GeForce 7300 LE and Mepis 6
Hello Guys:
First I would like to thank you for such fine OS which is the best that I ever tried.
I would like to have some help from a Mepis wiz since I have been experiencing problems with my Video card. My system is a Dell XPS 400 with a GeForce 7300 LE video card (PCI Express).
I'm a big Wolfenstein Enemy Territory fan and I have been playing this game since day one (about 3 years ago)
The problem that I have is as follows:
After installing Mepis 6 from the CD version, the system took it with no problems, except for the modem, but I don't really care too much about it since I don't use it at all.
After the installation I did proceed to install the "latest" NVIDIA drivers using the configuration tool provided by the OS.
Installed Enemy Territory, it ran, but with crappy graphics...ok ( i told to myself) I will go to the NVIDIA site and will download the latest one (thinking that is probably with the SLI or something), but after that all became a complete nightmare. My system is running the latest kernel from Mepis (not Ubuntu) 2.5.15-27.
My system has gcc, kernel headers (properly linked), and all I think that should be necessary to properly install the 8774 or the Beta driver from NVIDIA. Nothing I just can't get the latest NVIDIA driver installed.
Just for u to know I'm not a complete n00b, I went through all the process (CTRL + ALT + F1 ---> su...pass ---> init 3) after that sh, bla bla and nothing, the installer is requesting a "kernel source" package and right there....clueless 
What packages will be necessary and from what repositories to properly install the latest nvidia driver from their website?
Thx in advanced,
MepisReign a.k.a Bob
P.S.: Sorry about my typing, my english is not my first language...
Add-on:
My Nvidia installer log:
nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Sun Oct 8 12:30:31 2006
option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
precompiled interfaces : true
no ncurses color : false
query latest version : false
OpenGL header files : true
no questions : false
silent : false
no recursion : false
no backup : false
kernel module only : false
sanity : false
add this kernel : false
no runlevel check : false
no network : false
no ABI note : false
no RPMs : false
no kernel module : false
force SELinux : default
no X server check : false
force tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : (not specified)
X library install path : (not specified)
X module install path : (not specified)
OpenGL install prefix : (not specified)
OpenGL install libdir : (not specified)
utility install prefix : (not specified)
utility install libdir : (not specified)
doc install prefix : (not specified)
kernel name : (not specified)
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel output path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp mirror : ftp://download.nvidia.com
RPM file list : (not specified)
Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> License accepted.
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you li
ke the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel f
rom the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://download.nvidia.com)? (Answer: Yes)
-> No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site;
this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for
your kernel.
-> Performing CC sanity check with CC="cc".
-> Performing CC version check with CC="cc".
ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel.
Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your
kernel and that they are properly configured; on Red Hat Linux systems,
for example, be sure you have the 'kernel-source' RPM installed. If you
know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the
kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' command line option.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com.
'headers' and 'source'
headers are a small subset of the source
you said that you had headers installed but not the source; you have everything else ready to go so I hope that installing the source will get nvidia at top speed for you
OK, I will go over all the
OK, I will go over all the process again, and if I succeed wil post the results and how everything went.
Thx for your timely response
MepisReign
OK, I did all the procedure of the installation in the proper way and the latest NVIDIA driver from their site (BETA) is up and running. Now I just realized that the problem is not the driver but my FLAT PANEL
. It's a DELL 19 inches E196FP (not digital). The problem seems to be with the color depth, it only takes thousands of colors instead of millions of colors, any ideas?
Regards
MepisReign
After going back to the 8774 driver, please check this part of the Xorg log:
WW) NVIDIA(0): Invalid ConnectedMonitor request; request was for 'DFP-0,
(WW) NVIDIA(0): DFP-1', but the valid display devices are 'CRT-0, CRT-1,
(WW) NVIDIA(0): DFP-0, TV-0'.
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA GPU GeForce 7300 LE at PCI:1:0:0
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoRAM: 524288 kBytes
(--) NVIDIA(0): VideoBIOS: 05.72.22.41.31
(II) NVIDIA(0): Detected PCI Express Link width: 16X
(--) NVIDIA(0): Interlaced video modes are supported on this GPU
(--) NVIDIA(0): Connected display device(s) on GeForce 7300 LE at PCI:1:0:0:
(--) NVIDIA(0): Dell E196FP (CRT-1)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Dell E196FP (CRT-1): 400.0 MHz maximum pixel clock
(II) NVIDIA(0): Assigned Display Device: CRT-1
(II) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes:
(II) NVIDIA(0): "1280x1024"
(II) NVIDIA(0): "1024x768"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 1024
(++) NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (100, 100); computed from -dpi X commandline option
(II) do I need RAC? No, I don't.
***********************************************
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1280x1024"
(II) Loading extension NV-GLX
(II) NVIDIA(0): NVIDIA 3D Acceleration Architecture Initialized
(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture
(==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store disabled
(==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled
(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "SecondMonitorVendorName" is not used
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "SecondMonitorModelName" is not used
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "UseInternalAGPGART" is not used
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "DmaMode" is not used
(WW) NVIDIA(0): Option "FlatPanelProperties" is not used
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
(II) Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
(II) Initializing built-in extension XTEST
(II) Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
(II) Initializing built-in extension XC-APPGROUP
(II) Initializing built-in extension SECURITY
(II) Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
(II) Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
(II) Initializing built-in extension XFree86-Bigfont
(II) Initializing built-in extension RENDER
(II) Initializing built-in extension RANDR
(II) Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
(II) Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
(II) Initializing built-in extension XEVIE
(II) Initializing extension GLX
***********************************************
I think the problem may be that the system is not recognizing the monitor as a Flat Panel but a CRT. I mean this particular model is Analog not digital but even in that case I should be able to change from thousands of colors to millions of colors, am I right?
Regards,
MepisReign
no experience with that
and as no-one has butted in, have you asked at mepislovers.
someone there may know.
there are also other cheat methods, including getting a working file from somewhere else and copying it over
Also...
...I don't deal in "thousand" or "millions" of colors MepisReign. What bit setting are you trying? 8, 16, 24, 32? On many systems X11 defaults to 16 bit, but you may be able to bump it up to 24 bit. On my basic systems I cannot go to 32 bit (don't have a good video card) but 24 bit's pretty good
Jon