[mythtv-users] Any Debian / Mythtv / Nvidia users here?

[Kevin Ross]

On 2/20/2011 12:53 PM, stuart wrote:
> Hi...
>
> I've done a bad thing.  I updated my Debian Mythtv boxes with out
> checking if there were any Nvidia drivers available.  Now both mythtv
> boxes are broke.
>
> I'm not sure where the hold up is (maybe someone can say), but from
> mining the internet it appears this problem started about the 11th of
> February (2011) and is centred around not having proprietary Nvidia
> drivers available (yet).
>
> So, I'm asking here what people running Debian Mythtv boxes do.  (Other
> then avoid updates like the plague.)
>
> It's been suggested to wait until new Nvidia drivers float into the
> repositories (hum, been days w/o any TV in the house), try the
> experimental Debian repositories or load up the *real* Nvidia Linux Drivers.
>
> Well, that is what I used to do.  Load up the *real* Nvidia Linux
> drivers. Every time my Fedora box got a new kernel I just recompiled my
> already downloaded Nvidia drivers and off I went.  Simple as that.  But
> then I moved to Debian for more stability (ha, I mean humm).  Now, I
> understand, I am not suppose to install the *real* Nvidia drivers
> because Debian's package manager will have a fit (maybe I should say
> there is the possibility of the Debian packaging manager not working for
> future packaged Nvidia drivers).
>
> So, I'm just asking, what do people here usually do in such a case.
>
> -thanks

Do NOT install the nvidia drivers from the nvidia website.  There are 
nvidia drivers in the Debian repositories, but they are in non-free, not 
main.  You don't need anything from experimential.

Make sure your sources.list looks something like:

deb     http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

Then just:

# apt-get install nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-glx

and that will install the nvidia driver, version 195.36.31, which is 
perfectly fine for MythTV.  The newer 260 version isn't needed.

It works fine for me.  Hope this helps!

-- Kevin