How Linux configures NVIDIA graphics drivers

In the field of graphic chips, Nvidia is a successor, and its history is only half the size of ATI. At the beginning of 1993, Nvidia was founded by Jen-hsun Huang,,chris Malachowsky and Curtis Priem, but Nvidia was once the strongest in the field of graphic processing, Nvidia's Linux driver installation software kit will automatically check the various details of the computer and automatically install a variety of drivers. Here is a brief introduction to the simple process of driver installation and upgrade. The Linux system's own driver includes only Nvidia 2D acceleration, and the NVIDIA dedicated driver software kit needs to be installed if you need to get a better 3D acceleration effect. 3D hardware acceleration is invaluable when you need to draw three-degree space objects, such as games, three-dimensional CAD, and 3D imaging. This application environment is red Had Enterprise Linux 4.0, NVIDIA graphics card model: ASUS N6200/TD/128M (6200AGP).

First, preparatory work

Before you configure an Nvidia video card, you need to know the following information about the system you are installing: Display specifications, Chip type of the display card, video memory capacity of the display card, and the display's specification being X11 to determine the resolution and refresh rate of the display. These specifications can usually be found in the documentation that is in the display, as well as the manufacturer's website. Need to know two range of digits: Vertical refresh rate and horizontal refresh rate. The chip type of the display card will determine what module X11 uses to drive the graphics hardware. Most of the hardware can be automatically detected, but it is useful to know that it is in error detection. The memory size of the display card determines the resolution and color depth supported by the system. It is important to understand these limitations. Because installing the driver may need to be compiled with the core, you will use the kernel source code and, in addition, the compiler (compiler) help, so first determine the existence of the following software in your Linux system: Kernel-source, kernel, GCC, Make Open a terminal and use the command check:

# Rpm-qa | grep Gcc;rpm-qa | grep Make;rpm-qa | grep kernel

If there is no 3D API in the development of the program, the programmer must understand the full graphics characteristics, in order to write a full match with the graphics card program, play the full graphics performance. And with the 3D API this graphics card and software directly interface, programmers only need to write the interface of the program code, you can give full play to the graphics card does not need to understand the specific hardware performance and parameters, which greatly simplifies the program development efficiency. Similarly, the display chip manufacturer designs its own hardware product according to the standard, achieves optimizes when the API invokes the hardware resource, obtains the better performance. With 3D API, it can realize the maximum compatibility of hardware and software of different manufacturers. For example, in the most embodiment of the 3D API game, game design staff design, do not have to consider the specific characteristics of a graphics card, but only in accordance with the interface standard 3D API to develop the game, when the game is run directly through the 3D API to call the hardware resources of the graphics card. Currently the main applications of the 3D API in PCs are DirectX and OpenGL. DirectX has now become the mainstream of the game, the majority of the market sales of mainstream games are based on DirectX development, such as "Empire times 3", "Island Fright", "Call of Duty 2", "Half Life2" and other popular excellent games. And OpenGL is currently mainly used in professional graphics workstation, in the history of the game has also been and DirectX rival, resulting in a large number of excellent games, such as "Quake3", "Half Life", "Medal of Honor" in the first several, "Counter-Strike" and so on, At present, under the step of DirectX, the use of OpenGL games has become less and more, but there is no lack of classics, such as OpenGL based on the "DOOM3" and the use of DOOM3 engine "Quake4", whether past or present, OpenGL's main representation in the game is the famous ID Software.

· Opengl

After DirectX, OpenGL can be said to be the next most popular 3D API. In fact, OpenGL is longer than DirectX, compared to DirectX can only be applied to Microsoft's platform, OpenGL can be applied to many different operating systems. Currently, most Linux 3D acceleration games are all OpenGL, so for Nvidia's latest driver, only small changes can be adapted to most games. The 3D API under Linux is based on OpenGL. OpenGL is a professional 3D program interface, is a powerful, easy to invoke the bottom of the 3D graphics library. The predecessor of OpenGL is the iris GL developed by SGI Company for its graphics workstation. Iris GL is an industry-standard 3D graphics software interface that is powerful but poorly ported, so the SGI company developed OpenGL based on the Iris GL.

