Open Source @ VidaO2.com

Hello again, if you had followed my blog close enough you may knew I had some troubles with my Video Card, with my Fedora 10 installation. Looks like the problem was the version of the Kernel I was using.

Note: Before starting this walkthrough you must be already running the Kernel PAE

A little bit of theory…

Looks like normal computers have some troubles when running more than 4GB of ram. So when Fedora detects that your system is running more than 3GB of ram, it switches to a different version of the Kernel, the Kernel PAE, that allows more than 4GB of ram. [want more info?, here is the wikipedia link]

Now to the Practice…

If you have tried to install the nvidia drivers from some other walkthroughs, then you will need to erase them, as well as the old version of the kernel. In my case removing the kernel, removed all the other files, including kmod-nvidia drivers. You can type this into your console:

# yum erase kernel

Yes! I know that running that command may cause some fear on you guys… Trust me when I tried this I had by the side of my mouse the Install DVD of Fedora 8 (I was thinking on downgrading), but I didn’t had to use it.

Now lets install the kernel PAE headers (we do not have to install the kernel it self because we already have it)

# yum install kernel-PAE-devel

Now let’s download the official nvidia drivers from here.

Now kill the xserver (Before doing this! copy the next steps cause you wont be having this web page opened) [Thanks to James Linden for the help in here].

# init 3

After that go to a TTY, enter with your user and type

$ cd Downloads/
$ su -
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22.pkg1.run

Follow the steps, and this should compile the kernel module. After this you can reboot and then you will be able to run compiz!

This is the way I made run the nvidia 9500 gt in my Fedora 10.

Feel free to ask any questions, or any comments on my mini walk through.