Install Nvidia 1.0-9629 Driver

The default nv driver for Nvidia is fine, unless you want to use 3D acceleration. The newest driver from Nvidia is 1.0-9629 as we speak. You can follow the "unofficial guide". Or there is a great tool called "envy" to make it very easy. Just download the "deb" file from that guy's web page and install it.

OK, it's actually not that easy. The new driver make my card (GeForce4 420) show a black screen when you start X. The guy of "envy" has a section in his guide to deal with this (part 7 of Problem Section), but unfortunately it didn't work for me. But the following worked:.

1) Edit /etc/modprobe.d/options, add followings

#to prevent nvidia driver giving black screen
options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=1


2) Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, add following to "Screen" section

#to prevent black screen
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "DFP-0"

Now direct render works

~$ glxinfo |grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce4 420 Go/AGP/SSE2

To disable Nvidia's start up logo

Add following to "Device" section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

 Option  "NoLogo"

X Crashes With ppracer/tuxracer and All Full Screen Games

This is a bug of Nvidia's 9629, check this message. This is happens to all full screen games, because almost all full screen games will try to change the screen resolution, thus cause the crash. Temporary solution will be to set screen resolution before game starts. For ppracer, set the resolution to 800x600 before starting the game will solve the problem. Maybe we have to wait for new driver.