Acer Aspire 1712 w/ NVIDIA go 5700 and X11.org

[Erwin J. Prinz]

Michael:

You have a choice! I followed basically the approach published on the 
NVIDIA forum at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26745, 
and re-compiled a new kernel.

I did the following:

1. Read the Kernel Howto at 
http://www.linuxdocs.org/HOWTOs/Kernel-HOWTO.html and another one at
http://www.digitalhermit.com/~kwan/kernel.html
2. Read the RedHat 9 Customization Guide at 
https://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-9-Manual/rpm/rhl-cg-en-9-2.noarch.rpm, 
especially the Appendix A.
3. All the following steps are done as root.
    cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.3-2.1.253.2.1
4. Copy Fedora config file into .config:
    cp configs/kernel-2.6.3-i686.config .config
5. In the .config file, change two lines:
CONFIG_4KSTACKS=y
    to
CONFIG_4KSTACKS=n
    and
CONFIG_REGPARM=y
   to
CONFIG_REGPARM=n
6. Make sure that in the Makefile, the Extra Version is different from 
the installed kernel:
EXTRAVERSION = -2.1.253.2.1custom
7. Do:
    make mrproper
8. Do:
   make clean
9. Do:
   make dep (not necessary for 2.6 kernels?)
10. Do:
   make rpm
11. Wait a few hours while a new kernel is compiled
12. cd /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
13. rpm -i kernel-2.6.32.1.253.2.1custom-2.i386.rpm
14. new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd --depmod --install 2.6.3-2.1.253.2.1custom
15. Add 4 new lines to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file as follows 
(partition with label /12 is the one where the /boot partition lives. If 
/boot is on the / partition instead, the /vmlinuz... line needs to be 
/boot/vmlinuz... and similar for /initrd...)

title Fedora Core (2.6.3-2.1.253.2.1) Custom
        root (hd1,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.3-2.1.253.2.1custom ro root=LABEL=/12 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.3-2.1.253.2.1custom.img

16. Reboot with new kernel into runlevel 3.
17. Install NVIDIA drivers as usual. This took much longer than normal, 
and I found out that a few kernel modules were compiled AGAIN...
18. Change "nv" to "nvidia" in /etc/X11/XF86Config
19. Remove "Load dri" in /etc/X11/XF86Config
20. Switch to runlevel 5. Run "glxgears" at >500 frames/sec.

Disclaimer: These steps are from memory. Essentially, building the FC2T2 
kernel with the two parameter changes of step 5 does it until NVIDIA 
adjusts their driver to work with the other kernel configuration.

Good luck, Erwin