[SOLVED?] Re: Feedback on Acer laptop w. Linux

[Boaz Rymland]

Steve Litt wrote:

> On Friday 04 September 2009 02:19:23 Boaz Rymland wrote:
> [clip]
>   
>> *Maker + Model:* Acer 5738ZG. That's a little upgraded in comparison to
>> the original model suggested - with 4GB RAM and NVIDIA GPU. The rest of
>> the specs are the same.
>>
>> *Distro Installed: *Ubuntu 9.04, amd64.*
>>     
> [clip]
>   
>> *X: *This laptop model is equipped with NVIDIA G105M chipset. I didn't
>> work out of the box: ubuntu installed its latest nvidia drivers but
>> those were too old to know this card. When vesa or some other default
>> driver was used, X run, but not in optimal resolution and no
>> acceleration. I battled it too much apparently and all you need to do is
>> install the latest drivers from nvidia (185), skipping the ubuntu repos
>> driver, and use a nice(?) xorg.conf I've found on the web (for laptops
>> with my GPU/screen specs).
>>     
> [clip]
>   
>> *Anything else? *mail me for questions... .
>>     
>
> I'd like to see you post exactly what you did in order to get X running. Where 
> did you get the drivers? Where in your filesystem did you put them? How did you 
> tell Ubuntu's package manager they were custom? Did you alter System-
More details on getting X to work:

At first I tried to use ubuntu's (System->Administration->Hardware 
drivers) identification of the hardware that would typically result in 
suggestion to use nvidia propriety drivers. It did, and I went with it 
suggestion. Version 180 (IIRC) of the nvidia drivers was installed but 
all It didn't work - I got corrupted 6 windows instead of one nice 
LED-lit screen :-)

Next, I realized and saw on the web (and docs) that version 180 of the 
drivers do not support my relatively new GPU. I decided to give "nv" 
drivers a shot. I'm not a gamer anyhow. nv didn't work nice with my 
screen - I failed to see the full resolution of it. Maybe I could have 
make it work with nv, but I saw it simply takes too much time so...

After sawing on nvnews.net (forums) that my GPU is supported (beta? 
don't recall) in version 185 of the drivers (which is to this time the 
latest stable nvidia release of drivers for linux) I decided to install it.
You download a nice binary from their site. Its a self contained 
installer that you just need to run as root. There's a wizard there that 
collects your answers and preferences, and does the rest, including all. 
Ubuntu package manager on the laptop is not aware of this package. 
That's the downside of course. Note that their installer installed 
binaries all over the system, installs a kernel module, overwrites (asks 
permission to) your xorg.conf and more, so its quite obtrusive. But, 
AFAIK their installer job-quality is ok and has an uninstall feature 
that actually works (as far as I can recall from the past).
Like mentioned before I still downloaded an xorg.conf suggested on 
nvnews.net forums and only after using it everything worked ok. Mail me 
if you need it.

cest tout.
Boaz.
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