Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

Carlwill · 2010-02-05 22:51:02

I know that when I install nVidia drivers manually using the installer from their site, during the installer I am asked at some point if I want to install 32 bit libraries. If I install the 'nvidia' package via Pacman, will this omit the 32 bit libraries? I want to make sure those don't get installed as I always select 'NO' to this option.

tomk · 2010-02-05 22:52:22

Always use pacman - there are separate nvidia packages for 32- and 64-bit systems.

flamelab · 2010-02-05 23:34:52

Carlwill wrote:

I know that when I install nVidia drivers manually using the installer from their site, during the installer I am asked at some point if I want to install 32 bit libraries. If I install the 'nvidia' package via Pacman, will this omit the 32 bit libraries? I want to make sure those don't get installed as I always select 'NO' to this option.

NEVER install Nvidia driver using that way. Install nvidia, nvidia-utils from [extra] and lib32-nvidia-utils with the exact same version from AUR, and you better than OK.

Carlwill · 2010-02-05 23:58:02

Just wonder why you say "NEVER"? Is there a reason why?

flamelab · 2010-02-06 00:04:11

Yes. Pacman should always be aware of what is installed in the system. Except for very rare occasions (like some programs that can be extracted in ~ and work there), NO packages should EVER be installed without the aid of pacman. If you want to compile a package, always create an Archlinux package (pkg.tar.gz) with a PKGBUILD and makepkg.

If you install a package using unreliable script installers, you may definitelly create a mess in your system.

That's a rule even for Windows (and .msi installers).

Carlwill · 2010-02-06 00:10:46

OK thank you. I appreciate your input. Just out of curiosity, if my system gets a new kernel release via 'pacman -Syy && pacman -Syu', do I then need to reinstall the nvidia driver package since it's normally compiled against the current installed kernel?

sand_man · 2010-02-06 00:19:36

Carlwill wrote:

OK thank you. I appreciate your input. Just out of curiosity, if my system gets a new kernel release via 'pacman -Syy && pacman -Syu', do I then need to reinstall the nvidia driver package since it's normally compiled against the current installed kernel?

Sometimes yes but as was said before, pacman will resolve all dependencies for you.

Themaister · 2010-02-06 01:57:27

Although I had to be careful, I preferred installing the nvidia drivers outside pacman for a while. It simply took more time going through PKGBUILDs, which I at the time had to modify from time to time. I made a little script which installed dummy packages which let pacman know that libgl and nvidia drivers were installed. Never ran into any problems, really.

I still prefer manual kernel compilation though. That stuff really gets messy with PKGBUILDs, imo. And the kernel doesn't really have anything to do with Arch itself.

sHyLoCk · 2010-02-06 02:18:39

Installing nvidia using their installer is not a problem. Have been doing that for years in several distributions including Arch. It is certainly not a bad thing. However,if you want to install a package, any package, write a PKGBUILD for it and use pacman, the reason is that it will ensure a cleaner system and also during removal it will completely clean up every trace, however many packages compiled and installed from source don't include an "uninstall" option so you can't "make uninstall" in most cases!

flamelab · 2010-02-06 03:05:06

Themaister wrote:

Although I had to be careful, I preferred installing the nvidia drivers outside pacman for a while. It simply took more time going through PKGBUILDs, which I at the time had to modify from time to time. I made a little script which installed dummy packages which let pacman know that libgl and nvidia drivers were installed. Never ran into any problems, really.
I still prefer manual kernel compilation though. That stuff really gets messy with PKGBUILDs, imo. And the kernel doesn't really have anything to do with Arch itself.

Personally, I'm really fond of PKGBUILDs, since I have been maintaining an unofficial repository for two years now, for Arch, and I find myself that PKGBUILD making is TOO easy for me

mandog · 2010-02-06 09:33:45

I've used Arch since 2006 I started manually installing Nvidia last year when their were Nvidia problems, but it was a pain in the bum so Ive changed back 3 months ago with no problems since.

hw-tph · 2010-02-06 12:02:14

Just use a separate installation root for applications that you don't install using the package manager (in the case of Arch pacman of course). That's pretty much what the /opt directory is for.

Not that this applies to the nvidia drivers but it does to for most applications.

Last edited by hw-tph (2010-02-06 12:02:58)

Mr.Elendig · 2010-02-06 13:40:40

Carlwill wrote:

Just wonder why you say "NEVER"? Is there a reason why?

Here is one reason:

You install the drivers using the .run directly.
Then you do a pacman -S xorg stuff
now, pacman pulls in libgl, but lo and behold: "zomg! File exist in filesystem!"
So you do a pacman -Sf libgl
But... when you now try to run X + stuff, you get a nice crash, because the nvidia driver don't work with libgl. (it provides it's own implimentation)
Then, after taking 4 days to figure that out, you reinstall nvidia from the .run file, but then, the day after, you -Suy, and the whole thing starts over again.

Anyway, there is every reason to use makepkg/pacman, and no reason not to.

Last edited by Mr.Elendig (2010-02-06 13:48:08)

quarkup · 2010-02-07 02:51:38

also many other fellows will get the help if you create the PKGBUILD and upload it into the AUR !!

a small step for the archer, a leap to the community !!

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-05 22:51:02

Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#2 2010-02-05 22:52:22

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#3 2010-02-05 23:34:52

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#4 2010-02-05 23:58:02

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#5 2010-02-06 00:04:11

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#6 2010-02-06 00:10:46

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#7 2010-02-06 00:19:36

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#8 2010-02-06 01:57:27

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#9 2010-02-06 02:18:39

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#10 2010-02-06 03:05:06

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#11 2010-02-06 09:33:45

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#12 2010-02-06 12:02:14

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#13 2010-02-06 13:40:40

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

#14 2010-02-07 02:51:38

Re: Installing 'Nvidia' Drivers via Pacman -vs- Manually

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