Linux.Desktop.Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 100. Accelerate Your Gaming

As Linux use grows, more
device manufacturers
are creating official Linux drivers; this is particularly true of
video card manufacturers. The benefit of having official drivers is
that the manufacturer, which has complete access to all the hardware
specifications, is able to write a definitive driver that makes the
device as usable in Linux as it is in other operating systems. The
flip side to this benefit, however, is that some commercial drivers
for graphics cards are written as closed source software, and
sometimes they incorporate incomplete or unstable features. Some
drivers have been particularly reliable, such as those from NVIDIA,
but you should browse the Internet to see how reliable other official
drivers are. Sometimes a driver's stability changes
between versions, but not always for the better. So, your Internet
searches might reveal that the best driver is not the most recent
one.

This hack shows you how to install the binary drivers provided by the
manufacturer for recent-model video cards from ATI and NVIDIA.

11.10.1. Preparing for the Installation

Many official drivers require that specific versions of software be
used to build and run the driver. This required software usually
includes the kernel, the kernel header files (used to compile the
kernel itself), the C compiler (gcc), and X. You
need to ensure that all of these requirements are present on your
system; a process that can involve installing some of the missing
pieces where needed. As many users have never compiled anything
before, it is quite common to need to install a copy of
gcc.

Before proceeding, you should ensure that your versions of the
required programs are compatible with the software requirements for
your driver. Virtually every program can report its version number.
To find out the version of your kernel, you can run this:

foo@bar:~$ uname -a

To find out the version of your kernel headers, you need to ensure
that you have the kernel headers package on your system. To check
this on an RPM-based system, run this:

foo@bar:~$ rpm -qa | grep kernel-source

To check the version of the kernel headers on a Debian/APT-based
system, run this:

foo@bar:~$ dpkg -l kernel-header*

To find out your version of gcc, run this:

foo@bar:~$ gcc -v

Finally, to find out your version of X, run this:

foo@bar:~$ X -version

Before you begin to install your driver, you should back up your X
configuration file, as it might be overwritten when you configure the
binary driver. This file is called XF86Config or
XF86Config-4 and is usually found in
/etc/X11. You should copy the file to a safe
place as a backup:

root@bar:~# cp /etc/X11/XF86Config* /root/xconfigbackup/

11.10.2. Installing the NVIDIA Driver

One of the most popular closed source graphics drivers in use is the unified
NVIDIA driver. Many people have chosen NVIDIA cards for their
impressive performance and driver support, and because the full range
of features on the cards are available in the Linux driver. You can
download a single unified driver that supports all NVIDIA cards at
http://www.nvidia.com/linux.

Once you have downloaded the driver package, you need to make it
executable so that you can run it. Type the following commands as
root:

foo@bar:~# chmod a+x NVIDIA-Linux-x86-x.x-xxxx-pkg1.run

Before you run a graphics driver installer, you should ensure that you have exited X by logging out, and if you have a graphical login manager, you should shut this down, too. Using GDM as an example, you can do this in Debian with /etc/init.d/gdm stop. In Red Hat you can do the same with service gdm stop.

Then you can run the installer (make sure you are not in X):

foo@bar:~# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-x.x-xxxx-pkg1.run

The software compiles a driver on-the-fly and installs it to your
system. The next step is to change your X configuration file to use
the driver. For XFree86, you need to edit
XF86Config or XF86Config-4,
and for the Xorg version of X, you need to edit
xorg.conf. Both configuration files are located
in /etc or /etc/X11, and
both use the same syntax.

Inside the file is a Device section, where you
should change Driver "nv" to Driver
"nvidia". In the Module section, you
should add Load "glx" and comment the
DRI and Glcore lines.

Now reboot or reload your modules and X to run the driver.

11.10.3. Installing the ATI Driver

ATI has made a number of drivers available for its Radeon range of
cards. You install these closed source drivers in much the same way
you install the NVIDIA drivers. You can download the drivers from
http://www.ati.com/support/driverl.

The drivers are available as RPM files, and you can install the RPM
with this command:

foo@bar:~$ rpm -Uh --force driver.rpm

If you are on a system that does not use RPM as a package type, you
can use Alien to convert the package to another type, such as a
tarball or Debian package. Once you have opened the package, you can
move to the directory that contains the driver and run the main tool
that completes the installation for you:

foo@bar:~$ ./fglrxconfig

Within the program, you are asked numerous questions about how you
want your video card configured (when in doubt, accept the default).
Then you are asked if an XF86Config-4 file
should be generated. Select Y to accept this
action and the installation is complete. If you are running the Xorg
server, you will need to rename this generated file to
xorg.conf, and put it in
/etc or /etc/X11 on your
system. Then you can start X:

foo@bar:~$ startx

Now run the fglrxinfo utility; it should say
this:

OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.

If this is the case, the driver installation process is complete.