Nvidia FreeBSD Display Driver

Nvidia FreeBSD Display Driver is a special OpenGL video driver designed just for Nvidia graphics cards on FreeBSD operating systems. This driver comes in two types: Short Lived, which gets short-term support, and Long Lived, which has long-term support. It works with both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

How to Install the Nvidia FreeBSD Display Driver

If you want to install the Nvidia FreeBSD Display Driver, you'll need to grab the right package from the Downloads section above that matches your hardware. Once you've downloaded it, open up a console session and run this command: tar xzf NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86_64-xxx.xx.tar.gz && cd NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86_64-xxx.xx && make install for 64-bit systems. If you're using a 32-bit system, use this command instead: tar xzf NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86-xxx.xx.tar.gz && cd NVIDIA-FreeBSD-x86-xxx.xx && make install. Just replace xxx.xx with your version number!

Important Steps Before Installing

Before you hit enter on those commands, remember that you need to have the kernel header installed on your FreeBSD machine first. When you start installing, you'll get a prompt asking if you'd like the installer to configure the driver automatically. This is great for beginners! But if you're feeling adventurous and know what you're doing, you can manually tweak the X configuration file or run nvidia-xconfig in a Linux terminal emulator after installation to set it as your default driver.

Supported Systems and Compatibility

You might be wondering if it actually works! The good news is that we've tested both branches of this driver at Softpedia Labs with stable releases of FreeBSD. It supports both 64-bit (x86_64) and 32-bit (x86) platforms.

Troubleshooting Old Graphics Cards

A heads-up though! If you're using very old Nvidia graphics cards on FreeBSD or even Solaris or Linux, this driver won't work for you. Instead, check out Softpedia for the latest Nvidia FreeBSD Legacy Display Drivers that are suited for older hardware.