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Looking Fedora 22/21 nVidia Drivers Install Guide?

This is guide, howto install nVidia proprietary drivers on Fedora 14 and disable Nouveau driver. I write this guide about two weeks ago, but I Delayed the publication of this guide, because of pyxf86config bug, which cause following livna-config-display errors on boot:
*Checking for module nvidia.ko: [ OK ]
Enabling the nvidia driver: Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/sbin/nvidia-config-display”, line 28, in
import livnaConfigDisplay.ConfigDisplay
File “/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/livnaConfigDisplay/ConfigDisplay.py”, line 29, in
import xf86config
File “/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/xf86config.py”, line 1, in
import ixf86config
ImportError: /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ixf86configmodule.so: undefined symbol: xstrtokenize
[FAILED]

But now, on my own testing and others testing, everything seems to work well with pyxf86config and livna-config-display when pyxf86config bug has been fixed.

This guide works with GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300 series cards and also with GeForce FX cards.

Install nVidia proprietary drivers on Fedora 14 and disable the nouveau driver

1. Change root user

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

2. Make sure that you are running latest kernel

If not then update kernel and reboot

yum update kernel*
reboot

3. Add RPMFusion Repositories (Free and Non-Free)

rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm 
rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

4. Install nVidia proprietary drivers

4a. Install nVidia proprietary drivers for GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300 series cards

Select kmod, kmod-PAE or akmod from following.

kmod-nvidia

yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs

or

kmod-nvidia-PAE kernel

yum install kmod-nvidia-PAE

or

akmod-nvidia

yum install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs

kmod works fine for most people, but it doesn’t work on systems with different kernel

  • like a self-compiled kernel
  • an older Fedora kernel
  • the quickly changing kernels from updates-testing/rawhide

Full spec of kmod and akmod differences, check this.

4b. Install nVidia proprietary drivers for GeForce FX cards

Select kmod, kmod-PAE or akmod from following.

kmod-nvidia and kmod-nvidia-PAE

yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install kmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

or

kmod-nvidia-PAE kernel

yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing  install kmod-nvidia-173xx-PAE

or

akmod-nvidia

yum --enablerepo=rpmfusion-nonfree-updates-testing install akmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

kmod works fine for most people, but it doesn’t work on systems with different kernel

  • like a self-compiled kernel
  • an older Fedora kernel
  • the quickly changing kernels from updates-testing/rawhide

Full spec of kmod and akmod differences, check this.

5. Check /etc/X11/xorg.conf file

This should not be necessary, but I recommend this, because of pyxf86config bug.

Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and check following rows:
32-bit

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

64-bit

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
EndSection

If section files is missing then it have to be added manually.

6. Check /boot/grub/grub.conf file

This should not be necessary, but missing rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0 is the most common reason which causes black screen / blank screen on boot with nVidia drivers. So it’s good to check followin also. ;)

Open /boot/grub/grub.conf file and check that the kernel row have following rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0:

title Fedora (2.6.35.6-48.fc14.i686)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.i686 .... rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.35.6-48.fc14.i686.img

7. Finally all is done and then reboot

reboot

Please let me know if you have some problems with nVidia drivers installation. You could also tell you if you got the drivers installed using this guide and what graphics card you have?