How to do a custom installation of the nVidia drivers

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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.)