Updating proprietary drivers from backports

From Mandriva Community Wiki

[edit] Introduction

With each release, Mandriva Linux provides the latest available versions of the proprietary drivers made available by ATI and NVIDIA for their popular graphics cards. However, often these drivers are updated between one release of Mandriva Linux and the next, and these updates sometimes add support for newly released cards not supported by the version available at the time Mandriva Linux was released. If you have such a card and you would like to update to the latest version of the driver so that your card will be supported (or if you need to update the driver for some other reason), don't worry: this can be done quite easily by following the instructions found on this page. As they are released, newer versions of the drivers are made available in the /non-free/backports repository.

[edit] Preparation

In order to ensure the update is successful, you need to enable the necessary repositories, and update the ldetect-lst package, which contains Mandriva's graphics card detection database - otherwise the graphics card configuration tool won't be able to detect your card and set it up to use the proprietary driver.

So, first let's enable the two necessary repositories. First, make sure you have configured all the official repositories, following these instructions. Then, run the Software Media Manager again - as described in the previous instructions - and check the boxes to enable the Main Backports and Non-free Backports repositories.

Now, run the rpmdrake tool for installing packages, as described here. Make sure the display filter at the top left corner of the window is set to All packages, not Packages with GUI. Enter ldetect-lst into the package search box, and you should see a newer version of the ldetect-lst package, from the Main Backports repository, is available. You can check the repository by expanding the Details drop-down in the package information pane.

Once you have the updated ldetect-lst package installed, quit rpmdrake.

[edit] Installing the updated driver

Now run the Mandriva graphics card configuration tool. You can simply call it directly from a console or a run program dialog - the command is XFdrake - or you can find it in the Mandriva Control Center, under the Hardware tab, named Set up the graphical server.

Here, you should see a window which displays your graphics card group (if you have a very new card, this may be empty or incorrect), monitor, and resolution, along with Test and Options buttons. To install the new driver, all you need to do is click on your graphics card group. It should then display a tree view of available card groups and drivers, and it should detect the correct group for your card. Click OK and it will ask if you want to use the proprietary driver for your card. Say yes. It will then download and install several packages. Once this is finished, quit the configuration tool. It will display the new configuration and ask you to confirm that you want to save it. Say yes.

The updated driver should now be installed and configured. Reboot your system, and everything is done. Congratulations!