OpenGL's English full name is "Open Graphics Library", as the name implies, OpenGL is "open graphics program interface." Although DirectX is a complete leader in the home market, OpenGL is not a substitute for high-end graphics in the professional field. OpenGL is a hardware-independent software interface that can be ported between different platforms, such as Windows 95, Windows NT, Unix, Linux, MacOS, and OS/2. Therefore, the software supporting OpenGL has good portability and can be widely used. Since OpenGL is the underlying graphics library of 3D graphics, it does not provide geometric entity entities and can not be used to describe scenes directly. However, through some conversion procedures, can easily AutoCAD, 3DS and other graphics design software produced DFX and 3DS model files into an OpenGL vertex array.

OpenGL is not free software, its copyright, trademarks (OpenGL this name) are owned by SGI company. But under Linux there is an OpenGL replacement product: Mesa. Mesa provides an almost identical interface to OpenGL, and almost no difference is felt for anyone who uses OpenGL API programming. Mesa is free software that follows the GPL protocol (partially following the LGPL protocol), and it is because of the freedom of Mesa that it surpasses OpenGL in terms of support for new hardware. Mesa can be obtained from www.mesa3d.org. The most common tool for developing OpenGL programs under Linux is glut (the OpenGL Utility Toolkit). It creates one or more OpenGL windows, responds, handles user interactions, a simple pop-up menu, and some built-in drawing and font handling features. Glut, like OpenGL, can be ported to a variety of platforms. Thanks to its good performance, it has now become one of the standard packages released by Mesa.

· DRI, full name Direct Rendering infrastructure, is the framework in the X window system that allows applications to access display devices in a safe and efficient manner. It includes changes to the x server, some x client libraries, and the kernel. The first major application of DRI is to create a fast OpenGL implementation. DRI is an integral part of the XFree86 4.x and the x.org of the successor, as well as the open source implementation of the Mesa-OpenGL API. Some 3D acceleration drives are written in terms of DRI standards, including ATI,MATROX,3DFX and Intel. DRI was originally developed by Precision Insight, Inc. (PI), in collaboration with and partly funded by Red Hat Inc. and SGI. DRI is now being maintained by Tungsten Graphics Inc., as PI was acquired by VA Linux and then VA Linux exited the Linux field. The company was created by some DRI developers of the PI company. Tungsten Graphics is currently the focus of all DRI development, and many open-source developers continue to contribute to DRI through the DRI project on SourceForge.

Second, the command line download installation video driver

1. First back up the original configuration file

Use the following command to back up the Xorg profile (backed up with a file name of Xorg.conf.bak):

# CD/ETC/X11;CP./xorg.conf./xorg.conf.bak

2. Test the data before installing 3D driver

First test the video card speed before installing the 3D driver, and open a desktop terminal to run.

#glxgears

Glxgears is a test software that tests whether your Linux runs 2D, 3D, and this program pops up a window with three rotating gears. The screen will show how many grids are rotated every five seconds, so this is a reasonable performance test. Windows can be shrunk, and the number of grids depends greatly on the size of the window. If your display card is good enough and your driver is well matched, the faster the gear will run. Some of the best graphics cards (NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GT) perform glxgears, fast to even the gears can not see clearly. Here, record the FPS number (frame speed per second) to identify whether the driver is properly installed. (Computer Technology Web site: http://www.pcjsh.com for your editing)

Early Linux under Nvidia's display card driver has a feature: All display cards can use the same driver. Now things have changed: because NVIDIA's product line is very long, you need to choose the appropriate driver (official Linux driver URL: http://www.nVIDIA.com/object/unix.html) based on your graphics chip model. As of this writing, the latest version of the driver is: 8756. Suitable graphics chip: Fourth generation GeForce graphics chip to GeForce 79XT. In addition, the central processing Unit model selection drive type, using the 64-bit Intel PENTIUM4, Pentium D, Celerond Central processor and 64-bit AMD central processor to use Linux amd64/ EM64T driver: Ianvidia-linux-x86_64-1.0-8756-pkg2.run, other X86 processor uses IA32 driver. After this article, for example; but if you're using old graphics chips like: RIVA TNT, RIVA tnt2/tnt2 Pro, RIVA TNT2 Ultra, Vanta/vanta LT, RIVA TNT2 Model 64/model Pro, Alad DIN TNT2, GeForce 256, GeForce DDR, Quadro, GeForce2 gts/geforce2 Pro, GeForce2 Ti, GeForce2 Ultra, Quadro2 Pro. Please use the previous version of the driver: 4363.

