[SOLVED] how to install legacy nvidia drivers

[notyourbuddy]

EDIT: See Reply #7 for installation instructions

GeForce 4 Ti4200

The drivers supplied in the default installation are insufficient so are the experimental 3D hardware acceleration drivers that popup in the Additional Drivers app. I feel as if I am getting no hardware acceleration... the desktop widgets are a little glitchy.. video playback is choppy.. etc.

I see some legacy drivers in the repository that intrigue me... in particular the 96 series... but trying to install those results in:

The following packages have unment dependencies: nvidia-96: 
depends: xorg-video-abi-8.0 but it is not installable depends: 
xserver-xorg-cor (>= 2:1.8.99.905-1 ubuntu3) but it is not going to be installed.

Those dependencies sound like something I shouldn't be tinkering with... or should I?

[wizard10000]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

GeForce 4 Ti4200

The drivers supplied in the default installation are insufficient so are the experimental 3D hardware acceleration drivers that popup in the Additional Drivers app. I feel as if I am getting no hardware acceleration... the desktop widgets are a little glitchy.. video playback is choppy.. etc.

I see some legacy drivers in the repository that intrigue me... in particular the 96 series... but trying to install those results in:

The following packages have unment dependencies: nvidia-96: 
depends: xorg-video-abi-8.0 but it is not installable depends: 
xserver-xorg-cor (>= 2:1.8.99.905-1 ubuntu3) but it is not going to be installed.

Those dependencies sound like something I shouldn't be tinkering with... or should I?

Not sure this is so much a driver issue as an ancient video card issue

I'd replace the video card. This is about as good as it gets for an AGP card - $40 before a $10 rebate plus $2.99 shipping -

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130654

[notyourbuddy]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

wish i could but... oh dear... this box is so old that it can't really handle any upgrades..

any attempts to upgrade one component would require dropping another 30-50$ for another... this poor lila fella is powered by an itty bitty 250watt power supply :-X

i contemplated upgrading the card a few months back, but i couldn't bring myself to spending 70$+ for a marginal upgrade and to another blah AGP card at that... especially since this card still runs pretty solid in winXP on non-game related things

figured with my hardware being as ancient as it is support would be limited, but thought i'd ask just to make sure 8)

[oshunluvr]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

You need the nvidia legacy drivers series 96.43.xx for that card. They're in the repository.

[ardvark71]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

You need the nvidia legacy drivers series 96.43.xx for that card. They're in the repository.

Hi....

By any chance would these drivers work on another ubuntu based distribution? I had an experience similar to the OP's a while back involving Lubuntu with a GeForce 3 Ti 500. "Additional Drivers" (only) offered me the same experimental 3D driver. I installed it and it worked fairly well but I don't think they're as good as the nvidia drivers themselves.

Regards...

[oshunluvr]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

I recommended nvidia drivers. I've never heard of "Additional" drivers.

[ardvark71]

Re: Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

I recommended nvidia drivers. I've never heard of "Additional" drivers.

Hi....

"Additional Drivers" is Jockey in Kubuntu.

Regards...

[notyourbuddy]

Re: how to install legacy nvidia drivers

Old thread (been gone awhile as I gave up on Linux for a lil' bit ), but I finally got some spare time so decided to give Linux another go and thankfully figured out how to finally install legacy Nvidia drivers and get proper hardware acceleration without destroying my Linux partition :P.

Guess for a seasoned Pro this is pretty basic stuff, but wow did it ever give me headaches so I wanted to come back and post my step-by-step procedure in case any other new fella with turd hardware like myself was/had/in-the-future runs into the same problem and stumbles upon this thread.

Installing Nvidia Legacy drivers via the built-in package manager never worked for me and following many tutorials I came across on the subject never worked for me either (most notably blacklisting/removing the Nouveau driver by modifying a bunch of files by hand). Hence, the reason for the following procedure (worked for me in Kubuntu 11.04 and Mint 11):

• Identify card driver from here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html
• Download Nvidia legacy driver for your card from: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
• Install gcc from package manager (not pre-installed on Kubuntu it seems)
• Install make from package manager (not pre-installed on Kubuntu it seems)
• Restart computer and from GRUB select Ubuntu Recovery Mode
• Go to the bottom of menu list, choose ‘root console’
• At the command prompt type: echo options nouveau modeset=0 | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/nouveau-kms.conf
• At the command prompt type: update-initramfs -u
• Restart computer and from GRUB select Ubuntu. At the login screen press CTRL+ALT+F1 for the command prompt
• Type: sudo service kdm stop (for kde) or sudo service gdm stop (for gnome)
• Type: sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.20-pkg1.run (replacing the filename if needed)
• Accept the license
• Prompt pops up saying pre-install script failed! (ignore this and continue on)

It should start compiling the kernel source then ask if you want to set this driver to run next time X starts (say YES). Back at the command prompt type: sudo service kdm start to get back to the login screen. Login and all done. Use the newly installed Nvidia Settings app to play around with the settings.

http://www.mediafire.com/i/?jcyaci3eszyaase

Anyways this worked for me... running at 1920x1024 resolution and no more lag when moving windows.. playing video in browsers etc when I try to run an Ubuntu based distro. Finally feels like I have full hardware acceleration

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Credit for steps described above goes to this guy: http://www.socialblogr.com/2010/10/h...ntu-10-10.html

[woodsmoke]

Re: [SOLVED] Nvidia Geforce (shes an oldy)

nyb
nice write up. I used to be into "old" lol.... quite a few years ago at another forum we used to have contests on "just how old" or "just how little memory can you..." etc. lotsa fun

again, nice writeup and could you modify your title on the ABOVE post to something like "how install legacy nvidia drivers" or something like that for people who might be searching at some future date?

woodsmoke

[oshunluvr]

Re: [SOLVED] how to install legacy nvidia drivers

Good job. The only thing I'd pint out to you is since you're not using dkms drivers, you have to manually re-build the nvidia drivers when you update the kernel.

Simple enough: don't update your kernel!

Also, I noticed in your screenshot your resolution is out of whack: 63x89

If your screen fonts look OK, no need to mess with it. If you wish to change it, add

Option "DPI" "100x100"

or whatever you want to /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the Monitor section.

[ardvark71]

Re: [SOLVED] how to install legacy nvidia drivers

Hi all...

Perhaps it might be worth it to sticky this thread.

Regards...