Ubuntu 10.04 Nvidia Graphics Driver for 8800GTS issues

[blackhawk1928]

Hi all.
I recently installed Linux Ubuntu 10.04 32Bit onto my machine. If it matters, its a virtual machine, my main host platform is Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit. Anyway, my GPU is an EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 640MB. I am a lot of problems installing the graphics drivers. Anyway know exactly how to install a linux ".run" graphics card driver the proper way. I have tried about 50 ways and no luck.

 

[linux_0]

You can't do that. Just about every virtual machine software ever made doesn't allow access to the real graphics card, it has a virtual graphics instead which has its own driver.

What kind of vm are you using and what are your full specs? Real and virtual.

Semper Fi

 

[Pyroflea]

As linux_0 pointed out, you can't use your actual graphics card within a VM. You can go to the VM settings, and up the graphics card memory up to the max (128MB I think it is?), and enable 3D acceleration. That's about the best performance you'll get; I could run all the desktop effects using said settings.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I use Virtual Box.

My Real Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7 920 D0
PSU: Corsair 850TX
RAM: OCZ Platinum 6GB Triple-Channel
GPU: EVGA Nvidia Geforce 8800GTS 640MB (I think its factory overclocked a bit).
MB: Asus P6T
SSD: Intel X25-M 80GB
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 500GB (Used for virtual box OS's)

Virtual Specs for Ubuntu:
RAM: 512MB
HDD: Dynamic Storage, expands as needed, limit is 20GB
CPU's: 1
Graphics: 128MB, I gave it everything, 128 is limit.

I enabled everything for the graphics, but the resolution is stuck at 800x600 tops and 640x480. Thats way to low. I was hoping for full resolution on desktop?

In addition, the virtual box said that i was using 16bit color but I don't know how to switch to 32bit color, maybe this has something to do with the driver?...although I doubt it.

And how would I go about getting a driver for my virtual linux?

And in addition, linux_0, so you are basically saying that if I were to make an ISO out my vista disc that I have laying around and install it into my virtual machine and downloaded my official GPU driver it won't work?....

 

[Pyroflea]

Have you installed the Guest Additions? That generally allows you to change the resolution to more usable sizes.

The same goes for any OS. Virtual machines can't utilize physical hardware in the way that a proper install can. You can only use your virutal network, virtual graphics, etc.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Guest Additions? Whats that?

Edit:
OH! I see, it says that basically it can make installs a lot easier on you buy adding things such as video drivers, I am installing it as I write this, lets see how it does.

 

[Pyroflea]

Hopefully that helps you out. I know it added a bunch more resolutions to my list when I installed them. Let us know how it works for you.

 

[blackhawk1928]

WOW! Things are so easy sometimes that they are hard. Now it allows me to take my resolution to 1360x768 which is almost 720p/1080i. However my main monitor supports up to 1920x1080. Would be nice if I can get there but if there is no other solution then oh well. However I'd really like to hear linux_0's reply on how I should handle the problem.

Edit: Just entered into Fullscreen mode and I can take it all the way to 1080p. This is awsome. Everything is so much smoother, the graphics are better. Thanks so much!

 

[Pyroflea]

Glad to hear it's all working for you.

Modifying the xorg configuration file (I think that's what it is) allows you to run custom resolutions, IIRC.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Hopefully I can do the same with Linux Fedora and Opensuse!
Fedora is my favorite linux out of all, but it has some minor app issues sometimes and it causes me to use Ubuntu a lot.

 

[linux_0]

Fedora and most other linux distros run great in virtualbox as long as you've got a decent system with virt extensions enabled, any modern AMD or Intel should work really well. Your i7 ought to work just fine in both 32bit and 64bit mode.

Intel Atoms on the other hand don't do virt very well, in fact they can be slow as heck.

Fedora 12 and 13, for the most part, run beautifully in virtualbox 3.2.4 but some of the drivers from the guest Guest Additions ISO may not always work perfectly well, you'll have to do some tinkering here and there and try different versions until you find ones that work well together.

I haven't tried Opensuse but it'll probably work too.

Good luck

 

[blackhawk1928]

Well the guest additions work amazing, i can do full screen with full 1080p resolution, so it really helps! However the thing is, I downloaded KDE for ubuntu so I can change from gnome to kde during the login so i have ubuntu/kubuntu in one. However KDE is more graphical and it gets very slow, even with the guest additions. The video driver isn't enough for power KDE. Any ideas?

 

[Ijack]

You're never going to get the performance, particularly graphics, from a VM than you would get natively. They are fine for playing, for servers, or for a non-demanding desktop but not so good when you want to push things to the limit.

Why not install natively? You'll get better performance and it won't take up any more space than a VM.

 

[Pyroflea]

Why not install natively? You'll get better performance and it won't take up any more space than a VM.

Seconded. You'll get much better performance, won't take up much more space, and you can choose to dual-boot if you don't wanna get rid of your W7 install.

 

[blackhawk1928]

I see, well i'll just stick to the gnome desktop, it much easier to run on it. And I don't want to run natively, because that means I'd have to reboot to get into my other OS. I restart my win7 like every two weeks or so...there is no point doing it more often because i have lots of apps open. I want it virtualized so I can use it whenev
er I want without rebooting constantly, each of my OS's has a different purpose. I have win7 as my primary/main OS which hosts the virtual app, then I have xp for testing out new apps and messing around, vista for secure purposes, and linux just for fun so I can learn it better as linux after all...is the future, businesses and companies are all starting to dump windows and starting to move to linux/unix/solaris...etc. So i have it easily available, i will more likley want to use it and learn it.