3, the command line installation process:

• Close SELinux

Users who use Fedora Core 3, Fedora Core 4, Fedora Core 5, or red Had Enterprise Linux 4 will first turn off SELinux by modifying Selin in/etc/selinux/config files ux= "" for disabled, then reboot the server.

• Switch to the command line work environment installation

The x server does not run because the NVIDIA graphics driver is installed. Exit X-window by using the command or key combination "Ctrl+shift+backspace" to enter the command line:

#wget Http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-8756/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756-pkg1.run #init 3#.sh Nvidia-linux-x86-1.0-8756-pkg1.run

The run file can receive many command-line arguments, and the following are some of the more common options:

--info: Displays inline information about the. run file and exits.

--check: Check the integrity of the file and exit.

--extract-only: Decompression only./nvidia-linux-x86-1.0-6629.run but not run.

--help: Exits after displaying the usage of normal command-line arguments.

--advanced-options: Exits after displaying the usage of advanced command-line arguments.

Description: In order to capture more clearly the author uses the remote bring tool putty Log on to the Linux computer for driver installation.

• Install detailed steps:

The command is followed by a green-oriented interface asking if acceptance of the Protocol

Select the Accept option to accept the protocol to start the installation

If you are prompted to update the current configuration with the Nvidia-xconfig command after the installation is complete, you can rest assured that the "yes" option continues because the original configuration is automatically backed up.

4. Detects the "Fastwrite" and "Side Band Addressing" features that enable the Nvidia driver.

SBA "side-band addressing" refers to a separate address and instruction bus, which can be used by a graphics control chip to obtain data quickly without interrupting the continuous transmission of the system's memory data stream. To maximize the transmission efficiency and throughput of the AGP bus, the AGP 2x protocol separates the address bus from the data bus, theoretically adding 8 additional side-band lines to the AGP bus. These 8 additional lines are always referred to as side-band address ports (sideband addresses Port), referred to as SBA. Although the SBA uses a 8-bit bandwidth transfer interface, it allows the graphics control chip to issue new AGP data request and transmission instructions in parallel to system memory without interfering with other data being continuously transmitted through the main 32 address of the AGP bus (referred to as AD). In fact, the graphics control chip can also send a new AGP data request to system memory via AD line, but this will increase the burden on the AGP bus normal data transmission, so it is recommended to open these 8 additional lines to transmit data and command requests.

AGP Fast write: That is, the AGP Express function, opened to improve the performance of the AGP, so that the CPU does not pass the main memory directly to the video card memory, improve the efficiency. From the analysis of these two technologies, we can find that the side-band addressing and the fast write function will help to improve the performance of the graphics card.

The prerequisite for enabling the write fast and edge-to-write features is that your motherboard must support it, and you need to enable it in the BIOS, which is supported by most mainstream motherboards.

(1) View motherboard support using the command: "Cat/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/host-bridge"

(2) Make sure that your graphics card supports it before enabling fast write and Side-band addressing. Using the command: "Cat/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/card"

(3) If your graphics card supports fast write and side-band Addressing please continue: Edit/etc/modules.conf to join a line:

Options nvidia Nvreg_enableagpsba=1 nvreg_enableagpfw=1 nvreg_reqagprate=8

(4) Restart the computer

(5) Now check for fast write and side-band addressing is enabled or disabled state (Disabled).

Using the command: "Cat/proc/driver/nvidia/agp/status"

Enabling quick write and side-by-band addressing can help increase the FPS values of the Unreal Arena, the Thor Hammer 3 and other first-person shooting games.

So far we have completed the driver installation of the NVIDIA video card under the command line.