Food, Wine, and Linux may seem like a strange combination, but combining three passions can be a wonderful thing. I'm Marcel Gagné. Those of you who read Cooking with Linux, the multi-award-winning column that appeared monthly in Linux Journal magazine for 10 years, likely agree. With the help of my faithful waiter, François, Restaurant Chez Marcel serves up the finest in Linux and open source software paired with exceptional wines.
In that same spirit, this site features great Linux and Open Source software, ongoing wine tasting reports, recipes, and the occasional restaurant review. If you came here looking to read past Cooking with Linux columns, you'll find newer releases on the front page, a comprehensive list here and under the "CWL, The Column" menu link to the left. A votre santé! Bon appétit!
Invidious Nvidia - FX5200 installation on Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron
Though it could manage some of the simpler eye candy in Compiz, it was not able to run Celestia or GoogleEarth without serious image problems.
Installing an Nvidia FX5200 I thought would be a breeze. I'd installed it previously in Dapper 6.06 and had no problems. It is a twin-head card on which I ran two 17" monitors.
I installed the card, booted back in to Ubuntu and selected the Hardware Drivers option in the menu, selected to install the drivers and on rebooting...I had a black screen!
I ran:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
from the command line. Surprisingly, this did not give me an option to configure the X-server!
Booting back into the GUI I was told I wasn't using the Nvidia drivers. Each time I ran through the same solution and struck the same problem.
Checking the Ubuntu forum and other places, I was told that using Synaptic or the GUI built in to the menu should solve the problem.
Finally after trying various xorg.conf editing possibilities, it occurred to me that I might be coming at this from the wrong viewpoint. The new drivers from Nvidia may claim to support my card, but what if they were the problem?
I transported myself via Firefox to the Nvidia site and found the driver for my card here:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_173.14.12.html
After downloading this file:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg1.run
I restarted the machine, waiting for the GRUB option to come up and hit 'esc' to access the GRUB menu option. Here I selected the 'safe' mode and logged in to the command line.
I then changed directory to my desktop:
cd /home/patrick/Desktop
and ran the following command
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.14.12-pkg1.run
After following the prompts and with the Nvidia installer restarting the machine, there I was...a new, 3D-capable Nvidia-driven desktop. Finally!
So after spending far too long on what should be a very simple install, I decided I would make this the subject of a 'Cooking With Linux' entry in the event it may prove to be useful to someone else.
I sincerely appreciate all the efforts of people who have got Nvidia to release drivers for Linux. I also believe instances like this are indicative that greater effort is required by the packagers and software developers/companies to more adequately assist Gnu/Linux distros to meet the needs of their users.
It's the little things like this that can delay or put people off using or converting Gnu/Linux.