The Day, Or Year, The Linux Desktop Died - InformationWeek

[cecilia]

personally I'm very happy with my Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid on my "old" laptop

nothing is perfect, but I also have to make compromises on the Windows side of my multi-boot system. however, having Linux gives me options. why people think they have to debate this sort of thing just makes me laugh

Ubuntu has never crashed on me. I have yet to use/install nVidia drivers because it seems a bit daunting and if something works I am loath to change it. I have installed or used programs to read various cell phones/cameras and removable drives. I can write to ntsf formated portable drive. I'm happy

iis it the most perfect thing in the universe? no...but it's really good and fun. and works!

[cecilia]

I use the drivers directly from nVidia as they provide all the various libraries I need to write software for the GPU.

Installing them is actually fairly easy, but as it's not from the repository you need to rebuild them every time you have a kernel update.

Installing just amounts to running the downloaded file in a root shell. You need to not have the X server running too:

1) Boot into "safe" mode, then select "root shell"
2) change to runlevel 3 (type: telinit 3)
3) log in as yourself
4) sudo as root
5) run the installer package (sh .run)
6) agree that nVidia isn't liable for the unexpected end of the universe
7) let it try to download a kernel module, if that fails let it build it
let it install the legacy 32-bit opengl stuff if you have a 64-bit driver
9) let it backup and replace your xorg.conf
10) restart

if all has gone well, you now have drivers that support your hardware properly. One downside is, you also have a tainted kernel, if you care about such things.

yeah, that sounds very similar to what I have seen on the ubuntu forums. my nVidia GeForce4 440 Go doesn't seem to have a specific driver on the nVidia site, but it's years old so i am not surprised.

I'm just not comfortable with doing all that - at least not right now.

thanks, tho

[cecilia]

Actually, if you are looking at a GeForce 4 generation card, the open source nv drivers probably have it covered. It's only once you get to the G80 generation and above you really need to use nVidia's drivers to get the most out of your hardware

I believe the recommended number from the open source nv drivers is something like "96" - this off the top of my head.

If I recall correctly i think I tried it once, rebooted to a black screen and had to bring my laptop to a friends place who connected the laptop to a monitor which could see the screen. as there was no time for tweaking we just removed the offending drivers.

someday when I have the time I'll try this again.

Ubuntu works fine even without this added stuff. and yes, it's not perfect, but so far it works for me.