Karl On Sat, 2008-01-19 at 20:59 -0600, Karl Schmidt wrote: > I think I shouldn't have updated to lenny -- I can't get nvidia working and I need it for a > dual head setup (I don't think the "nv" driver can do this). That depends. Are you using a video card with two heads or two cards? If your using two cards (like I am) then it's no problem. > Not sure which way to go from here: > > * Use the nvidia supplied drivers? (I've never done this) I've stopped using them. I run lenny on both my workstation and laptop. On my 64-bit workstation I had a disk problem and different kernels coped better than others. The system would run of a few days and the just lock up. I had to re-compile the nVidia driver every time I swapped kernels (if I wanted to use X). On my laptop the system suddenly became very sluggish after on upgrade (inc kernel so re-compile of the nVidia driver required). I can not prove that it was the nVidia driver, but as far as I could tell it was only the graphics that ran slowly. Switch to a virtual console and the speed was there. My recommendation is to only use the nVidia drivers if you _need_ a facility that the FLOSS driver doesn't support: 1). Duel head card, and/or 2). 3D acceleration, and/or 3). Better external display support [1]. If you don't use _need_ them (and I don't) the FLOSS one is much less hassle. > * Is there a way to use the etch drivers? Yes. Just pull the debs from the server and install them by hand: # dpkg -i <deb> [...] > * Get Some other card that has an open driver that supports dual head display? You could just buy a cheep PCI graphics card and do it that way. That's what I've done. I managed to pick up cheep second hard graphics card from a computer fair (<£5): 00:0c.0 VGA compatible controller: Texas Instruments TVP4020 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV28 Steve [1] The nVidia driver will drive both the laptop screen and a projector at the same time. And you can plug the projector in at any time. IIRC the FLOSS driver has problems here and it is best to boot and shutdown with the projector plugged in. -- Steve Dobson The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. -- F. Scott Fitzgerald
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