Re: Urgent! -- New Debian 3.1R2 install -- Nvidia card not recognized: fuzzy desktop, 640X480 resolution

[Benjamin Sher]

Arafangion wrote: Benjamin Sher wrote: Dear friends: Decided to give the latest stable version of Debian 3.1Rc2 a chance so I downloaded the first two CD's and burned them in Nero. Everything went flawlessly. Literally. I was delighted. That is, until I booted up to the new Debian and was I in for a shock. The install urged me not to configure my Nvidia GeForce 2 card automatically so I didn't. But what I saw when I got to the desktop was nothing but a fuzzy, 640 X 480 screen, probably with 4 to 16 colors. Have no idea. The console was OK but very large. I was also able to use apt-get and Synaptic. In Synaptic I searched in vain for my video card. During install I selected VGA as a generic card. I cound't even configure my Mozilla Thunderbird so I am writing from my wife's Windows computer. Finally, I was taken into Gnome. I thought Debian had a KDE desktop by default. My top priority is to get my video in order. Could one of you Debian experts please come to the rescue. I am at a complete loss. Ok, you have two options, use the convenient 'nv' driver, or use the proprietary (and hence not so convenient) "NVidia" driver. The free one does not have hardware accelleration, while the NVidia one does, though. Instead of using the 'vga' driver, use the 'nv' driver. vga is just that, 640x480 at a resolution and refresh that absolutely every card that supports vga can support, it is very basic. As for KDE/Gnome, Debian does not come with a desktop "by default", however (i imagine) for historical license reasons Debian installs Gnome by default if you select "Desktop" in tasksel. Dear Arafangion: My sincere thanks for such a prompt reply. Two quick questions: I downloaded the first two CD's of Deb 3.1 Rc2 dated April 20, 2006. The Debian home page referred to them as the latest stable release (with KDE 3.3) updated on 4-19-06. But when I looked at the sources in Synaptic, I saw that my CD Roms were listed as sources but with "unstable" instead of "stable" listed. Very confusing. Secondly, where do I find the "nv" driver, let alone the NVidia driver? In Synaptic? And how precisely do I install it. I'd hate to mess up my entire installation. Would really appreciate precise instructions. Thank you again for your kind help. Benjamin