Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini−HOWTO Robert B Easter [email protected] Revision History Revision v1.10 2002−01−31 Revised by: rbe This mini−HOWTO is about how to install the OpenGL drivers for Nvidia graphics cards on Linux. In addition to just installing the Nvidia drivers, this mini−HOWTO also explains how to install XFree86, the OpenGL Utility library (part of Mesa), the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (glut), the full set of OpenGL manpages, Qt and its OpenGL extension, and Java and its Java 3D extension so that a user can have a complete runtime and development environment for OpenGL applications on Linux. Note that some of this material may be out of date. The author has attempted to update this material but has not had time to test all the procedures. Nevertheless, this document should still provide a decent overview of what is involved. If you spot errors please contact the author. Nvidia OpenGL Configuration mini−HOWTO Table of Contents New Versions of this Document.........................................................................................................................1 Copyright and Licenses......................................................................................................................................2 Disclaimer............................................................................................................................................................3 Contributors........................................................................................................................................................4 Chapter 1. Introduction......................................................................................................................................5 Chapter 2. Download the software packages...................................................................................................6 2.1. Linux Kernel >= 2.2.12 Required.....................................................................................................6 2.2. XFree86 4.0 or later..........................................................................................................................6 2.3. OpenGL man pages...........................................................................................................................6 2.4. Mesa 3D............................................................................................................................................7 2.5. Qt......................................................................................................................................................8 2.6. NVIDIA drivers (Mesa libGL replacement).....................................................................................8 2.7. Java 2 SDK, Java 3D extension, and Java PlugIn for Netscape (optional)......................................9 Chapter 3. Install Software..............................................................................................................................10 3.1. README and INSTALL files.......................................................................................................10 3.2. Install XFree86................................................................................................................................10 3.3. Install Mesa.....................................................................................................................................12 3.4. Install Nvidia OpenGL drivers........................................................................................................13 3.4.1. Install NVIDIA kernel driver package............................................................................13 3.4.2. Install NVIDIA GLX package........................................................................................14 3.5. Install Qt.........................................................................................................................................16 3.6. Install GLUT 3.7 Distribution (optional)........................................................................................17 3.7. Install Java 3D (optional)................................................................................................................18 Chapter 4. Final Comments.............................................................................................................................20 Appendix A. GNU Free Documentation License..................................................................................20 A.1. GNU FDL Version, and Copyright Notice....................................................................................20 A.2. PREAMBLE..................................................................................................................................20 A.3. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS......................................................................................21 A.4. VERBATIM COPYING................................................................................................................21 A.5. COPYING IN QUANTITY...........................................................................................................22 A.6. MODIFICATIONS........................................................................................................................22 A.7. COMBINING DOCUMENTS.......................................................................................................23 A.8. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS............................................................................................24 A.9. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS...................................................................24 A.10. TRANSLATION..........................................................................................................................24 A.11. TERMINATION..........................................................................................................................25 A.12. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE...............................................................................25 A.13. How to use this License for your documents...............................................................................25 i New Versions of this Document The latest version of this mini−HOWTO can be found at: http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/Nvidia−OpenGL−Configuration/ New Versions of this Document 1 Copyright and Licenses Copyright (c) 2001, 2002 Robert B. Easter. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front−Cover Texts, and with no Back−Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License". Copyright and Licenses 2 Disclaimer No liability for the contents of this documents can be accepted. Use the concepts, examples and other content at your own risk. All copyrights are held by their respective owners, unless specifically noted otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark. Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements. Disclaimer 3 Contributors I thank the following contributors for their input into this document: • Jan De Luyck (jandeluyck at gmx.net) −− Provided information about tweaking os−registry.c to change AGP settings and how to monitor the nv settings with cat /proc/nv/card0. Thanks ! Contributors 4 Chapter 1. Introduction The installation of the NVIDIA drivers under Linux can be quite easy in itself. However, there is a little more to it sometimes than just unpacking the driver files. Since certain versions of the NVIDIA drivers require upgrading your XFree86 to work, I've included some material on installing XFree86. If upgrading XFree86 is necessary for you, you can read this document but also carefully read the information at XFree86.org. The NVIDIA driver is only concerned with installing the OpenGL libGL library. But since there is more to a complete OpenGL installation than just libGL, I cover the installation of defacto standard OpenGL add−on libraries like GL Utility (libGLU) and GL Utility Toolkit (libglut). Going a little beyond the basics, I cover the installation of some other libraries you might want to consider: TrollTech's Qt C++ Library and the Java language Java 3D API. Chapter 1. Introduction 5 Chapter 2. Download the software packages 2.1. Linux Kernel >= 2.2.12 Required First of all, the OpenGL drivers for the Nvidia cards currently require a system with Linux kernel 2.2.12 or later. Recent releases of kernel 2.4.x are supported and are recommended since most new development happens in the 2.4 kernels. If you don't have it, then you will have to upgrade your system's Linux kernel; see The Linux Kernel HOWTO for details. The Linux kernel can be downloaded at: http://www.kernel.org/ 2.2. XFree86 4.0 or later The current version of XFree86 is 4.2.0 as of this writing. It can be downloaded as source or binaries. It is generally recommended to download the binaries these days. See http://www.XFree86.org for the lastest official information on installation of XFree86. Later in this document, I describe only the very basic procedure for compiling and installing from the source. XFree86 source code comes in three files: • X420src−1.tgz • X420src−2.tgz • X420src−3.tgz • doctools−1.3.tgz