UPDATED!! Howto get NVidia driver installed on Solaris10

[gireeshbhat]

Although the NVidia readme says it supports Quadro cards only, I have it working like a champ on my GeForce FX 5200 card on Solaris10.
Here is how to get it working;
1. As su, run /usr/X11/bin/xorgconfig. Answer the questions as appropriate
and the program will create an xorg.conf in /etc/X11.
2. Run kdmconfig and change from the xsun server to xorg server.
3. Download the NVidia driver for Solaris from their website
4. Read the README and run the file as per instructions
5. Run /usr/X11/bin/scanpci and check the pci id of your NVidia card.
6. run the command
update_drv -a -i '"pcixxxx,xxx"' nvidia
where the xxxs are filled by the values you got from scanpci command. Don't forget the quotes ' and ". One thing to note here,scanpci gave me a PCI ID for my GeForce 5200 as 0x10de 0x0322. Entering it as '"pci10de,0322"' failed. I had to go into /etc/driver_aliases and drop the 0 in 0322. Finicky eh?
7.Edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file anc change the entry that reads "nv" to "nvidia"
8. Finally as root run the following command
# reboot -- -r
and enjoy NVidia 3d acceleration in all its glory on
Solaris. Dont forget to run nvidia-settings and check your options there
including cursor shadow

Best Regards
Gireesh

PS: Thanks sml for pointing out that update_drv command needs the name nvidia at the end.

[mannomann]

Hi,

thx for your HowTo. With that one, it was easy to succeed in installing my FX Go 5200.

Works fine now.

Cheers

Mannomann

[dewarrn1]

So I tried this out, but now my Solaris installation hangs immediately after the load-time message about the Nvidia driver. Any thoughts?

[paulgress]

I had the same thing happen to me, it was because I didn't change the server to "xorg" from kdmconfig, step 2 from the original post.

[game-master]

Thanks for a great guide. This works also for GF6200-based cards (I don't know about GF6200 with turbocache).

[nabokov333]

Good howto. It took me forever to figure out the problem with the leading 0 in /etc/driver_aliases! I'm glad I stumbled on this forum.

[nsimpson]

Thank you so much for posting this! This saved me countless hours of frustration staring at a flickering VGA display!

Note to others: quoting the driver in step 6 with ' and " is crucial.

[solarisgeekUK]

OK, I am greedy. but hey - if you've got it, use it...

I've got a pair of Nvidia graphics cards in my system. an FX5200 on the AGP port, and an MX4000 on the first PCI port. I have a fully patched installation of Solaris 10x86 on this box.

I've configured Xorg to work rather nicely with my two cards, and now I've got a shiny lovely Xinerama desktop spanning both screens.

All well and good, I hear you cry? Well - this is where trouble enters our idyllic paradise...

All is good using the standard "nv" drivers that come with Solaris. As soon as I try using the "nvidia" drivers, all hell breaks loose. (OK, OK - only the AGP graphics card works, not the PCI one. Not exactly all hell breaking loose...)

I've followed the instructions given for getting one single card working on my machine, and then tried to double it up - so running update_drv for both the card addresses (referring to the instructions from gireeshbhat at 06-20-05 03:51 AM) but I still only get just the one screen (AGP) waking up.

Can anyone help me out here?

[solarisgeekUK]

So - this motherboard of mine has an Nforce2 chipset on it. Which is making it more difficult to identify which one of the PCI devices is my PCI Nvidia Geforce MX4000 graphics card.

One of these devices listed below is my PCI graphics card. Any ideas which one?

(NB: it's NOT the FX 5200 - that's my AGP graphics card)

..........truncated output from /usr/X11/bin/scanpci.............

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x00 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x01e0
nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP (different version?)

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x01 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x0080
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x01 function 0x01: vendor 0x10de device 0x0084
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x02 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x0087
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x02 function 0x01: vendor 0x10de device 0x0087
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x02 function 0x02: vendor 0x10de device 0x0088
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x08 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x008b
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x09 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x0085
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

pci bus 0x0000 cardnum 0x1e function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x01e8
nVidia Corporation nForce2 AGP

pci bus 0x0001 cardnum 0x00 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x0322
nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200]

pci bus 0x0002 cardnum 0x06 function 0x00: vendor 0x10de device 0x0185
nVidia Corporation Device unknown

..........truncated output from /usr/X11/bin/scanpci.............

[coolboarderguy]

Hi All,

newb here. Quite proficient with Linux, though. I'm using Solaris10 on x86. I have an older GeForce2 card, and have just downloaded the driver from NVidia. I've burned the .run to a CDR and will run it from there as it was naturally too big for a floppy(lol). Is it pretty much as straight forward as the HOWTO states, even for my older card.? Sorry if this is seen as a mundane question. Appreciate any help/advice, in advance. Cheers.

coolboarderguy...

[catalan]

I got it working on a Dell D800 laptop in WUXGA (1920x1200) mode with an older GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go card (32 MB videoram) as described in this thread:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=58062

[coolboarderguy]

Hi All,

went to run /usr/X11/bin/xorgconfig. but, get a not found error message. Checked the bin directory, and sure enuff, it's not there. Should I run the driver 1st.? Cheers.

EDIT: I also seem to not have a xorg.conf in /etc/X11. But, after I just ran the .run file, it placed a xorg.conf.nvidia one there. Should I just use that one.?

coolboarderguy...