How to do a custom installation of the nVidia drivers

Back to the Unofficial Fedora FAQ


Here's how to install the nVidia drivers if the RPM doesn't work (or if you don't want to use the RPM):

  1. Get the lastest linux drivers.
  2. Now print this out, or write it down, because we're going to close X, the graphical part of Linux.
  3. Open a Terminal.
  4. Become root:

    su -

  5. Shut down X:

    telinit 3

  6. Now, you will have a "Login:" prompt. Log in as root and go to the directory where you downloaded the nVidia drivers.
  7. Type:

    sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6106-pkg*.run

  8. Type:

    cp -a /dev/nvidia* /etc/udev/devices/

  9. Type:

    chown root: /etc/udev/devices/nvidia*

  10. Follow nVidia's instructions to set up the driver. (Read the "EDITING YOUR X CONFIG FILE" section.)
  11. Now, we need to remove some conflicting files:

    rpm -e --nodeps xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL

    NOTE: If you update any "xorg-x11" package with up2date or yum, you will have to do the above command again.

    NOTE: Some users report that removing this package is not necessary for them.

  12. Type:

    modprobe nvidia

  13. You can now restart X by typing:

    telinit 5

    .

NOTE: You must re-do these steps every time you install a new kernel with yum or up2date.

(Thanks to Dexter Ang for helping me simplify this answer! Thanks to Vahe Sarkissian for a good correction. Thanks to D. Michael Basinger for letting me know that you have to do modprobe nvidia.)