I am new to Ask-Fedora and also recently started using Fedora. However, I have a bit of experience with Ubuntu. My command-line skills are basic level.
I have a Macbook Pro (Early 2008) which I have turned into a Fedora 31 Gnome. I am now trying to install the proper graphics driver, but it does not seem to be an easy process. The Mac has GeForce 8600M GT graphics card. I have got hold of the legacy driver which should work with the card; NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-304.128.run
Could anyone help me with the installation?
It’s an old Mac, so information is limited on the web.
The best way for install the driver is trough RPM fusion the driver version 340.XX is supporting your card like you can see here, this driver is supported for fedora 30 and is not listed to fedora 31
The Fedora Magazine article referenced above by @xtym is pretty good. If you want to get the details directly from the packagers at rpm fusion try this link https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA. (which is similar to that above).
Nvidia lists your card as supported by the 340.xx driver (NOT the 304 ) so all you would need to do is enable the rpmfuion repo then using
dnf install '*nvidia*340*'
it would install the drivers. A reboot should then activate it.
RPMFusion always seems to work for me and I don’t use the install direct from nvidia since that sometimes does not work correctly.
UPDATE:
I just searched the rpmfuion site and was unable to find the legacy drivers. I then went to nvidia and downloaded the driver they list for your card. It was NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.107.run .
I guess you will need to use the drivers from nvidia or find another source.
To use that file to do the install there are several steps.
First put the downloaded file in a user directory that will not interfere with anything else. I use /home/user/Downloads/nvidia
Then the command
sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-340.107.run
will download/extract files needed in that location.
It should also do any compiling and the install or give you detailed instructions on steps needed.
Hi @pho4me
Now than i did read again your post i see than you are in fedora 31 ( I don’t know why i did skip it) and so I will try be a bit more concrete with your issue.
The first problem than you do have is than in fedora 31 your nvidia card is not supported directly (let’s say so) because the last driver which is supporting your model card is the 340.xx what is not include in the repos of fedora 31. (While you can find this package in fedora 30) The problem of drivers versions is than is depend of kernels and in fedora 31 340.xx is not incluide because the own driver is coming to EOL and not do sense continue in new kernels with it.
It is a workaround to use the driver 340xx in a called LTS kernel 4.19 maintained by a voluntary in the copr repository kwizart/kernel-longterm-4.19 Copr
and i don’t know if the maintainance is good or if there are present problems (it was the motive i did point in my preview post to other post where another person had a same issue).
I my opinion (and it is just my opinion nothing more), you do have an old machine and maybe nouveau driver does a good work in anyway, first you should see if nouveau is enough to you.
Thank you for the link. However, after “sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-340xx akmod-nvidia-340xx --releasever=30”, it seems like the file is not available. If run under MacOS El Capitan the native driver still performs better than Nouveau. But then again, Nouveau is good enough for other activities except viewing Youtube. I haven’t tested Nouveau with movie files.
But anyway, I have decided to have both MacOS and Fedora on the Mac (Fedora with Nouveau). Thank you for your help anyway.