GeForce 2 MX + Ubuntu 9.10 Installation Instructions

[seierson]

Hi Gang,

I spent about 3 to 5 hours getting my Nvidia GeForce 2 MX working in Ubuntu 9.10. Oh I could get it to work right away just not at anything higher than 640x480 which without panning is completely useless by the way. I tried xrandr, cvt, gtf, and manually editing my xorg.conf, using pico or gedit but to no avail.

In the hopes that future users won't have such a horrible time of it please do the following:
1. Click System --> Administration --> Hardware Drivers
2. Install v96 or higher of Nvidia's proprietary driver
3. Bring up a terminal (you may have to reboot before this works. I haven't tested that part, but I don't think it's required)
4. sudo nvidia-xconfig
5. gksudo nvidia-settings
6. On the left hand menu tree select "X Server Display Configuration"
7. Select the desired Resolution, Refresh Rate, and Color Depth
8. Click [Save to X Configuration File]
9. Click [Save]
10. Click [Quit]
11. Click [Ok]

If these instructions work in a different distribution of GNOME, I'm also interested in hearing about that.

Happy Installing,
Christian Blackburn
Thank you's are strongly encouraged :)

[mörgæs]

Thanks, but it did not work for me.

When applying the Nvidia 96 driver as described, the screen is more or less a mess, and soon the machine will crash. This is the case both with Ubuntu 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10.

I can get the machine into a higher resolution, but it is highly unstable.


Does anybody have an idea of what can be done?

[mörgæs]

Here is a screenshot and the results from hwinfo --gfxcard


23: PCI 200.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
[Created at pci.318]
UDI: /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/pci_10de_1a0
Unique ID: B35A.Q_T+JOxebUF
Parent ID: 6NW+.iwKsjRIDKL6
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1e.0/0000:02:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:02:00.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: "nVidia GeForce2 Integrated GPU"
Vendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
Device: pci 0x01a0 "GeForce2 Integrated GPU"
SubVendor: pci 0x10de "nVidia Corporation"
SubDevice: pci 0x0c11
Revision: 0xb1
Driver: "nvidia"
Driver Modules: "nvidia"
Memory Range: 0xec000000-0xecffffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xf0000000-0xf7ffffff (rw,prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xefff0000-0xefffffff (ro,prefetchable,disabled)
IRQ: 19 (41125 events)
I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
Module Alias: "pci:v000010DEd000001A0sv000010DEsd00000C11bc03sc00 i00"
Driver Info #0:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: nv
Driver Info #1:
XFree86 v4 Server Module: nvidia
3D Support: yes
Color Depths: 16
Extensions:
Options:
Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #21 (PCI bridge)

Primary display adapter: #23

[Grenage]

Hi, mörgæs.

How does your display look when using the "nv" driver in xorg.conf? I know it lacks acceleration, but it's a good start for testing. Have tried it on any other OS, or the live CD? How did it look then?

[mörgæs]

Hi Grenage, thanks for your answer.

I have not tried an nv-driver. How do I install that, please? I can live with the driver being slow if only I can get a better resolution than 800*600.

Puppy Linux runs in higher resolution, and in the bad old days the machine ran Windows 2000 also in high resolution. Yes, I know it is old hardware...