[macawgumbo]

I have been around the web and cannot find some simple easy to follow directions about how to get the drivers installed for my nforce2 chipset under Fedora Core 1. I have searched this forum and found something about minion.de but am still confused because it says something about kernel 2.6 and I didnt want to undergo a kernel upgrade (still somewhat new at this). I read something about forcedeth but it still is in alpha version and there are no gurantees. I really need to get my ethernet to work so i can start getting everything set up with more useful programs than the canned set and access the internet of course (oh and some networking stuff to work on). I really need help. Last night I tried installing nvidia stuff off there website, but with no luck. Anything please!

My kernel is the standard 2.4 that came with Fedora Core 1
Biostar M7NCG PRO (no agp card) integrated graphics

[danleff]

Boy, all these issues with the nforce chipsets makes me want to get one of these boards to try it out.

I wonder...if you could just buy a pci nic card and see if it works? They are pretty cheap @ about $10 and may save some headaches. The driver issue seems to be universal with the nic built-in ehernet on the board.

[jjcohen]

The drivers at minion.de are for the nvidia video card, not for the nforce chipset. You shouldn't need any drivers for your mobo, except if you need sata, in which case you may be out of luck.

[danleff]

[macawgumbo]

Also, i have everything set up but i am not sure if the video is working full throttle because some of those simple 3d screensavers seen unussually slow (despite the performance of the onboard geforce4 mx440 being bs). I can render directx under windows quicker than that and thought the performance was suppose to be faster in linux than windows. Oh well, at least it's working. But it is a generic geforce4 mx driver. Any thoughts? Ethernet help is still greatly appreciated.

[danleff]

[Dapper Dan]

I bought 2 Dells about a year and a half ago, and the onboard nic worked on both of them flawlessly. About 6 weeks ago, a friend of mine bought a new Dell and the onboard nic wouldn't work at all. We had to put a pci in. Pci nics are so cheap now, and almost all of them work with Linux. They can save a lot of head aches!

[macawgumbo]

Can I use the redhat 9 rpm for fedora from nvidia's website and install it on Fedora? What about installing redhat 9 with the driver and then upgrading (if possible) to fedora? Would that work?

[Dapper Dan]

macawgumbo, please disregard what I had in this space as I mistakenly thought you were wanting to install the drivers for nvidia video card. It was late, and I'd had a drink. Sorry. :x

[Admiral LSD]

Quote:

Can I use the redhat 9 rpm for fedora from nvidia's website and install it on Fedora? What about installing redhat 9 with the driver and then upgrading (if possible) to fedora? Would that work?

I wouldn't use the RPMs at all, they're nothing but trouble. Download the source tarballs, making sure you have both your kernel source (for the exact kernel your running, if it's not on your distro CD have a hunt around their FTP archive) and the development packages installed before following the directions in the nVidia README file on how to compile nad install them. nForce chipsets are fairly easy to get up and running under Linux it's just a lot of people wind themselves up into a whole lot of trouble taking what they percieve to be the "easy way out."

[Dapper Dan]

macawgubo, please see my edited post two back..

[Admiral LSD]

His board has the integrated IGP graphics so he'll need to install the nVidia graphics drivers eventually if he wants to get that working so you should have left it as it was

[Dapper Dan]

Oh No!!

[macawgumbo]

So do you recommend upgrading my kernel to 2.6.whatever, or leave @ 2.4?
What about using ALSA or NVAUDIO?
What about using NVNET or FORCEDETH?
What about IGP graphics drivers, will I need those, or is it fine if I leave them with the generic? {minion.de??}

[Admiral LSD]

Kernel 2.6 is probably the best for nForce chipsets but 2.4 can be made to work just as well, especially if you're using a later version such as 2.4.22 and up. Pick whichever one you're most comfortable with: 2.6 if you're interested in compiling your own kernel or 2.4 if you don't want to worry yourself with that just yet.

ALSA is probably the best bet for sound on Linux regardless of whether you're using 2.4 or 2.6 (in the latter case the decision is made for you: OSS is deprected pending its removal entirely). FreshRPMs has Fedora compatible RPMs for virtually everything you need to set ALSA up (alsa-driver, alsa-lib, alsa-utils, alsamixer and alsaplayer) but you're probably better off compiling at least the drivers yourself to overcome any kernel version matching BS in the RPMs. Compiling the drivers is as simple as downloading their source from the ALSA Project site and running the following command in a terminal as root (after first extracting them into a temporary directory, usually /usr/src, and switching to that directory):

Code:

./configure --with-cards=intel8x0 --with-debug=none --with-oss=yes --with-sequencer=yes 

make && make install

adding the following to /etc/modules.conf:

Code:

# nForce ALSA portion 
alias char-major-116 snd 
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0 

# module options should go here 
# OSS/Free portion 
alias char-major-14 soundcore 
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 

# card #1 # nForce ALSA portion 
alias char-major-116 snd 
alias snd-card-0 snd-intel8x0 

# module options should go here 
# OSS/Free portion 
alias char-major-14 soundcore 
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0 

# card #1 
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss 
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss 
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss 
options snd-intel8x0 mpu_port=0x330 
install snd-card-0 /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || : 
remove snd-card-0 /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || :
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss 
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss 
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss 
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss 
options snd-intel8x0 mpu_port=0x330 
install snd-card-0 /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || : 
remove snd-card-0 /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

before typing modprobe snd-intel8x0 to activate the drivers.

Deciding between nvnet or forcedeth again depends on whether you're comfortable patching and compiling the kernel or not. atm forcedeth is only supplied as a kernel patch so if you're trying to avoid a recompile nvnet is probably your best bet.

And finally, the same drivers nVidia supply for their regular graphics cards are also compatible with the IGP so anything that applies to them should apply to your IGP as well. You'll want to grab these if you want decent 3D performance as the stock DRI drivers tend to be fairly disappointing in this area.

[Dapper Dan]

Now?

[macawgumbo]

Thanx so much for your help.

One more quick question is that is there a link or something that will provide some info on recompiling a kernel and applying patches to it?

Any background info is greatly appreciated on kernel compiling also.

[danleff]

Of course, I hessitate to mention, but there is a kernel 2.6.0 RPM available for Fedora core 1. Works good for me!

OK, I bought the Biostar nforce board, I could not resist!

Found it at TigerDirect for $51.99. Something to challenge me a bit.

[Dapper Dan]

Should I say how to install the nvidia drivers now?

[macawgumbo]

drivers for igp would be greatly appreciated too. cuz 3d stuff sucks right now.

for 2.6 kernel if you can get me some info on compiling kernels with the other drivers mentioned earlier in this thread.

ex: ALSA, FORCEDETH (KERNEL 2.6), now NVIDIA GEFORCE4 MX IGP