"As you already know, if I have to sit down in front of a computer, I want it to be running the Gnome desktop on Linux. I've watched it mature from a downright ugly, needlessly complex playground for geeks, to an attractive, simple interface that holds its own against commercial alternatives. And yet, every day I still encounter rough edges that make me think there aren't nearly enough folks out there hacking away at this stuff. I'd like to watch." Read more at PCWorld. Warning: While some of the author's gripes can be fixed by installing third party applications or plugins, or by tweaking Alsa etc, the point remains that his default distribution and/or Gnome did not come with these conveniences by default. Most people don't like tweaking stuff, they want things that "just work".
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Member since:2005-07-08
So I went to nVidia's site & downloaded the driver for amd64/linux.
While I have 64-bit hardware, I am still running the x86 version of Ubuntu (and I haven't gotten around to the Breezy update either) so this may not apply to x86_64/Breezy, but...
I'm pretty sure the nVidia drivers are in universe or multiverse. IIRC the package is called "nvidia-glx" Once you have set up your apt sources to look in universe and multiverse it's a simple matter of "apt-get install nvidia-glx"
You *CAN* install the nVidia drivers from nVidia's site, and I have done it under Hoary, but you really have to know what you are doing. You'll need all of the standard development tools, the kernel source for the kernel you are running (might be best to compile your own kernel first), etc. It's much easier to just take it from the apt repository.
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Kevin
Member since:2005-07-26
I don't now how used to linux you are, but anyway - downloading the driver from nvidia is not necessary. That 's begging for problems if you're a newbie.
(if you want to (re)configure X)
Just do 'sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg, go mostly with the default answer and pick your card/driver.
open up synaptic and install the nvidia drivers from there.
do 'sudo /etc/X11/xorg.conf" in a terminal and change the line
Driver "nv"
to
Driver "nvidia"
that should do it i think.
But yeah, joe user shouldn't have to do this
Member since:2005-06-29
The other repliers are probably right, ubuntu probably packages nvidia drivers.
Now, I'm going to give you the standard 64bit disclaimer: Not everything works on 64bit, expect uphill battles on some things that the 32bitters get off scott free with.
That said, please, continue to blaze the x64 trail for those of us (me) who can't afford one yet. It will be a good idea to go ahead and install packages like binutils, and gcc. Note, when you're building things, you'll need "-dev" packages not just the regular package. Those "-dev" packages contain header files (this is needed to build source code). So like, say you want something that needs gtk. You need gtk, and gtk-dev. I'm about 95% sure Ubuntu uses this convention, I know Debian does. Some distributions just put the header files into the regular packages.
FOSS is not about competing with Microsoft. FOSS is about power for the user. The best way to empower the user is to educate him. That doesn't mean you make everything overly difficult, and I'm sure there are people working on nicer xconfiguration utilities; but things are never going to get completely sugarcoated for you. And that's a *VERY* good thing. Endless problems stem from users being able to do things they don't understand; trust me, I've done some phone tech support.
Member since:
2005-11-11
Thanks very much for your feedback and the resources. Google wasn't helpful which usually is. I'll do those.
Well, Daniel's input was correct. One can (in theory) set resolution/refresh in Preferences -> Screen Resolution. However xorg only shows the most basic resolutions, 1024x768;800x600;640x640 and all only at 60hz (eye killing flicker for me). Well, this is about what Windows would do so that in and of itself is understandable to me.
So I went to nVidia's site & downloaded the driver for amd64/linux. I run that (having to set u+x permissions which a real novice wouln't know how to do) and it says the following:
ERROR: Unable to find the system utility `ld`; please make sure you have the package 'binutils' installed. If you do have binutils installed, then please check that `ld` is in your PATH.
So I'm not sure if it's Ubuntu's distro that is lacking or if it is nVidia's driver that has an unusual dependency. Google search indiciates that binutils is a rather standard thing for Ubuntu so I just don't know why it can't find ld. I've found nothing so far. A 'find / -name ld' gets nothing.
Okay i'm positive all of this can be fixed with some work but its just not what Linux needs to have users going through if it wants to grow to outcompete Windows on the desktop. I would like nothing more than to stop using Windows for many reasons but .....
My point in posting this, in a way, isn't looking for tech support but to post this type of issue that the story points to with Linux. Its topical as I see it.