Installing the NVIDIA Driver
____________________________________________________
This chapter provides instructions for installing the NVIDIA driver. Note that
after installation, but prior to using the driver, you must complete the steps
described in Chapter 3. Additional details that may be helpful for the new
Linux user are provided in Chapter 8.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Prior to beginning the installation, you should exit the X server and kill all
OpenGL applications (note that it is possible that some OpenGL applications
persist even after the X server has stopped). You should also set the default
run level on your system such that it will boot to a VGA console, and not
directly to X. Doing so will make it easier to recover if there is a problem
during the installation process. Please see Chapter 8 for details.
STARTING THE INSTALLER
After you have downloaded the file 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8776-pkg#.run',
change to the directory containing the downloaded file, and as the 'root' user
run the executable:
# cd yourdirectory
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8776-pkg#.run
The '.run' file is a self-extracting archive. When executed, it extracts the
contents of the archive and runs the contained 'nvidia-installer' utility,
which provides an interactive interface to walk you through the installation.
'nvidia-installer' will also install itself to '/usr/bin/nvidia-installer',
which may be used at some later time to uninstall drivers, auto-download
updated drivers, etc. The use of this utility is detailed later in this
chapter.
You may also supply command line options to the '.run' file. Some of the more
common options are listed below.
Common '.run' Options
--info
Print embedded info about the '.run' file and exit.
--check
Check integrity of the archive and exit.
--extract-only
Extract the contents of './NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8776.run', but do not run
'nvidia-installer'.
--help
Print usage information for the common commandline options and exit.
--advanced-options
Print usage information for common command line options as well as the
advanced options, and then exit.
INSTALLING THE KERNEL INTERFACE
The NVIDIA kernel module has a kernel interface layer that must be compiled
specifically for each kernel. NVIDIA distributes the source code to this
kernel interface layer, as well as precompiled versions for many of the
kernels provided by popular Linux distributions.
When the installer is run, it will determine if it has a precompiled kernel
interface for the kernel you are running. If it does not have one, it will
check if there is one on the NVIDIA FTP site (assuming you have an Internet
connection), and download it. If one cannot be downloaded, either because the
FTP site cannot be reached or because one is not provided, the installer will
check your system for the required kernel sources and compile the interface
for you. You must have the source code for your kernel installed for
compilation to work. On most systems, this means that you will need to locate
and install the correct kernel-source or kernel-headers package; on some newer
distributions, no additional packages are required (e.g. Fedora Core 3, Red
Hat Enterprise Linux 4).
Note that linking of the kernel interface (in the case that the interface was
downloaded or compiled at installation) requires you to have a linker
installed on your system. The linker, usually '/usr/bin/ld', is part of the
binutils package. If a precompiled kernel interface is not found, you must
install a linker prior to installing the NVIDIA driver.
FEATURES OF THE INSTALLER
Without options, the '.run' file executes the installer after unpacking it.
The installer can be run as a separate step in the process, or can be run at a
later time to get updates, etc. Some of the more important commandline options
of 'nvidia-installer' are:
'nvidia-installer' options
--uninstall
During installation, the installer will make backups of any conflicting
files and record the installation of new files. The uninstall option
undoes an install, restoring the system to its pre-install state.
--latest
Connect to NVIDIA's FTP site, and report the latest driver version and the
url to the latest driver file.
--update
Connect to NVIDIA's FTP site, download the most recent driver file, and
install it.
--ui=none
The installer uses an ncurses-based user interface if it is able to locate
the correct ncurses library. Otherwise, it will fall back to a simple
commandline user interface. This option disables the use of the ncurses
library.
Note that, as suggested by the options, the installer has the ability to
download updated precompiled kernel interfaces from the NVIDIA FTP site (for
kernels that were released after the NVIDIA driver release).
Согласен, что по английски трудно понять, но без него никуда
