Installing nVidia drivers [WAS: Using apt to install only one package]
Stackpole, Chris wrote:
<snip>
Well I can't guarantee that it will all be smooth sailing when using Sid
packages. It should work, but obviously mileage varies. You do not want
to do an apt-get upgrade or anything like that but just a simple
'apt-get install package' may work for you. I do not foresee a reason
why you would need to change your kernel or to change anything but the
dependencies required by the package being upgraded by apt-get.
I wish you the best.
Have fun!
Chris Stackpole
Chris - no worries about a guarantee! I can fully appreciate that and
have, over a number of years of using GNU/Linux now, come to expect that
if something can go wrong, it probably will! The result inevitably has
been that I get dragged kicking and screaming into Computer-World with
all its arcane incantations and nuanced temperaments :-) until I can
figure out a fix that works and stays working and almost certainly due
to the help of many people along the way.
So, learning from past experiences, I now need to change my question
from one about controlling apt-get to the methodology of installing a
nVidia driver (and associated libraries, etc.) so that whenever the
kernel headers are upgraded, it doesn't deep-six my xorg, which is what
happened today!
Therefore ...
What is the "correct"/"best"/least error-prone method for installing an
nVidia driver from the Debian repositories, on a Lenny machine, so that
whenever the kernel headers are upgraded, the xorg continues to work?
I have done some searching on this, and to be honest some of the docs
seem quite out of date, and some even contradict each other. But so far
I have established that I do the following (I think!):
1. identify the kernel I am running (uname -r)
2. change my apt/sources.list to enable the latest drivers from Sid
3. download nVidia-driver and nVidia-glx and nVidia-settings (?) from
the Sid repos
4. download module-assistant
5. run m-a prepare && m-a a-i nvidia
6. check it's okay: grep -q ^nvidia /etc/modules || echo nvidia >>
/etc/modules
7. install the additionals: apt-get install nvidia-glx/Sid
8. restart the *DM /etc/init.d/gdm restart
Do I have this correct? If not, an informed steer would be welcomed.
What are the gotchas and any tips for troubleshooting?
Thanks
Andy
--
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers." - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
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