[SOLVED] issue installing graphics card driver in Debian (sluggish KDE)

Cultist · 02-07-2010, 02:38 PM

I have an NVIDIA GTX 260M card which is one of the more high-end mobile graphics cards, and so should certainly be able to handle any GUI. All that I've read has said that Debian 5.x should have built-in support for NVIDIA cards. But when I'm logged in, all the menus and stuff in KDE are really sluggish and frame-skippish. So I naturally assume, no built-in graphics card support. Since so far I can't figure out where in Linux I have to go to look at my hardware specs (to see if my card is recognized), I get online download the applicable proprietary driver file. Due to my job, I'm about 6 months away from having internet access to my own laptop, where the problem is occurring, so I have to download it on my work computer and copy it over.

I find the necessary driver file from nvidia.com, NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run (I'm using a 32-bit version of Debian, even though my laptop is quadcore).

Now, I can't figure out what to do to install this .run file.
Double-clicking it seems to do nothing but open a text file and then lock up my computer for half an hour.

What do I need to do to get my card working now?
Thanks for the help

damgar · 02-07-2010, 02:45 PM

To install the nvidia proprietary drivers from their page you need to be in a true console (no X/gui running) and run

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sudo sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run

I've never used Debian proper so I can't tell you how to get there.

I'm not sure of the graphical tools in Debian proper, but I would assume that, like Ubuntu which is Debian based, you could add non-free repositories, and then do a search for the nvidia drivers. It will probably be an older driver version though, so you would need to make sure that the version available from the repositories supports your particular card.

Cultist · 02-07-2010, 02:52 PM

is /path/to/ literally /path/to/, or do you mean like /home/ or whatever directory I have the file?

I can't directly download on my laptop, so I have to download on this computer and copy the files to my own computer(due to work restrictions)

damgar · 02-07-2010, 02:56 PM

To get into a non-X environment and install the driver I believe you can do this:

ctrl+alt+f2
login

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sudo su (enter password when prompted) 
 
/etc/init.d/gdm stop (assumes you are using gnome desktop manager) 
 
sh /path/to/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-190.53-pkg1.run  (follow prompts for driver installation) 
 
/etc/init.d/gdm start

login

damgar · 02-07-2010, 02:57 PM

I mean the path to the driver such as

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/home/user/Downloads/NVIDIA-INSTALLER

Cultist · 02-07-2010, 03:01 PM

great thanks. I'll all this out and post here how it worked out tomorrow

damgar · 02-07-2010, 03:33 PM

Good luck. Be aware that you may be using kdm (kde display manager) or xdm (x-windows display manager) rather than gdm.

Cultist · 02-08-2010, 08:55 AM

ran into another issue. First it told me to install binutils. so I restarted kde and installed binutils from my dvd repositories. Ran install process again. This time it tells me to install gckl (or something like that), so again I install it from my DVDs. Run the installation for a third time, and it tells me I need 'make'. I check my DVDs for this, and there is no 'make'. What is it, and where can I get it? I didn't find much info elsewhere, and I'm not really sure why I don't already have it as part of the initial Debian install because it seems to be a pretty core file. My repository does have 'mmake', but it says that its already installed. I don't know if the two are related or not. any tips on getting past this 'make' roadblock?

damgar · 02-08-2010, 09:02 AM

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$ man make

Quote:

DESCRIPTION
The purpose of the make utility is to determine automatically which pieces of a large program need to be recom‐
piled, and issue the commands to recompile them. The manual describes the GNU implementation of make, which was
written by Richard Stallman and Roland McGrath, and is currently maintained by Paul Smith. Our examples show C
programs, since they are most common, but you can use make with any programming language whose compiler can be run
with a shell command. In fact, make is not limited to programs. You can use it to describe any task where some
files must be updated automatically from others whenever the others change.

The easiest way will be to use the debian package manager. You may need additional dev packages, I've never used Debian proper, but I believe it uses synaptic as a front end to aptitude just like Ubuntu.

You might be able to just issue the following command

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$ sudo apt-get install make

Cultist · 02-08-2010, 09:14 AM

those commands should work offline, right?

(I have a very annoying situation requiring my linux laptop to not be online at all)

damgar · 02-08-2010, 09:19 AM

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man make

was just showing you where I got the info on make. It's from the man pages. You can check out various programs on your system by typing

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man PROGRAMNAME

and that will work offline if the manual page is installed.

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$ sudo apt-get install make

will not work off-line. It is going to download make and it's dependencies and install them.

Cultist · 02-08-2010, 09:23 AM

can it just be downloaded separately so I can put it on a thumbdrive and transfer it?

craigevil · 02-08-2010, 09:27 AM

If you need to download packages for offline usage you might take a look at:
Welcome to Sushi, huh? package downloader for offline GNU/Linux systems - http://sushi-huh.sourceforge.net/

For installing nvidia I always just run smxi

damgar · 02-08-2010, 09:35 AM

Maybe with

Quote:

sudo apt-get install -d make

or

Quote:

~$ sudo apt-get source -d make

I have no real experience working in a non-broadband environment. It is my job to deliver broadband to people..... especially in rural or underserved places so it's basically a given in my life. I'm spoiled in that regard I guess.

Cultist · 02-08-2010, 09:37 AM

http://www.gnu.org/software/make/ I found this, which leads me to http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/make/

Is that the right thing? It has the line "GNU Make has many powerful features for use in makefiles, beyond what other Make versions have", so I'm not sure if its some special version of make, or if it will work for what I need