NVIDIA on Linux

:X or :@ I'm angry with the bloody Nvidia drivers for Linux. Anyway, this post is supposed to be helpful, not a rant.

I upgraded from Ubuntu 8.04 to Ubuntu 8.10 when it came out. Then, I installed nvidia-kernel-2.6.26 which was my default nvidia stuff on Hardy and lo, my X crashed. It tried restarting some n times, with no success. So well, what was the problem. I still dunno. But the solution was to install the package nvidia-kernel-173.14.09 The last two numbers will vary, though. Lucky that I found this while random browsing on a friend's computer.

That did it.

A few weeks later, I wanted to use Debian, so, well, I removed Intrepid and installed Etch (Debian 40r5). This time, I upgraded, and installed nvidia-kernel-173. And guess what, it crashed again. I tried removing it and installing nvidia-kernel-2.6.26 which worked on Ubuntu 8.04. Well, it did not work this time. The solution? nvidia-kernel-2.6.26-1-openvz-amd64

I have absolutely no idea what is going on. But this worked. It installed an additional kernel though. I now boot into a kernel which is identified by Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.26-1-openvz-amd64

Hope this will remain a note for me in the future, for further X crashes.

Update: Well, this was helpful, but a better realization was this