This is what I did to get my Linux Version to work with the nvidia drivers on my Debian system. Yes I bought the Linux version of this game back then

Install using the setup.sh to ~/games/quake3

Link NVidia's libGL.so to the Q3A directory:

$> ln -s /usr/lib/libGL.so ~/games/quake3

Maybe you also need to link libGLcore.so.1 into the Q3A directory:

$> ln -s /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1 ~/games/quake3

Put the following in ~/games/quake3/baseq3/autoexec.cfg

set vm_game 2 
set vm_cgame 2 
set vm_ui 2 

Get the 1.30 point release - don't use newer versions or you can't connect to private servers anymore. Do a google search for linuxq3apoint-1.30.x86.run.

I used this link: http://www.3ddownloads.com/linuxgames/quake3/linuxq3apoint-1.30.x86.run

Edit ~/games/quake3/quake3 to use my Alsa with Arts setup.

cd "$HOME/games/quake3"
artsdsp -m ./quake3.x86 $*
exit 0

run it

$> ~/quake3/quake3

Hint: have a look at this site

• See also: q3astatus
• Other information about Q3 : [http://bggames.250free.com/q3/ Quake 3 Team Arena] (Doesnt exist anymore)