Which nVidea driver to install

[Michael Powell]

LoH wrote:

[snip]
> What I have found to work is to make the nvidia-driver port, but not
> install it (to get the dependencies). Then I would download the recent
> driver from nVidia's website (as of this email, 185.18.14), untar it and
> install that instead. If nvidia-xconfig doesn't work immediately, you
> can install it from ports w/o a problem (or do the configuration by hand).
> 
> It's a little involved, but it gets the job done.
> 
> nVidia's README for FreeBSD drivers:
> http://us.download.nvidia.com/freebsd/185.18.14/README/index.html
> 

Yes - I agree that these utilities should be considered the more "proper" 
approach. Editing the xorg.conf by hand should be where one ends up after 
everything else hasn't worked. Generally speaking, most of these get it 
either right or so very close to right that only a minor tweak or two is 
needed.

My config is somewhat non standard in that I use two monitors, one LCD 
flatscreen and the other an old 17" CRT. There are two methods for dual 
monitors, either multiple X screens or utilize the TwinView feature of the 
nvidia driver. Since the TwinView approach allows to drag windows from one 
monitor to the other with a mouse (what I wanted) I went that way. 
Ultimately in the end it took manual hackery to get it to work.

But yes - use the utilities first, that's what they're made for. Only resort 
to hackery as a last resort.

-Mike