Getting nVidia cards to work in Fedora

  • 5 min read
    • Ensuring that your graphic card works the way you want it to in Linux can be a long and tenious task if you are encountering problems. This guide will show you how to setup the nv, nouveau or proprietary nvidia driver with your nVidia graphics card to make sure your card is functioning as it should.

    Getting nVidia cards to work

    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.
     

    Requirements

    The 'nv' or 'nouveau' driver

    The nv and nouveau drivers are the open-source alternatives to the proprietary nvidia driver, offering support for many of the nVidia cards. The downside to the nv driver is that unlike the open source 'radeon' driver for ATI cards, it does not support direct rendering, also called DRI or hardware-accelerated rendering. The nouveau project, however, aims to fix this by developing a new free driver with working DRI for nVidia cards. Currently, it is (as the name goes ;) ) a new project and it's not ready for everyday use quite yet.
     
    Either way, both of these drivers are included in part of the standard Xorg driver packages in Fedora, so they requires almost no configuration at all! Simply edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and in the "Device" section you will come across a line like this:
    Driver "DriverNameHere"

     Change this line to:

    Driver "Name"

    Where 'Name' is either 'nv' (recommended) or 'nouveau' if you're feeling lucky. Once you restart the computer everything should be functioning (or maybe not if you chose the 'nouveau' driver)

     

    The 'nvidia' driver

    A note on legacy drivers:

    Please note that any card below and including the GeForce FX series is no longer supported by the mainstream nvidia drivers.

    If you have a Riva or TNT card, you are going to have to use the nvidia legacy drivers. Simply follow the instructions below like normal but replace all instances of:

    • kmod-nvidia with kmod-nvidia-legacy
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-legacy
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386 with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-legacy-libs.i386
    • service nvidia [action] with service nvidia-legacy [action]

    If you are using a GeForce2, 3 or 4 (including MX) card, a you are going to have to use the 96xx series. Simply follow the instructions like normal but replace:

    • kmod-nvidia with kmod-nvidia-96xx
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386 with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-96xx-libs.i386
    • service nvidia [action] with service nvidia-96xx [action]

    If you are using a GeForce FX (5xxx) card, a you are going to have to use the 173xx series. Simply follow the instructions like normal but replace:

    • kmod-nvidia with kmod-nvidia-173xx
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx
    • xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386 with xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i386
    • service nvidia [action] with service nvidia-173xx [action]
     
    To install the nvidia driver, simply run the following commands:
    su -
    yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia
    nvidia-config-display enable
    service nvidia restart

    Please note that for a xen kernel, 'kmod-nvidia-xen' will need to be installed. This rule is applied to all the kernel variants, such as PAE (kmod-nvidia-PAE) and so on. 

    Additionally, if you are running a x86_64 (a 64-bit) operating system the 32bit libraries can be installed for compatibility reasons:

    yum install -y xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i386

    Common Questions

    Q: How can I test if the driver works now that it's installed?

    A: Simply run 'glxgears' like this:

    glxgears 

    Alternatively you can also check the output of 'glxinfo':

    glxinfo | grep direct -i
    glxinfo | grep OpenGL -i
    It should return "direct rendering: yes" and also various OpenGL information concerning "NVIDIA Corporation" along with your card name and version - NOT "Mesa Indirect".
     
    Q: Help! I followed the instructions and DRI still isn't working!
    A: If you're using the drivers from the nVidia website or if you've previously installed them, please see this post on the RedHat mailinglists as to why it could be a problem. In short, those drivers tend to overwrite other system files which can cause problems, where as the packaged drivers from Livna or other third party repositories do not. If you think this is your problem, pease reinstall all Mesa GL and Xorg server packages to restore the replaced system files.
    Q: What if it still doesn't work?
    A: If you are not using the Livna drivers, then your xorg.conf may not be automatically edited for you. You may need to add this option to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf under the "Device" section:
    Option      "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Q: How come I can't use Beryl or Compiz?
    A: Please take a look at your xorg.conf and remove the 'Module' section if you have it. Xorg can autoconfigure and guess at a lot of things and even run without a xorg.conf (but that's not recommended). Without a Module section, you're sure that Xorg will load all the modules you need where as with one it will only load what is specified, not more.
     
