4.7. Nvidia GLX & DRI

4.7.1. Example 1

This is the configuration that I use on my system (ATI AIW Radeon 7500 AGP and Nvidia TNT2 M64 PCI) XFree configuration files:

1. Create a directory /usr/X11R6/libNV:

   mkdir /usr/X11R6/libNV

2. Create links to the original /usr/X11R6/lib:

   cd /usr/X11R6/libNV

   lndir -silent -ignorelinks ../lib

3. Install the Nvidia driver and libraries in /usr/X11R6/libNV.

4. Install Nvidia's libGLcore.so.1.0 [driver version], or better, libGLcore.so.1, in /usr/lib. Make a symbolic link from /usr/X11R6/libNV/libGLcore.so.1 to /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1 (this will allow you to easily update your Nvidia drivers):

   cd /usr/lib

   ln -s ../X11R6/libNV/libGLcore.so.1 ./

   Note: the Nvidia libGL.so is installed /usr/X11R6/libNV, so it's invisible to the system unless you tell the system about the existence of /usr/X11R6/libNV. For this setup, you must not do this, as it will break the standard X server start-up. But you can use the XFree GL libraries with the Nvidia graphic card and Nvidia closed source drivers, with a non-Nvidia graphic card, using XFree's DRI, which the GL library from Nvidia cannot do.

5. Add a line in the XFree configuration file for the Nvidia card to point the X server to the right location of the library and module path:

   Section "Files" .......... ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/libNV/modules" .......... EndSection

6. Install the Nvidia kernel driver.

Now everything should be fine and you should be able to use DRI and Nvidia GLX at the same time. You will have a bit smaller performance in comparison to a setup which uses Nvidia's libGL & libGLcore, but the difference is not that big on my PC.

4.7.2. Example 2

This example will give you the full performance of both the Nvidia card(s), and the non-Nvidia card, since XFree's libGL is used for the non Nvidia card, and Nvidia's libGL is used for Nvidia cards. But this will require one more X server to be precise; a simple wrapper to add the path to the Nvidia libraries, and symbolic links to it for additional Nvidia cards.

It is almost the same as the previous scenario, with the difference that the X servers for the Nvidia cards should start with an environment where Nvidia's libGL is known, while the X servers for non Nvidia cards shouldn't know anything about the Nvidia libGL. This requires a wrapper to be used for starting the X servers driving Nvidia cards.

Install the Nvidia libraries and kernel driver like in the previous example. You may skip step 4. as libGLcore.so.1 is installed in /usr/X11R6/libNV, and we'll inform the X servers driving Nvidia cards about the proper path to the Nvidia libraries.

The missing part - the wrapper :

#!/bin/bash export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R6/libNV exec /usr/X11R6/bin/X0 $*

Copy these lines into your favourite editor and save the file as XNV. Make it executable:

chmod +x XNV

Copy the file to /usr/X11R6/bin and make symbolic links to it for additional Nvidia cards (for additional cards just add more links):

cp XNV /usr/X11R6/bin
cd /usr/X11R6/bin
ln -s XNV Xnv0
ln -s XNV Xnv1
ln -s XNV Xnv2
        

Remember to use /usr/X11R6/bin/Xnv0, /usr/X11R6/bin/Xnv1 ..., instead of /usr/X11R6/bin/X0, /usr/X11R6/bin/X1 ... for your Nvidia cards while configuring the display managers in the next chapter, or when starting X on Nvidia card(s) from console.

4.7.3. Installing the Nvidia libraries easily

Using the new Nvidia installer (note, this is a work in progress, do not use if you don't understand what happens here. To-do: write a script to perform steps 1-4. Please provide some feedback on the script in Appendix->Scripts):

Manually:

1. Make a backup of your XFree GL libraries:

   cd [XFree prefix]

   On my Mandrake system I can use:

   cd $OPENWINHOME find lib -name "libGL.*" -o -name "libGLcore*" -o -name "libglx.*" | xargs tar rpfv libGL-backup.tar

2. Then run the Nvidia installer:

   ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4349.run --no-opengl-headers --xfree86-prefix=/usr/X11R6NV --opengl-prefix=/usr/X11R6NV

3. Copy the installed files to /usr/X11R6/libNV:

   cd /usr/X11R6NV/lib && tar cv * | tar xvC /usr/X11R6/libNV/

4. Restore the backed-up GL libraries:

   cd [XFree prefix] tar xvfp libGL-backup.tar && ldconfig