Fedora 17 nVidia Drivers Install Guide (disable nouveau driver)

Install nVidia proprietary drivers on Fedora 17 “BeefyMiracle” and disable the nouveau driver
1. Change root user

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i


2. Make sure that you are running latest kernel and have latest SELinux policy packages
If not then update kernel and reboot

# yum update kernel* selinux-policy*
# reboot

3. Add RPMFusion Repositories (Free and Non-Free)

32-bit and 64-bit
# yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-branched.noarch.rpm

# yum localinstall --nogpgcheck http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-branched.noarch.rpm


4. Install nVidia proprietary drivers for GeForce 6/7/8/9/200/300/400/500 series cards

Select akmod, kmod or kmod-PAE from following.

 Extra package for kernel-PAE users - akmod-nvidia -

# yum install akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs kernel-PAE-devel


or - kmod-nvidia -

# yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs

or - kmod-nvidia-PAE and kernel-PAE-devel -

# yum install kernel-PAE-devel kmod-nvidia-PAE

akmod is good option and easy way avoid problems on kernel updates and is best and only option if you use:

    self-compiled kernel
    older Fedora kernel
    quickly changing kernels from updates-testing/rawhide

Full spec of kmod and akmod differences, check this.


5. Remove / disable nouveau drivers from kernel initramfs

            ## Backup old initramfs nouveau image ##

# mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img

           ## Create new initramfs image ##
# dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r)

6. All is done and then just reboot

reboot