    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.

Desktop Effects - AIGLX & Compiz, Beryl, Compiz-fusion

  • 4 min read
    • Compiz and Beryl are advanced window managers that add some very amazing 3D visual effects to your desktop. Recently, the Compiz and Beryl projects decided to merge into Compiz-Fusion, a window manager (and window decorator) that brings the best of both worlds! This guide will provide you with step-by-step information on how to install the newly-released compiz-fusion packages along with setting up AIGLX.

    Desktop Effects - AIGLX & Compiz, Beryl

    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.
     

    Requirements

    • Yum configured to use the 3rd party RPM Fusion repository
    • A working graphics card (with direct rendering enabled). If you need help with this, please see the howtos for nVidia or ATI respectively
    • If using an nVidia card, please ensure you are not using the legacy (71xx) driver.

    AIGLX

    AIGLX - Prep

    To ensure AIGLX is configured correctly, run:

    livna-config-display

    Select 'AIGLX' as the current configuration and apply it.

     

    If you use the Gnome desktop environment, install the compiz-gnome package:

    su -c "yum install compiz-gnome compiz-fusion-extras-gnome compiz-fusion-gnome"

    Alternatively if you use KDE, use the compiz-kde package:

    su -c "yum install compiz-kde"

    Users of both environments will also require the plugins and emerald decorator:

    su -c "yum install compiz-fusion compiz-fusion-extras ccsm emerald emerald-themes"

    Xgl

    As of June 2008, the Xgl server has been removed from the X server packages, so this section is no longer needed. If you have Xgl installed, please consider removing it and using AIGLX instead.
     

    Common Questions

    Q: What's the "Desktop Effects" people keep talking about?
    A: I've used "Desktop Effects" in the title of this thread because the 3D effects are commonly called this, although technically Desktop Effects is just the name of the program used to start Compiz(-fusion), one of many window managers. The actual window manager (ie. Beryl or Compiz) are what really provide the 3D effects.

    Q: What's the difference between Compiz and Beryl? I've heard one is better than the other.
    A: Compiz and Beryl are both new, advanced window managers so in that sense they are identical. Window managers control how window decorations (such as the minimize, maximize and close buttons on the title bar) and also how the windows are displayed - This is why they offer so many neat effects. Compiz and Beryl both use OpenGL (a free implementation of 3D) calls to create zoom, "wobbly", fade and transparency effects for example. The difference lies in the fact that Beryl is a community-maintained fork of Compiz, so naturally it has many more options, plugins and effects but consequently it is also less stable at the moment. Although now that they have officially merged, most issues should be worked out quickly bringing a stable stable window manager with amazing effects!
    Q: So then how do AIGLX and Xgl differ? 
    A: First, let's define the X server: it is basically what programs use to display themselves on your screen. To use all these neat and fancy 3D calls, a new layer has to be introduced into the traditional X server for things to work properly.
    Note: This is just my understanding... The X server is very complex and I could be (and probably am) incorrect at some point or other of this explanation, so this isn't necessarily all fact just more or less the "big picture".
    AIGLX is an extension of the Xorg server, so essentially the change to AIGLX will be transparent to the user. It adds on to the existing Xorg code to add support for the fancy 3D calls. Xgl on the other hand is a complete rewrite of the X server to add support for the fancy 3D calls. While the Xorg and Xgl project share lots of code, in my opinion replacing the X server isn't the best option for two reasons: (1) AIGLX is a more incremental change then all-out replacing the X server and (2) replacing the X server means you're going to be affected by Xgl-related bugs that users of AIGLX won't. You can't be affected by what you don't run, right? This is why I think if it's possible, lean towards using AIGLX. However that's just my opinion and the final decision remains up to you.
     
    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.

Getting ATI cards to work in Fedora

  • 4 min read
    • Ensuring that your graphic card works the way you want it to in Linux can be a long and tenious task if you are encountering problems. This guide will show you how to setup the radeon or the proprietary fglrx driver with your ATI graphics card to make sure your card is functioning as it should.
     
