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Looking Fedora 22/21 nVidia Drivers Install Guide?

This is guide, howto install nVidia proprietary drivers on Fedora 15 and disable Nouveau driver. This guide works with GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300 series cards and also with GeForce FX cards.

Fedora 15 nVidia driver installation is not much different from previous Fedora versions. I have tested this guide with a couple computers, so let me know, if you have some problems.

Install nVidia proprietary drivers on Fedora 15 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)⌗

32-bit and 64-bit

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⌗

Select 4a. (GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300/400/500) or 4b. (GeForce FX) depending on your card

4a. Install nVidia proprietary drivers for GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300/400/500 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 and PAE-kernel devel

yum install kernel-PAE-devel kmod-nvidia-PAE

or

akmod-nvidia

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

akmod is good option and easy way avoid problems on kernel updates and is best and only option if you use:

  • self-compiled kernel
  • older Fedora kernel
  • 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

yum install kmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

or

kmod-nvidia-PAE and PAE-kernel devel

yum install kernel-PAE-devel kmod-nvidia-173xx-PAE

or

akmod-nvidia

yum install akmod-nvidia-173xx xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-173xx-libs.i686

akmod is good option and easy way avoid problems on kernel updates and is best and only option if you use:

  • self-compiled kernel
  • older Fedora kernel
  • quickly changing kernels from updates-testing/rawhide

Full spec of kmod and akmod differences, check this.

5. Check /boot/grub/grub.conf file (Optional step)⌗

This is optional, but butter check before reboot, because 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 following also. ;)

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

title Fedora (2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64 .... rdblacklist=nouveau nouveau.modeset=0
        initrd /initramfs-2.6.38.6-26.rc1.fc15.x86_64.img

6. All is done and then just 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?