Installing Nvidia 330M Driver

[mixit]

Nvidia has not yet released a linux driver supporting the 300M series. Using current nvidia drivers, you will boot to a blank screen. Here is the workaround I found online. I thought I'd share it with the backtrack community to save some headaches.

Download the driver from here:

NVIDIA DRIVERS 195.36.15 Certified

I downloaded it in windows and ran it from backtrack. You may also be able to use the backtrack-nvidia package and follow the rest of this tutorial, but I have not verified this.

Go to the download directory and run

./nvidia-linux-x86-195.36.15-pkg1.run

Finish the install, then reboot into windows (Yes, I'm assuming dual booting windows). Then download and install the following program, which we will use to exract the EDID from the windows registry. There may be other ways to create the EDID file, but this is how I did it:

Download Phoenix EDID Designer - Freeware Software - Tucows

From the tools menu, choose load an EDID file from the registry. Then choose to export it from the file menu, and be sure to select the raw 128 byte file format. Save this somewhere accessible and boot back into backtrack.

Move the EDID.raw file you saved in windows to /etc/X11.

Now since you can't startx, use vi to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Add the following lines to the "Device" section of the xorg.conf file

Option         "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP-0"
Option         "CustomEDID" "DFP-0: /etc/X11/EDID.raw"

Where it has /etc/X11/EDID.raw, insert the name of your EDID.raw file you moved over from windows. That's it. Save the xorg.conf file and you should now be able to startx. Hopefully this helps someone. Let me know if I missed anything.

[gendit]

THanks it works with me...since before this my resolution is 800x600..but now it is 1366x768..but i just follow your step until install the /nvidia-linux-x86-195.36.15-pkg1.run, after that, i issue the command startx and my resolution auto to 1366x768..but the problem is here, i cannot set the brightness of my LCD since it said not supported. Is this because i didnt do the EDID?

[mixit]

I also cannot adjust my screen brightness. I guess I never noticed this. Not sure if this has anything to do with the driver...

[gendit]

yeah..any solution??..my LCD so dark...hard to read lor...PAIN

[mixit]

From what I understand, the EDID lets the graphics card know some information about the display its connected to. Maybe that program we used to create the EDID wasnt giving all the information about the display. Maybe it was just giving what exactly the display was doing at the time of creation.

To sum, I think that if your display was bright when you created the EDID, your graphics card will be told that your display is only capable of those exact display settings and won't allow you to change them to anything else once used in linux. Could be totally wrong, but try making a new EDID in windows with a different screen brightness and repeat the process. Anyone have any better information on this subject?

[jeremieb]

Hello
I buy a new macbook pro and my 330m didn't run on Bt4 how make install, when i start bt4 and "startx" my mac make x server error.

Help me im french

[AisMen]

Hello
I buy a new macbook pro and my 330m didn't run on Bt4 how make install, when i start bt4 and "startx" my mac make x server error.

Help me im french

1) Connect you macbook to a internet through LAN to a router with DHCP enabled.

2) On backtrack shell type this to enable LAN network:

ifconfig eth0 up

3) set network parameters form dhcp on you network:

dhclient

4) download and install nvidia drivers for nvidia 330M:

apt-get install nvidia-driver

5) type "startx" and backtrack will start in GUI mode!

enjoy

[codethink]

Yeah, I had the same "problem". Just use /etc/X11/xorg.conf-vesa instead of the default configuration X file. It should make your window manager launch just fine despite the crappy resolution. Make sure to use the same file when you boot again from the hard drive for the time, and install the drivers as described in this thread.

[mixit]

@AisMen

Unless Nvidia has released a new driver for the 330M card, the method you described does not work. That's the reason I wrote this how to. Can you verify the method you described now works with the 330M graphics card? I'm not at home else I'd try myself.

[swager]

With X disabled, enter

apt-get install nvidia-driver