    Note: As of November 2008, the ATI drivers still do support kernel 2.6.27 and Xorg 7.4, however X seems to crash when starting. Until the drivers functions correctly with Fedora 10, they will not be available from the RPM Fusion repositories.

    Getting ATI cards to work

    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.
     

    Requirements

    • Yum configured to use the 3rd party RPM Fusion repository
    • If building the drivers using the packages directly from ATI/AMD's site, please install a few packages first:
      su -c 'yum install qt-devel compat-libstdc++-33 -y'

     

    The 'radeon' driver

    Radeon is an open-source alternative to the proprietary fglrx driver, offering support for many (but not all) ATI cards including some that aren't supported any longer in the latest fglrx drivers! While it's performance may not match exactly that of fglrx, its performance is still very decent. It is included in part of the standard Xorg driver packages in Fedora, so it requires almost no configuration at all! Simply edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and in the "Device" section you will come across a line like this:
    Driver "DriverNameHere"

     Change this line to:

    Driver "radeon"

    Once you restart the computer everything should be functioning.

    Please remember that if you previously were using another driver, you may need to use the livna-config-display tool to switch back to the 'AIGLX' configuration:

    livna-config-display --tui -a

     

    The 'fglrx' driver

    To install the fglrx driver, simply run the following commands:
    su -
    yum install kmod-fglrx xorg-x11-drv-fglrx
    fglrx-config-display enable
    service fglrx restart

    Please note that for a xen kernel, 'kmod-fglrx-xen' will need to be installed. This rule is applied to all the kernel variants, such as PAE (kmod-fglrx-PAE) and so on. Additionally, if you are running a x86_64 (a 64-bit) operating system the 32bit libraries can be installed for compatibility reasons:

    yum install -y xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-libs.i386

    Common Questions

    Q: How can I test if the driver works now that it's installed?

    A: Simply run 'glxgears' like this:

    glxgears 

    Alternatively you can also check the output of 'glxinfo':

    glxinfo | grep direct -i
    glxinfo | grep OpenGL -i
    It should return "direct rendering: yes" and also various OpenGL information concerning "ATI Technologies" and not "Mesa".
     
    Q: Help! I followed the instructions and DRI still isn't working!
    A: If you're using the drivers from the ATI/AMD website or if you've previously installed them, please see this post on the RedHat mailinglists as to why it could be a problem. In short, those drivers tend to overwrite other system files which can cause problems, where as the packaged drivers from Livna or other third party repositories do not. If you think this is your problem, pease reinstall all Mesa GL and Xorg server packages to restore the replaced system files.
    Q: What if it still doesn't work?
    A: If you are not using the Livna drivers, then your xorg.conf may not be automatically edited for you. You may need to add this option to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf under the "Device" section:
    Option "VideoOverlay" "On"
    Q: Does fglrx 8.52.2 (aka Catalyst 8.11) really work with Xorg 7.4?
    A: Although reports say it does (on Ubuntu Intrepid, Gentoo and OpenSuSE for example), the driver does not function correctly with Fedora at the moment.
     
    Need more help or want to ask a question? Discuss this topic here.

My ramblings on Marvell 88E8056, 2.6.21, sky2

  • 1 min read

    • The Marvell LAN on my GA-965P-S3 board stopped working all of a sudden after a reboot the other day, and I franticly tried flashing the BIOS & firmware, I undid my overclock, even rewired everything inside. No luck.

    The problem was due to the semi-broken sky2 driver... From what I've heard it's been broken for a while (and developers know it). Sky2 seems to work pretty well from my experience.. Apart from this.

    Anyways the cause was the new 2.6.21 kernels, which is why it only started happening after a reboot, as I started booting new kernel. Reverting to 2.6.20 (in my case, the FC6 kernel) worked perfectly.

    $ /sbin/lspci | grep Ethernet
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 14)

Open drivers for ATI

  • 1 min read

    • A slashdotter pointed out that ATI (now owned by AMD) is going to release open source drivers. Let's hope nVidia does the same!

    Edit: Turns out this is probably not true... I think people had misinterpreted what ATI had said.