Installing Nvidia drivers in Debian 5 (lenny)

[farrell2k]

Grab the latest nvidia driver for your architecture from nvidia.com.

ctrl + alt + F1 to enter a console.

Become root.

run /etc/init.d/gdm stop. If you use kde, you may be able to run /etc/init.d/kdm stop. I use gnome, so I am not sure.

apt-get install binutils build-essential gcc-4.1 linux-headers-$(uname -r)

run this: export CC="gcc-4.1"

Cd to folder then find nvidia driver. It ends in .run

execute bash N*.run and follow prompts

if the installer needs any more packages, install them and run bash *N*.run again.

Let the installer install the 32 bit compatible opengl libraries.

Let the install auto configure x for you.

Reboot and enjoy. If you don't want to reboot, you may be able to do a modprobe nvidia and then /etc/init.d/gdm start instead.

[Jordan]

Very helpful, farrell2k. Thanks for posting.
+rep