Hello, I wrote this little guide at osnews.com and thought it might be usefull for some people. I would be happy if it would be copied to some places to help more people with the same problem. You don't need to ask me for permission. ;) I wrote this in a different style than usual Linux howto's because I think there is a market for Linux howto's which don't make the issue worse or more complicated than it is. :) I also tried to cover every possible error so an unexperienced user won't get lost during the process. Here it is (please tell me if something is wrong, inaccurate or confusing):
1.) Go to http://www.nvidia.com, click on "download drivers", then click on "linux display drivers", select the topmost driver (currently 3123). 2.) Download the GLX RPM (the first one), then scroll down to the bottom and download the kernel source RPM. Save both in your home folder. IMPORTANT NOTE: If they already offer a kernel RPM for Red Hat 8.0, you can get this instead of the kernel source RPM and skip the next four steps marked with a star (*). *3.) If you didn't already, fire up the package manager (System Settings -> Packages) and install the package groups "Development Tools" and "Kernel Development". *4.) Launch a terminal (System Tools -> Terminal). *5.) Type "su", then hit enter and enter your root password, you should be root now. *6.) Type the following command: "rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm". Of course the version number of your src.rpm might differ. You can use tab completion so simply hit TAB once you wrote a part of the filename down. Capitalization does matter. 7.) If this worked, you can close the terminal now. Open a file manager window (or your homefolder) and navigate to "/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386". You should find your new NVIDIA_kernel RPM here (of course if you got a precompiled NVidia kernel RPM you will find this whereever you saved it). Doubleclick and install it. If you did this, go back to your home folder and install (doubleclick) the NVIDIA_GLX RPM. (Feel free to remove the RPM's after installation as they aren't needed anymore. You won't be able to remove the kernel RPM (if you built it and it was saved in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/) as a user though without the terminal, su and "rm" command. This is IMHO a critical usability bug in Red Hat 8 or I missed something.) 8.) Go to "System Settings -> Display", open the "Advanced" tab and click the "Configure..." button for your video card. At the "Driver:" input box, write down "nvidia" as this is most probably not in the list (only "nv"). "nv" is the 2D driver, "nvidia" is the original 3D driver (the one you just installed). You will not be able to activate the "Enable Hardware 3D Acceleration" checkbox, don't worry. Click OK two times and it should tell you to log out and restart. 9.) Do exactly this (log out) and log in again, you should see the NVidia logo shortly. If X doesn't work anymore, GDM will ask you to launch the configuration program. Answer yes (or just hit enter in case the buttons show unreadable text like they did for me, probably a bug in Red Hat 8) and it should show you the configuration program from step 7. Change "nvidia" to "nv" at the very same location, now X should work again (at least). But if you did everything right, this shouldn't happen. 10.) Launch Tux Racer (Extras -> Games -> Tux Racer) or Chromium (Extras -> Games -> Chromium). Have fun! :)
