Proper Driver Removal?

[skawave187]

How do I remove the 4191s? I want to revert back to the previous drivers until nvidia corrects the 2D issue...thanks in advance

[Wolfman [TWP]]

Just run rpm -e NVIDIA_GLX then rpm -e NVIDIA_kernel. This is assuming you installed the drivers using RPM's.

Then reinstall the older version as you did the 4191 version.

If you installed using TAR's.. I can't help you there, as I very rarely use TAR's when RPM's are available..

If you wish to go back to the kernel default drivers, edit your XF86Config back to 'nv' instead of 'nvidia'.

[salimfadhley]

It's actually easier to downgrade if you are using a tar.gz installation than if you were using RPM.

You do NOT have to delete newer driver files if you want to revert to an older version - the mere act of going through the install routine will cause the files you wish to get rid of to be over-written.

I recomend using the Tar.gz install anyway because it tends to be quicker and means you can get away with using kernels other than the 'stock' kernels that Nvidia supports.

[vorpal]

Just to add my 2c...

I personally prefer the .src.rpms, because:
1) they allow me to recompile for my custom kernels
2) they have always (since 1541) installed and uninstalled cleanly for me (via rpm), making the right adjustments to /etc/modules.conf AND saving and restoring MESA files correctly.

My guess as to uninstalling .rpm or .src.rpm would be:

#first stop X (log out to a console), then
su
#i.e. become root, then...
rpm -qa | grep NV -
#... query all in the rpm database, grep will find the NVIDIA* packages.
#Finally rpm -e the installed packages... such as:
rpm -e NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4191
rpm -e NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4191
#remove GLX first, it depends on kernel

Finally, edit XF86Config-4 to:
Driver "nv"
rather than:
Driver "nvidia"

And I think that's it. You may wish to check that the relevant aliases are removed from /etc/module.conf, and that the Mesa files (if any) moved aside by rpm have been resotred, but these seem to happen automatically for me.

Have done quite a few installs/uninstalls lately with the 4191 release - I'm considering making a script to let me select nvidia drivers vs kernel drivers at X startup ;)

[salimfadhley]

This is true, and I used to use SRPMS for exactly the same reason untill I discovered...

1. You can recompile for a custom kernel in fewer steps with the tar.gz files.

Unpack the tar file.
Run make install

2. You can un-install just by deleting the 'nvdriver' file from your /lib/modukes/xxxx/ folder. Of course, this is a bad place to accidentally type 'rm -rf *'

As you correctly point out, you still have to manually edit your config files, so there is very little time saving using RPMs.

I did not realise that the Nvidia installer actually moves files from the distro (e.g. mesa) - this would be a very good reason for doing it your way... if that's true then Nvidia have been very naughty by messing about with the distro!

I sinceerly hope that soon none of this will be an issue because the next major kernel release will no longer allow binary drivers - forcing naughty companies like Nvidia and ATI to release source code if they want their cards to work with linux...

Of course this pre-supposes that Linux will ever become popular enough to push the likes of Nvidia and ATI around!

:-)