KDE and nvidia graphics


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While I am still working with and love gnome. I do wonder about sometime trying the new KDE desktop. Does the 4.0 version get along with nvidia graphics card ok fine? I have the 8800 gt pci-e video card. Honestly I am not sure if its kde or compfiz But I do recall issues with nvida graphics and getting the white screen (which I had once).

Just thought it may be fun to try the KDE desktop but if its gonna be a big problem will just use gnome. Appreciate the input.

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KDE, Gnome and other desktops don't interact with nVidia cards at all. That is the job of X, which is what these environments run on top of.

If your nVidia runs fine with Gnome. It will do exactly as well in KDE. (Y)

EDIT: I wrote up a brief FAQ on how a typical Linux system is organized, from the basic kernel up the layers to the Desktop Environment. It might help you see how it is put together.

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Well ok then. I may have to give it a shot and see how it goes. I have Gnome all backed up and updated to a slave with Nortons Ghost 14.

Is there a simple sudo command I can use to download and put the latest version of KDE 4 and I think I would need comfiz as well? Or do I wanna use Synaptic?

I really do appreciate all the help you guys and gals have given. Sure made the switch from windows to Linux Tons easier.

Oh and yea, I do keep notes and stuff so If issues happen hopefully the fix will be in my notes.

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You don't need to backup and re-install.

You can fire up synaptic and search/select "kdebase", or do a sudo apt-get install kdebase from a terminal.

Gnome, KDE and all other Window Managers/Desktops can peacefully co-exist in Linux. When you have multiple options for desktops, you can select your "session" at your login screen to try one out over another.

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You don't need to backup and re-install.

You can fire up synaptic and search/select "kdebase", or do a sudo apt-get install kdebase from a terminal.

Gnome, KDE and all other Window Managers/Desktops can peacefully co-exist in Linux. When you have multiple options for desktops, you can select your "session" at your login screen to try one out over another.

So I can use either gnome or KDE when I Log into ubuntu??

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Yes. The easiest way to get the complete KDE 4 environment under Ubuntu is to open a terminal and enter

user@host $ sudo apt-get install kubuntu-desktop

This will download and install KDE 4.1 and all of its dependencies. At some point during the install you are going to be asked to choose between GDM and KDM as login manager (= the screen you see when you log in to your machine). Either works.

You can then select the desktop environment you want to use from the GDM options.

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KDE4 -DO- have problem with nvidia card, you will have to upgrade to more recent driver (180.*) to get acceptable render speed.

KDE, Gnome and other desktops don't interact with nVidia cards at all.

Not the driver, but with the technology included in it. KDE4 use EXA, XRender and OpenGL, 2 of them are totally broken in the current (stable) nvidia driver. They have been rewroted for 180.* to make kde4 work. Moving a plasmiod with 6 month old nvidia driver can take up to 3 second to repaint a single frame, it was terrible. NVIDIA accepted the fact that it was their bugs long time ago.

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Yeppers. Elv13 is right. KDE 4 Is still buggy with nivda drivers. I loaded kde 4 it booted fine. Next reboot I got the error "unable to load fast user switching". To bad. O well I am fine with gnome. I would think that the issues with kde and nvdia would of been fixed after the problems with KDE 3.

O well give it some time. By the time its fixed version 5 will be ready to be released. While I still love linux and will use it I am starting to believe its no more stable that windows.

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I loaded kde 4 it booted fine. Next reboot I got the error "unable to load fast user switching".

That doesn't look to be a problem that would be related to the nvidia drivers+KDE. My best guess is that it would be related to the login manager, not sure. You use GDM?

I would think that the issues with kde and nvdia would of been fixed after the problems with KDE 3.

KDE 3.5 was and is a very stable release (it's still my main desktop), never had any problems of stability with it.

Just a question, you've already installed the nvidia module and modified your "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" file to be able to use it, right?

I have no problems using my nvidia card with those drivers on a system with KDE4, and it is a much much more older card than yours.

But if GNOME is the desktop for you, keep it. It's a nice desktop too. :)

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OK let me start off by saying Im a complete linux n00b.

But I recently tried installing kubuntu which uses KDE and had nothing but problems with my nVidia card.

I was getting anomolies before trying to use the nVidia drivers for my BFG 260GTX.

I hope this is at all helpful...

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