i needed the nvidia drivers so i could play some games. after i synaptic the nvidia-glx drivers and replaced"nv" with"nvidia" in xorg.conf. i rebooted. in grub now after i press the first option i get:
kernel panic - not syncing :vfs: unable to mount root fs on unknown-bloc(0,0)
and if i select the option with a older kernel x dosen't start at all. i'm in cli mode. i haved big problems with nvidia drivers on ubuntu too. anyone knows how can i install the nvidia drivers and solve the error in grub ?

Not sure about your grub problem, how many kernels do you have installed?

For x, login as root and:
Choose nv and you should be back where you started. For nvidia drivers, I always had the best luck searching and installing directly from their site. Mepis xconfig always failed for me.

i don't know what happend to the kernel nvidia driver installed somthing. the x config in control centre dosen't work either. dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg that was the first thing i tried. it tells me that the xserver is missing or not installed. and i tried to install the nvidia driver from their site but i don't know to stop Xserver. init 3 didn't work. i had a solution i found for ubuntu: nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals i'll try this after i do the install in configure x server.
btw: i have a geforce 4 mx 440 video card and i installed 96 drivers not the new ones.

Do you have the smxi script?
If not you can get it even out of X as root

cd /usr/local/bin; wget -Nc techpatterns.com/smxi; chmod +x smxi

Then type sgfxi
and it will help you install the nvidia drivers from the nvidia site.

Probably what happened was that you tried to install the debian nvidia drivers.

first i tried the debian i didn't know about them not working.broke x and kernel.
then i'ved installed the mepis repo in sources and did configure x server and that broke my x too.
i'll try to use your way anti. yes i have smxi but i don't know quite what it does and i stayed away from it.
edit: i think that worked. is there a way to verify if the drivers work? in configure x server it shows that it's on vesa.

If you have smxi and you are in X or not, type (as root) sgfxi to take you directly to setting up nvidia.


Edit: It will also tell you if you have nvidia drivers installed or not.

sgfxi has a very high success rate for nvidia. Keeping working nvidia / fglrx support is not trivial, and methods that work on releases based on older debians often fail on sid, while some nvidia methods for debian are currently failing in debian testing because one of the core nvidia debian packages is not in debian testing. When I say 'non trivial', I mean it, it's difficult, and changes all the time as things fail, or start working.

script homepage:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://techpatterns.com/forums/about933.html"
linktext was:"http://techpatterns.com/forums/about933.html"
====================================


sgfxi tests for and handles most of these cases dynamically, and will tell you when your condition is not possible.

It also now handles new cases, like the new debian testing/sid xorg.conf, which features the ultra slim xorg.conf syntax for new xorg, that requires active rewrite from smxi/sgfxi to make it work for non free drivers, or free alternate ones.

Trying to put this stuff into words on a case by case basis is almost impossible, that's why I scripted the stuff into sgfxi, it's the only scalable way I know of to handle this issue.

I would in NO case use the mepis method, especially if you are using debian or sidux kernels.

Best first thing is to let sgfxi do its default action, by this: sgfxi
or if you want composite enabled, do: sgfxi -c

It will tell you what driver it will install, what is supported, etc.

When you start x run: glxinfo
to see what's running your x stuff.

For ATI/fglrx users, I strongly urge you to NOT run debian sid, fglrx is always behind by 1 or 2 months. Leave antix as testing, and use the debian testing default kernel, search these forums on how to do instlal it using smxi, it will require editing your /boot/grub/menu.lst and maybe /etc/fstab but hopefully that requirement will be fixed at some point.

ah, by the way, new #smxi channel on irc, irc.oftc.net
it has factoids running now, issue: !categories to see basic menu of them, then drill down to find what you want.

See !nvidia and !fglrx for more specific information.

thanks h2! i've tried 3 methods to install nvidia drivers and didn't work. sgfxi work from the first try. i'll use smxi for update, upgrade and sgfxi from now on. great script!

I guess I should have read this thread before attempting to install the nvidia driver for my GeForce FX-5200 card __{{emoticon}}__

I just went ahead and used mxconfig (following a hint from anticapitalista given in this posting:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/post585.html#585"
linktext was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/post585.html#585"
====================================
) and pretty much hosed my antiX __{{emoticon}}__

Looking at anticapitalista's posting, however, now I notice several things: 1) it is from 2007; and 2) it is for nvidia (legacy). Perhaps either or both of these explains part of my problem(s), since I installed the new nvidia rather than the legacy nvidia.

At any rate, before attempting the installation, my grub entry for antiX and my fstab were both using /dev/sdxx for partition specification. After the installation, Xorg was gone, the partition specs needed to be changed to /dev/hdxx (why that changed is way beyond my comprehension) and I needed to boot into another distro to finally read this thread __{{emoticon}}__

Fortunately, I now have (thanks to smxi and sgfxi) a working system (still using /dev/hdxx for partition specs) and the new nvidia driver as well __{{emoticon}}__

Now my questions: should I stop using mxconfig? Is it safe to update using synaptic? Should I perform all updates using smxi?

I'm confused __{{emoticon}}__ but damned happy that things are again working __{{emoticon}}__

Regards,
-- Dr. U

sorry i got you confused. i use smxi to update because i want to. you can use synaptic to update.also you can use commands in terminal to update it's all a matter of chooise.