Slashdot Mirror

What drivers did you install and how?

You should use the envy packages (universe: envyng-core & envyng-gtk or envyng-qt), then install the drivers with the util and then set up your monitors via the nvidia settings dialog.

http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

Send a PM if you need assistance.

Assuming you've got a reasonably modern version of X, and a somewhat capable video card, then xrandr does exactly what you're looking for. Mind you, it's a command-line application, but it's definitely not hard to use. A frequent Ubuntu contributor made a nice little GTK GUI front-end to it called urandr. This does exactly what you want (configure per-output rotation, resolution, etc). The only caveat is that you need to have configured X to have a big enough virtual screen size (x.org, Screen section, Display subsection, Virtual keyword) to support any anticipated output resolutions (combined size of the entire desktop across all outputs).

openSUSE offers a 1-click installer. Sabayon includes them by default. Heck, Mint (a nicer fork of Ubuntu) includes them by default. I followed the instructions on Ubuntu's wiki, yet they never worked. I asked for help and was repeatedly attacked for attempting to use ATI. Mind you, on the exact same laptop (my wife's old laptop) I ran Gentoo with the ATI drivers (custom kernel, -viper release), Sabayon with the ATI drivers, and openSUSE 10.1 with the ATI drivers. The only distro I had problems with was Ubuntu.

When was this? I have a machine with ATI drivers, Ubuntu installed them by default and alerted me that it had done it.

Then you probably have a desktop with a post 9600 ATI. I have three laptops with ATIs in them. They work with Fiesty but will not work with Gutsy or Hardy due to ATI dropping support in the binary. It is true however that Sabayon ships a nicer KDE and configures graphics cards properly that Ubuntu will not, I usually run a partition of both on each machine (my two favourite distros) and I have seen this many times.

If you need ATI binary support on Ubuntu and don't want to do any of that stuff manually, may I suggest EnvyNG? (Homepage is here.)

I'm typing this right now on an Ubuntu-based system with an nVidia card running dual monitors. There's a number of "user-friendly" methods of installing nVidia drivers, like Envy, but I just do it the good 'ol fashioned way:

(1) Download from nVidia's site, just as you would with Windows drivers.

(2) Stop X
(With a standard Ubuntu install:)
Ctrl-Alt-F1 for command line
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

(3) cd to the directory I downloaded the drivers too

(4) sudo sh [driver-file-name]

(4.5) Type password

(5) Hit "OK" or "Next" a whole bunch of times.

(6) Start X again
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start

To configure it (for things like dual-monitors:)

(1) Open a command line while in the gui (I think it's Applications -> Console... something like that)

(2) sudo nvidia-settings

Next time you give it a go try those instructions, or try Envy.

I've also got an EeePC. The pre-installed Xandros really sucks, sadly. If you get one, go ahead and get an SDHC card with it. It can boot from an OS installed on either the main flash drive or the SDHC slot (or something through USB) - which means you can try to install Ubuntu (or another distro - anything but that icky pre-installed one) on the SDHC card without worrying messing up the software it comes with. I highly recommend checking out eeexubuntu. It's got the reasonably noob-friendly Ubuntu goodness tweeked for the eeepc.

Also, one last thing - if you have the time and patience (and aren't already familiar with it), take a look at vi. When I got the eeepc, I found I could not keep up with my professors in class on the limited keyboard - I've been dependent on things like home/end and pageup/down, which aren't quite as accessible as they are on a full keyboard. I was directed by a friend to vi (well, specifically vim) which is a great text editing program that functions fine with the eeepc's limited, cramped keyboard. While it's mostly popular with Linux folk, there's a solid Windows version you can try. It's very, very different and is not user friendly at all, but in terms of typing notes in class the improvement is enormous. I'd recommend you at least give it a look, even if you find it's too much to try to pick up and drop it.

I have two computers, one dual-booting Debian and Fedora 8, and one dual-booting XP and Ubuntu. I boot XP up once a week to update the anti-virus software, but that's about all I use it for. With a fast Nvidia card, I can have all the accelerated 3-d I want if I use Nvidia's driver (or a various distro's version of such). Since I paid for the video card, I feel I'm totally entitled to use Nvidia's driver. And in case anyone doesn't know, Alberto Milone's Envy ( http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html ) makes installing the driver trivially easy in Debian or Ubuntu. Now I'm probably giving away my age here, but I can play id games (like Quake or Doom 3 or Return To Castle Wolfenstein) with all the 3-D glory of any DirectX Windows games. If I'm downloading something, I can play for a few while I wait. Or watch quality video. Or even good Flash video, with the newest flash plug-in. Linux has come a very long ways recently, and it only looks to get better. And with Micro$oft releasing crap like Vista, more support for Linux is going to mean even more improvement.

I use Envy to install nvidia drivers - works like a charm. http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

I am currently running the *newst* ati binary drivers and although they have added the Catalyst Control center (improvement ofer the old fglrx control center) mine (and a few other people i know using the same driver) cant seem to get dual monitor to work. And with the Opensource ati driver atleast AIGLX works but still no dual head display.

          ATI needs to step up the quality of their coding and there is no *good* reason why ati does not support AIGLX and why their 8.35.5 is having problems with dual monitors. Because my laptop uses ati and i was so displeased with its state of drivers forced me to go with nvidia when i built my desktop a year ago. Im sure many people using Linux stay clear of ati when possible for the same reason. When and if they get their stuff together it will receive a warm welcome...if they do it right that is.

Also why is it people need programs like envy to install their drivers. Hopefully ATI and nvidia will pick up the slack hear and make it easer to install the drivers.

First of all, what is this assumption that grandma cannot use a command line?
Just because no one in their right minds would use the Windows command line for anything doesn't give Windows users any right to say that the shells on Linux systems are just as brain damaged.

If I can tell granny to "click the funny thing with the blue E on it, then click in the address field, then type www.google.com", I can bloody well tell her to type 'apt-get install nvidia' in a command window. The command line in Linux is no longer a scary full screen experience reminiscent of War Games and other hacker movies. It is a managable little window, indistinguishable from Notepad to any novice user.
But that's beside the point.

Both nvidia and ATI distribute GUI installers with their drivers. There's even 3rd party projects like ENVY for Ubuntu that'll detect your hardware and let you download, configure and install the appropriate packages. All within the comfort of a GUI.

Yes. The actual home page is http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html

I used it on my current Ubuntu setup at home and it worked flawlessly. It'd be a real treat if when the Ubuntu installer detected an nvidia card it would run that script upon first bootup. A similar script for ATI cards would be solve 95% of users' video card problems.

just use envy: http://albertomilone.com/nvidia_scripts1.html Click on the deb to install, run envy from the command line, tell it to do it's thing. It figures out what make and model card you have, and downloads and installs the appropriate proprietary driver. Works like a charm.

I use Envy to install the ATI drivers. It actually works ;-)