected as well. If your system locks up and you do not see this option in the device section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, try adding it. Another option is to install the binary-only driver from nVidia, which does not seem to be affected. Use YaST Online Update (YOU) for this. |
The /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is shown here, it does not seem to have Option "XaaNoScreenToScreenCopy" set so I have edited it to include it as follows:
I logged in as root and edited it again, this time it allowed me to save it.
I re-booted the system and so far I have not seen the random noise bug, since I added Option "XaaNoScreenToScreenCopy" but its too early to say if its fixed.
From nVidia site:http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_1.0-7174.html this points to SuSE site: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/X/XFree86/nvidia-installer-HOWTO#2 It is recommended to use YOU (YaST Online Update) for (re)installation Inside YOU enable "Installable and Installed Patches" for "Show
Patch |
Downloading and running the nVidia drivers
I tried to download the driver file:
This also locked up!
In the end the only way that I could download the file was to use a MS Windows machine and then transfer to the Linux machine. What is it about this file that stops it downloading from Linux, either by Yast or Firefox? Is quite a large file 8.5M but that does not explain why it locks up, I had no trouble downloading using Windows.
I then installed the Linux kernel sources using YaST2:
linux login: root
Password:
linux:~ # telinit 3
linux:~ # sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-1.0-7174-pkg2.run -q
linux:~ # sax2 -m 0=nvidia (0 is a digit, not a letter!)
/var/log/nvidia-installer.log
nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' option status: Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface |
Some people have found that it helps to use the text version of YaST2, this is how to use it:
|
start YaST2 Install and Remove Software Filter Selections in left hand pane: Kernel Development in right hand pane kernel-source (click on right Source box - may have to scroll)
<cntl><shift><f1> linux login: root use right arrow key to highlight 'Online Update' press enter <cr> to accept server press down arrow key until we get to 'fetchnvidia.sh' 'Download NVIDIA(r) Graphics driver 0 B press <cr> and a '+' appears nex to this option. press <tab> --> key until Ok button is highlighted press <cr> press <tab> until Install Patch is highlighted press <cr> |