In addition I also had a question, in Virtual Box, whenever I want to set the OS to use more then one CPU, it doesn't boot...what if I want to give it more?

 

[Ijack]

Yeah, that's another performance killer - running it whilst you have lots of open Windows applications. Like any OS, the more RAM Linux has the better it will run. You're limiting yourself (I guess) to at most half of your RAM. But, it's horses for courses. If running it at the same time as Windows is more important than performance then a VM is a good choice. I've got a few Linux distros installed in VMs for playing and then a couple of native installs for when I want to do something a bit more serious.

I dual boot, but Windows 7 boots so quickly that that's not a problem for me.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Yeah same mine boots in under 10sec, I just don't like rebooting. I only reboot my computer for updates and when I install very large/important applications. Or if the power goes out in which after 20minutes, my UPS will shut it down. And since you people know a hell of a lot more then me in linux, out of curiosity, which distro is your favorite and why?...and which ones do you have because you seem to have a lot of them.

 

[Ijack]

I have native installations on my main PC of:

Fedora 13 (because I've had Fedora for a long time and keep updating it).
Mandriva (seems to work best on a variety of hardware).

And on a second PC that acts as a server for my home network:

FreeBSD (the best OS there is for a server).

On a PPC MacMini I have:

Ubuntu (because everyone raves about it - it's OK).
Gentoo (everyone should try Gentoo - real man's Linux).

I also have VM installations of:

Ubuntu (same reasons as above, but the x86_64 version).
Mandriva (a test system that I haven't got around to deleting yet).
FreeBSD (again a test system so I don't have to mess with the server).
SuSE (why not?).
OpenSolaris (real UNIX).
Solaris (the commercial version).

and probably a few more that I've forgotten (oh yes, I have Debian on a Buffalo Linkstation). I just like playing with these things, and disk space is cheap.

If I had to choose one, no-trouble system to install it would be Mandriva (I have a second native install of that on a laptop).

 

[blackhawk1928]

FINALLY SOMEBODY LIKE ME....A lot of people ask me whats the point and why I virtualize all these OS's...and I say why not..? Its fun and easy. Thank you!

And i installed ubuntu and it seems really good. It works, it has a nice GUI, the commands aren't to hard to learn and it has tons of applications. I tried fedora a while ago and I also liked, I am going to install right now as a matter of fact.

However I also have more questions. I downloaded ubuntu and fedora ISO's and they are under 1GB...around 600-700MB to be precise. But then I downloaded OpenSuse it was a massive 4.18GB...! What can possibly be on that linux to make it so large.

And I also have massive problems with linux on my laptop as I can never get the wireless card driver and graphics driver working.

 

[Ijack]

The difference in size of the distro is just that SuSE contains a large number of optional programs on the DVD. Most of the same programs, and maybe others, will be available for other distros but are supplied over the network. The best distributions, likd FreeBSD (OK, not Linux but you know what I mean), allow you to boot from a minimal image - maybe 60MB or so, and then do the rest of the install via the network.

Wireless can be a problem, depending on chipset, as can graphics. But rest assured it is much easier than in the early days and getting easier all the time; then you had to produce an X11 configuration file by hand, including the relevant lines for monitor timings, and if you got it wrong you could - literally - destroy your monitor. If you were lucky you then ended up with a 640x480 black and white display.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Oh I see. Well i'd rather have a minimal install with the rest to be downloaded over network. And yes, wireless is a huge problem. Thats why my laptop can't have linux because I installed once and I had to much frustration as I could never get the wireless driver going.

 

[Ijack]

Mandriva installed nicely on my laptop, and wireless networking worked just like that. It does seem to be one of the better distros for detecting hardware, but I might just be lucky with my laptop's chipset. But it might be worth giving their Live CD a go to see how it goes on your laptop. You should be able to test the wireless network without installing it to the hard disk.

 

[blackhawk1928]

Oh yeah, live CD's are nice. As a matter of fact, for my virtualization, I technically didn't need to install my OS, I could run them as a live CD, because my ISO was already on my hard drive so the speed would be pretty much the same. And i'll give mandriva a try, if everything works, I'll drop windows and switch.

 

[linux_0]

:lol: 4.18GB isn't massive Debian is massive! It comes on 5 DVDs or 31 CDs!

4 4.4gb DVDs and 1 1.1gb DVD, that's a cool 18.7 gb.

That puts the single 3.3gb Fedora DVD to shame. [ fixed typo ]

Semper Fi

 

[blackhawk1928]

WHAT!!? 18.7GB!!!??? That absolutly ridiculous. Hell it puts windows to shame. My windows 7 takes up a little less then 8GB on a fresh install and the DVD is even smaller. So what can possibly be in Debian to make it so crazy?

In addition, I tried installing fedora onto my virtual machine and the Virtual Box guest addition doesn't work on it. I mounts but when I open to install, the file isn't there.

I put open solaris on (why not), and I am also going to try putting FreeBSD!

So any thoughts how to get a video driver for Fedora since the guest additions won't work for it?