Why should I switch to RPM Fusion ATI & Nvidia RPMS?
!!! This package is deprecated !!!
Benefit from the convenience and reliability of the Red Hat Package Manager system.
RPM enables you to take control of the software you install on your system. It keeps a record of what version of what software is installed, and precisely where all of the respective files are.
By using RPM to install all your software, you not only avoid the confusing and time consuming task of tracking software installation and upgrades, but you also protect currently installed software from being accidentally overwritten by other RPM packages or deleted - something that happens all too easily using less "intelligent" methods, such as installing from tarballs and scripts.
But RPM packages are not always innocent and can make trouble. They have install scripts that can confuse the system if they are not programmed carefully. Or the packages installs source-code that you have to recompile and install manually - the resulting files won't be in the RPM-Database then and might get overwritten by other packages.
These things are considered "bad". They often happen when Hardware-Vendors try to package their drivers in an RPM-Package that is supposed to work on all distributions. That is not impossible -- but often they fail or do some "dirty" tricks that can lead to problem. Something like the "driver hell" that happened in older Windows-Versions can be the result.
Smaller Files = Quicker Downloads
Binary RPM packages only contain the files necessary for your computer's architecture, therefore the file sizes are much smaller compared to generic source packages. The packages from Nvidia and ATI further come only with a limited number of pre-compiled kernel modules, which means that you need to install the compiler toolchain and the kernel-devel package in order to build the driver module for your current kernel. You have to repeat that build process after each kernel update. This can be difficult and is normally not needed when you use the packages from RPM Fusion!
No Manual Configuration Required
The RPM Fusion Nvidia and ATI driver RPMS come with a small python script, which works as an extension to system-config-display. It does all the editing of the Xorg configuration file for you while installing/activating the driver.
You should also use this tool manually if you want to temporarily switch back to the Xorg driver without uninstalling the Nvidia driver. Just run as root:
/usr/sbin/nvidia-config-display disable
Please remember that 96xx or legacy have a different command:
/usr/sbin/nvidia-legacy-config-display disable /usr/sbin/nvidia-96xx-config-display disable
For the ATI driver it's as simple as:
/usr/sbin/fglrx-config-display disable
Use "enable" instead of "disable" to enable the driver again later.
Come on, Tell Me, How Do I Use This?
Just install the driver's kernel module by running
yum install kmod-nvidia
or
yum install kmod-fglrx
If you require the 96xx or legacy versions of the Nvidia driver, simply run:
yum install kmod-nvidia-96xx
or
yum install kmod-nvidia-legacy
(add "-xen" or "-PAE" to the package names above in case you run a xen or PAE kernel) and yum should download and install everything needed. The drivers will get activated during install -- there is no need to adjust the xorg.conf manually.