Nvidia driver installation

[Tim CowChip]

I have a GeForce 6200 video card with both vga and composite video outputs. My tv is connected to the composite video and the nouveau driver doesn't sync properly, so I only see a portion of the screen. I have been able to sync my composite video output properly with the nvidia driver, but I'm having trouble getting it installed on Salix64 Xfce 13.37.

I tried installing kernel-source after removing the "exclude" with Gslapt, which enabled me to build nvidia-kernel with Sourcery. I also built nvidia-driver with Sourcery, ran

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nvidia-xconfig

as root and installed the xf86-video-nouveau blacklist.

It worked once after rebooting, but then X wouldn't start the next time I rebooted.

I've read something about updating kernel headers, but I'm not sure how this is done.

Would someone please help this noob?

[Tim CowChip]

After the first reboot, there was an update for xf86-video-nouveau blacklist, which I installed, thinking that the blacklist file was being updated, but instead the update upgraded xf86-video-nouveau and removed the blacklist file. I didn't realize this first time, but after re-installing the entire OS, I repeated the same steps as before, this time I added "^xf86-video-nouveau" to the exludes in my Gslapt preferences.

[gapan]

It worked once after rebooting, but then X wouldn't start the next time I rebooted.

What did you change in the meantime? You can just remove any xf86-video-nouveau-* packages so you're sure that nouveau is not used.

[Tim CowChip]

I guess what I changed was to unwittingly "upgrade" back to the xf86-video-nouveau driver, then rebooted. It was not my first attempt installing the nvidia driver, so I assumed that I had done something else wrong.
As to removing the xf86-video-nouveau driver, I was planning to remove any and all unnecessary xf86-video-* drivers following the instructions here: http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/H ... g_packages

[gapan]

Go ahead then. Remove all unnecessary drivers and install the binary nvidia driver again.

[Tim CowChip]

Should I also install the nvidia-kernel? I'm guessing yes and what about libvdpau? are these necessary?

[gapan]

I don't think you have to reinstall the nvidia-kernel unless you change your kernel. Or libvdpau for that matter (is this needed by the nvidia driver? I have no idea).

[Tim CowChip]

I recently read here that nvidia-driver requires the nvidia-kernel and libvdpau packages
This also requires the nvidia-kernel and libvdpau package from SlackBuilds.org.

I tried installing just the nvidia-driver without the nvidia-kernel and got no video out to my monitor.

[laprjns]

http://www.salixos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... a&start=10

[Tim CowChip]

I used Sourcery to install libvdpau, nvidia-driver and nvidia-kernel after running

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 slapt-get -i kernel-source

I realize that the latest nvidia driver from their website is newer and rebuilds the kernel as well as reconfigures xorg for you , but previous versions have worked well for my GeForce 6200 and I like that the Sourcery built packages are upgradable.

I think that I must not have indicated clearly enough in my 2nd post in this thread, that what I did was working fine for me with the "^xf86-video-nouveau" entry in my Gslapt exclude list to avoid update notifications for the xf86-video-nouveau blacklist.

Gapan's reply was to point out another way of removing the xf86-video-nouveau driver without installing the xf86-video-nouveau blacklist file.

Thanks, though for pointing me to http://www.salixos.org/forum/viewtopic. ... a&start=10 laprjns.