Fedora 10, Dell GX270 and Nvidia Cards
The on-board Intel graphics simply can't cope with a 1920x1200 desktop and KDE 4.x, but the Dell has a AGP slot. An Nvidia XFX 6200 low-profile card is ordered.
1. |
Card |
The card is low-profile, but the bracket is not — it has VGA, DVI and TV-out sockets. Order a low-profile bracket (which means VGA is not available --- no problem.)
Physical installation is ok, though the Dell's lid will not close. Xorg probes the card and all is well — sort of. The desktop is much faster, but it does not fit the screen (and cannot be adjusted to fit) and there are some odd effects noticeable on-screen: vertical bands where it looks just as though n-pixel-wide things are stretched over +1 pixels (whcih is consistent with the too-wide screen issue).
2. |
Cable |
Switching from a VGA cable to a DVI-2-HDMI cable sorts out the bad screen effects.
3. |
Nvidia Non-Free Drivers |
Fedora does not include the non-free Nvidia drivers — only Xorgs own. Add the RPMFusion repos and:
yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libswhich brings a small number of dependencies including
livna-config-display
livna-config-display generates an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:
# Xorg configuration created by livna-config-display Section "Files" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules" EndSection Section "ServerFlags" Option "AIGLX" "on" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Videocard0" Driver "nvidia" Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" EndSection Section "Extensions" Option "Composite" "Enable" EndSection
Reboot and lsmod presents
nvidia 7223024 46and the desktop is noticably faster — much faster with KDE 4.x desktop effects enabled and XRender composite. (OpenGL still does not work. . . )