Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

[sockopen]

Hello, I have searched through the forums (and more-so on Google), and have really found contradicting reviews on almost all video cards that meet my necessary criteria (~$100 or less, painless installation <- very important, and performs well enough to allow me to continue development on my 3D MMORPG). If anyone would be kind enough to recommend me a video card, it would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT: I was pretty sold on the 8300 but have seen a number of complains on various forums about restricted driver errors, requiring them to boot into a terminal, edit a file, download and run a script, etc... and I really am looking for a quick, painless installation.

[dibl]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

I really am looking for a quick, painless installation.

Cough*dos 5*cough

OK, but seriously, I think this little instruction will be pretty effective for a GeForce 8300 -- you might have to do it once for practice and once for real.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089767.0

[assettt]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

I have the very same card nvidia 8300 gs 128 mb and neither for money nor love could i manage to install it. 3 years with Kubuntu and this time I'm stumped. I've read all the articles i could lay my hands on and tried all the approaches and still no dinero. Got so desperate i installed envy and it said drivers successfully installed but on rebooting only the nvidia logo flashes briefly then it's only artifacts on the screen. I'm now thinking of reinstalling 7.10 ot 8.04 beta and start afresh or get a better card known to work without adding to my gray hairs.

[dibl]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Bummer. That's a very unusual symptom -- I don't think I've ever heard of someone who saw the Nvidia splash but then didn't get the GUI desktop.

Did you run the nvidia-xconfig routine? If not, get to the CLI, and make sure the KDM X server is shut down with

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

first, then run

sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite

Then try a shutdown with

sudo shutdown now -r

and normal boot. I'll cross my fingers ....

[assettt]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Thanks Dibl. Tried that but still no joy. After reboot i get shoved to the CLI with a message of 'no resume image'. When i run the xconfig script i get this
NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module
NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module
NVRM: API mismatch: the client has the version
NVRM: this kernel module has the version Please
NVRM: make sure that this kernel module and all NVIDIA driver
NVRM: components have the same version.

I think a reinstall is in order 'cos i remember Envy reporting of missing dkms when i used it. I think somewhere during installation my system had a problem.

[dibl]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Hmmm. Yes, it does sound like something is missing from the picture, there. That "no resume image" is not an error -- that just means you did not "hibernate" your computer the last time it was shut down. But, the "API mismatch" stuff is a problem.

You might want to just go for the 7.04 Beta if you're going to reinstall Kubuntu. Then you can download Envy and install it again, and run it from there. There is a "Hardy Heron" version of Envy on the Alberto Milone web site.

[assettt]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Thanks for your thoughts Dibl and definitely something is wrong. I also cannot logout successfully. The screen will turn black and it will be stuck and i have to hard reboot to get it back running. Switch user, restart and shutdown works as expected. I think i will just wait until the stable 8.04 is released and install it. In the meantime I'll be shopping for a more powerful graphics card to replace the 8300 gs. Can't wait to be running KDE 4.0 and Compiz on 22" wide screen .

[dibl]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Upon looking at those errors again, there is one more thing you can try. Envy should have taken care of it automatically, but its possible you didn't have the kernel module headers for your kernel when Envy installed the driver (it shouldn't work that way, but ......). So here's what you can try that's cheap and easy and quick:

1. Get the build-essential package:

 sudo apt-get install build-essential

2. Get the linux headers package:

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

3. Now download the Envy script for Gutsy -- that is the link on the bottom left of his OS table.

4. Install Envy again.

5. Alt-F1 to the CLI, shutdown X with

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm stop

and then run the Envy script installer in text mode

sudo envy -t

Good luck with it.

[assettt]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Again thanks for the persistence Dibl. I gave up on 7.10 after the sound also disappeared and after 2 frustrating days i could not get it to work. I've now installed 8.04 Beta and so far everything is working fine. Looks like a clean installation is what i needed.

[dibl]

Re: Cheap 3D Video Card (nVidia 8300 GS?) Compatibility

Cool.

I've been running 8.04 for about 5 weeks now, and it is definitely already a better system than Gutsy was, and it's still Beta.

It was also good of Alberto Milone to move ahead with an Envy version for Hardy Heron too -- previously we've had to wait until after the formal OS release before he would release a new Envy version for it.