[NTLUG:Discuss] Firefox/Flash died on upgrade/install

[Chris Cox]

Stephen Davidson wrote:
> Kevin E. Ivey wrote:
> |
> | Update your video driver if you have an NVidia card.
> |
> | Also make sure your refresh rate is set as high as your video settings
> | will allow.  That worked for me when flash just quit working...
> |
> | It seems that flash is always difficult to get working after updating
> | Firefox.  I have also recently had good luck switching my browsers agent
> | ID to Internet Exploder on WinXP.  Video works on all formats now...
> |
> | keVIn
> |
> 
> Greetings.
> 
> How do I update my video driver in SuSE Linux?  I thought that was
> already done?  (very nervous about just replacing a single file, or
> single set of files, rather than a package update)

If you're running openSUSE, then yes, there is a relatively updated
version available...BUT, I don't use that one.  Why?  Because the
latest Nvidia drivers stink (sorry, but they do).  So I run a
back leveled one (100.14.19).

So there's always a choice, but WITH some pain.

If you do choose to go on your own, you'll need the kernel-sources
installed so you can build the Nvidia driver.

You download the NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run (in my
case) from Nvidia's archived drivers (keep it around in case Nvidia
eliminates it).

Then you prepare your kernel for building.... if your running
openSUSE 10.3, I do:

# cd /usr/src/linux
# make cloneconfig
# make prepare

Then you can run the package from Nvidia...

# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run

Answering prompts along the way...

The difficulty with leaving the supplied packages is
that you'll have to repeat this almost EVERY time the
kernel gets updated (e.g. through online updates).

What stinks about the new Nvidia drivers?  They don't
do alpha texturing right, makes your 3D games look
hideous and even unplayable.  It's a well known problem
and Nvidia is aware of it.  Btw, they've made
two updates to their drivers since it was reported
and neither has fixed the issue.

Also, even if you go back a bit further (but not as
far back as I went), I find that the Nvidia drivers lock
up when using a combination of compiz-Fusion and openGL
and/or Xv.... so I may be back at 100.14.19 for quite
some time.

Alternatives for good quality accelerated 3D?  None.
In case somebody wanted to know that.