Hidden Linux : Graphics envy
Installing proprietary graphics drivers on Linux has always been a bit of a pain, and not something to inflict on nervous newcomers. Still, it's the only way to get the very best out of your graphics hardware, and both NVida and ATI have active Linux driver support programmes.
Simplifying what till now has been a command-line driven process is what lies behind Envy, a series of Python scripts specifically designed to automate graphics driver installations for Ubuntu and Debian users. Its simple GUI says it all...
Choose your task, click Apply, and it's away.
Behind the scenes it identifies your hardware, downloads the appropriate driver, sorts out dependencies, sets up xorg.conf (the Xserver's configuration file), and optionally reboots your system or restarts the graphics server, depending on whether you start it in GUI or command-line mode.
I've used Envy on more than a dozen installations now -- involving both NVidia and ATI graphics cards -- and it's always performed faultlessly. It's one of my installation essentials.
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Comments
For ubuntu/kubuntu users, why not just use the Restricted Drivers Manager(included by default) to install them? Just check the box & in a few minutes you can have the official ubuntu package for them installed.
Posted by: Somebody | January 17, 2008 2:21 PM
This tool will make happy a lot of newer users and specially to me
Posted by: Luis Medina | December 5, 2007 5:53 PM
It,s great, BUT !! we need to have a app that will install Flash, Jre, Mplayer, Xine, Realplayer,
this is the one single thing that is very difficult for a newby.
After I helped a newby install Kubuntu over the phone, he said that is real easy to install Linux, Until I got into helping him install Flash, Jre, Mplayer then he said now I see why Linux is hard for a new user.
Posted by: Jim Tate | December 5, 2007 12:03 PM
Envy is bad.
do not use it if you like a stable system. The official way to install graphic drivers is not hard at all.
Posted by: bartek | December 5, 2007 1:04 AM
Why not build an automatic script that calls the envy -t on the first reboot after a kernel update?
check kernel ver....changed? envy -t ... startx... etc or what ever your dist uses.
Posted by: Just an idea | December 4, 2007 9:45 AM
Every time I run Envy on Kubuntu 7.10 (motherboard with integral nvidia) it installs the nvidia driver and my KDE login and desktop won't appear unless I go into the xorg.conf file and replace the nvidia driver with the nv driver. If I didn't know to do this I would be really screwed, of course.
Posted by: Remote User | December 4, 2007 3:12 AM
I still think we need to keep leaning on Nvidia to open -source their graphics drivers. They must see by now that it is only a matter of time. You'd think they would want the kudos of being open-source-friendly. It won't cost them anything.
Posted by: David Legg | December 3, 2007 10:51 PM
Envy rocks for sure, but PLEASE REMEMBER: After using Envy, if you update your system and the kernel happens to get upgraded as well, X will fail to start until you run Envy again.
Boot in recovery mode and type "envy -t" to reinstall the drivers in text mode. This is a problem for noob systems because they won't know what happened.
Posted by: Kevin Fishburne | December 3, 2007 5:39 AM
there is a god and he's called Jeff
Posted by: Adam | December 3, 2007 1:43 AM