If you have an Nvidia graphics card, I strongly suggest replacing the default "nv" driver that comes bundled with F8 with a secondary driver that allows for graphics acceleration. However, before you go trotting off to www.nvidia.com, there is an important warning that has been given with respect to third party proprietary video drivers:
As a result of this, it is strongly advisable that you do not install a driver directly from nvidia using yum:
~>
sudo yum install kmod-nvidia
Hit Enter, and
and 'y'
when asked if you want to install the rpm package
and any dependencies.If you get an error, it is probably because your kernel is more recent than the kernels for which livna has built its Nvidia kernel modules. If this is the case, simply switch back to an older kernel on your Fedora boot menu (I typically keep 2 kernels around), or wait a few days until livna builds the most recent graphics acceleration module rpm for your respective kernel. If your kernel is updated, yum should automatically resolve the dependencies and install a new kmod-nvidia module as well. Since you have already setup SELinux properly, it should not prevent the kernel module from loading. If you have not setup SELinux yet, please see the SELinux page first. Once installed, log out of Gnome, KDE, or Enlightenment, and the Nvidia driver should automatically load. You should see the Nvidia logo quickly flash on your screen before your Login Manager launches.
Note: There are times when livna seems to have a bit of difficulty resolving the proper dependencies for a particular kernel, especially if a i586 and a i686 kernel are available both for download. The quickest way to solve this problem is go to the Fedora Updates page and download the new kernel by hand:
Download the latest i686 kernel version and install it using rpm:
~> sudo rpm -vhi ~/Download/kernel-*.i686.rpm
Once installed, try installing or updating kmod-nvidia again using yum. Hopefully, the problem should now be solved.Removing Old kmod-nvidia modules
After a while you will start to accumulate a number of older nvidia kernel modules. To check how many you have on your system, type:
~>
rpm -q kmod-nvidia
Compare
these against the
kernels installed under /boot,
or against the kernel you are currently running: ~>
ls /boot
Any kernel modules that are
installed that no longer
correspond to kernels on your system can be deleted. For
example, if I wanted to delete the kernel module associated with the 2.6.23.8-63
kernel, I would type: ~>
sudo rpm -e kmod-nvidia-2.6.23.8-63.fc8-100.14.19-19.lvn8
Repeat this process for all of
your old nvidia
kernel modules to keep your system clean. That's about it.
The next time you reboot, your nvidia driver should load.
To verify, take a look at /etc/X11/xorg.conf,
and look for a line that says:
Driver
"nvidia"
If you want to get a feel for
how well it performs, there is a nifty little program called glxgears
that draws three rotating gears and prints out frame rate information
based upon its performance. It is a nice way to get a feel for
how fast your graphics card is working. I typically only get
about 2000 FPS or so, but that is because I am using a single video
card to drive both an analog and digital monitor simultaneously (I've
setup a dual head system on my server). On other computers, I've
seen it reach much higher. To use the program, type: ~>
glxgears
Close the window when
finished. On the whole, you should notice X responding
much more quickly than it was before.