Why the NVidia way ?
Because nothing is ready to install it under lenny the debian way. It's possible with Etch and Sid but not with Lenny. See here for more information.
Prerequisites
gcc-4.1
Lenny's kernel image are build with gcc-4.1 but Lenny ships gcc-4.3. In order to properly compile the NVidia kernel driver, you have to install gcc-4.1.
apt-get install gcc-4.1
Kernel headers
apt-get install linux-headers-2.6-686
Stop your DM
Replace gdm by your dm (kdm, slim, …) :
/etc/init.d/gdm stop
If you use SLiM and have the problem as me, you'll have to kill slim and X because stop doesn't work.
Download the driver
Beware there is three version of drivers :
- legacy : 71.XX (for TNT, TNT2, Geforce1, Geforce GTS, Geforce TI, …)
- super legacy : 96.XX (Geforce2 MX, Geforce3/4)
- unified : 173.XX (the rest)
Installation
As root of course.
export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-4.1
# to workaround Xen bug of kernel 2.6.25
cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)
grep CONFIG_XEN . -Rl | xargs -i sed -i -e ’s/CONFIG_XEN/CONFIG_LUPO/g’ {}
export IGNORE_XEN_PRESENCE=1
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.07-pkg1.run
Do not try to download the module from nvidia ftop and let the program build the module and modify your xorg.conf (your previous one is kept as xorg.conf.backup).
That's it you should have the nvidia driver installed.
Solving problems
Disclaimer
I've uninstalled the driver because I couldn't get it to work with my K7N420 with integrated Geforce2 MX. So don't expect too much.
NoLogo
You can disable the NVidia logo at startup, add this to your xorg.conf :
Option "NoLogo" "true"
NvAGP
With this setting you can change AGP support. An extract of the NVidia documentation :
Option "NvAGP" "integer"
Configure AGP support. Integer argument can be one of:
Value Behavior
-------------- ---------------------------------------------------
0 disable AGP
1 use NVIDIA's internal AGP support, if possible
2 use AGPGART, if possible
3 use any AGP support (try AGPGART, then NVIDIA's
AGP)
Please note that NVIDIA's internal AGP support cannot work if AGPGART is
either statically compiled into your kernel or is built as a module and
loaded into your kernel. Please see Appendix F for details. Default: 3.
You can even blacklist your normal AGP driver to force avoiding to use agpgart.
Uninstall
Nothing worked …. you can still uninstall and wait for nouveau (like me) :
nvidia-installer --uninstall