This is the proprietary binary video driver from NVidia for the X.Org
X-server. This package does not include the kernel-module - it is a
part of the nvidia-kernel package at SlackBuilds.org.
Since this nvidia-driver conflicts with some files of xorg, it's a bit
complex to install/uninstall the driver. However, installation of the
nvidia-driver package itself backs up the conflicting files and puts the
nvidia-specific files into place.
Heinz Wiesinger, the author of the build script, has written a script called
nvidia-switch, which can be used to switch between the stock xorg driver and
the nvidia driver, but it will not edit xorg.conf for you; you have to do
that manually. The nvidia-switch script is installed to /usr/sbin.
Usage of nvidia-switch:
nvidia-switch --xorg <--> switch to the stock xorg files
nvidia-switch --nvidia <--> switch to the proprietary nvidia files
nvidia-switch --cleanup <--> switch to the stock xorg file and remove all
symlinks created by nvidia-switch
No special steps are necessary when updating nvidia-driver from a previous
package. If you update to a newer xorg, you do not have to reinstall
nvidia-driver either. Just run "nvidia-switch --nvidia" in that case.
Before uninstalling this package, it is important that you execute
'nvidia-switch --cleanup', which will switch back to the stock xorg files
and remove all links created by nvidia-switch before.
If you forget to do this, you'll have to do the switch manually, or xorg
won't work on next startup. Here are the affected files:
/usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2
/usr/include/GL/{gl.h glx.h glxext.h glext.h}
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/{libGLcore.so libGLcore.la libglx.so libglx.la}
This also requires the nvidia-kernel package from SlackBuilds.org.
ATTENTION: There is a serious bug in this version regarding Fujitsu notebooks.
(See details in nvidia's announcement for 180.51 here:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=1985816)
If you are an owner of such a system, consider upgrading to a newer version of
nvidia-driver/kernel (by changing the version number in the respective
*.SlackBuild file). An update is not yet provided as newer versions of
nvidia-driver proved to be more unstable than the current one.
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