rockybalboa

First off, I have followed the instructions posted on this board religiously, regarding NVIDIA driver installation. The install keeps failing when it tries to build the kernel interface. The errors are as follows: Wrong kernel source installed. Cannot find correct kernel source. I did a little self learning and found this using rpm -qa |grep (or something like it) I am running kernel 2.6.3-7mdk-1-1mdk However my source is 2.6.3-9mdk Is this actually the wrong kernel source? If so how can I get the right one? I got the current one through urpmi kernel source. It seems strange to me that the machine would have automatically downloaded and configured the wrong one without asking me to at least confirm that it was using the wrong one. Is this because MDK 10 is so new? Is it possible/safe to force the NVIDIA installer to just use what is provided without complaining? This is all learning for me so I appreciate anyones input. Thanx Dan

My Newbie two cents worth. I fought 9.2 for the better part of 2-3 weeks. No luck. Just before jumping ship a friend(s) convinced me to try MDK 10. This working setup was easier than the one I couldn't get running. I am very leery of MBR and boot issues. I have none. My own experience is superior. Running XP/MDK 10. GeForce3 200Ti Sound Blaster Live AMD TBird Nothing spectacular, but solid performance. I am still tweaking 3D, but I still have graphics so any failures beyond this point will be at least partly my own. I've done alot of research in the last month or so and I have seen alot of grave concerns from others, but I usually find more people who either didn't have the problem or found a good fix. As a newbie I have to say that when I abandoned 9.2 things really went well. "Indvidual experiences may vary" Good Luck, Dan P.S. Without the encouragement of those who hang out here, I would've jumped ship long ago. Windows has taught me to expect consistent mediocrity with little user input. Boring but easy to run. Sort of like a Ford Pinto.

I am a giant fan of Firefox (at least my Windows version). I am a new fan of Mandrake and I want to run Firebird in it. Can anyone quote me their experiences, so I can cut my trial and error period down? Thanks for the input. Dan

You have my sympathies. I spent nearly 3 weeks fighting and polling those who frequent these boards, on how to get my 9.2 install to work. Never got crap for success. Wouldn't even run ten minutes. Loaded MDK 10 two days ago and it screams on my machine. Ran stress test while I slept 6 hours last night. It sure saved Mandrake a fan because I was pretty sour after the previous experience. Sorry guys, I'm a student too and I download my own ISOs. However I ALWAYS run MD5 checksums before burning to make sure I'm starting with good images. That way if I burn a coaster I know it's not the data's problem. The other side to it is that I'm very loyal and I'm saving money to actually pay for the Power Pack next month (yes I know I can get it all free, but I need new widgets once in awhile to keep me occupied). Incidently, if you feel like messing with it, the Bit Torrents are showing up all over as of last night. Frankly, I think BTs are a pain in the arse. Don't give up. We are smarter than the software. I agree, if you are not doing an upgrade I would format the partitions and do a clean install, after verifying your images. Good luck. Dan

You were right. I have three sequential options. Before my system could process the first two as boot to CD requests, the hard drives would kick in and take control of the system. P.S. MDK 10 smokes out of the box, and I haven't finished the configs yet! Dan

My motherboard runs the drives like a SCSI set up ( to allow RAID if chosen). They work in Linux fine, however, I don't have the option of setting the drive detection to LBA. Will this be a problem when I am installing MDK 10? Thanks Dan

Please excuse this question the answer seems like it will be real easy. I am dual booting XP and MDK 9.2 with LILO. The 9.2 will not run more than 3 minutes without crashing. I am trying to install MDK 10 from ISOs and I want to completely overwrite the 9.2 install. I set the BIOS to boot CD but it automatically reads "Invalid boot disk" so I have to go to the hard drive. I can't boot from CD because LILO comes up and that option doesn't exist in my LILO config. The MDK boot CD will start in Widoze, but then it restarts the machine back to LILO. Is there an function in MDK like Windoze autorun, for CD? Also, I can use the shell in MDK without crashing. As embarrassing as it sounds, if there were an EXE file I would know automatically what to do. I accessed every file I could on the CD from the Linux shell and none initiated the install sequence. Do I just need to enter a LILO line to mount the CD at start? If so what do I enter? I know this is just due to my newbie-ness. Any advice? Thanks Dan

For history on this see other posts under my username. I'm not trying to start a flame war I'll take any advice on this that anyone will give I'm going to download MDK 10 ISOs tonite and will do a complete overwrite. Then (I will build my own custom kernel later this week) I've started to research building my own kernel, but since I am very new to this I will read anything that some one wants to post. SEND ALL YOUR LINKS Thanks Dan

Add to that web browsers and MMC crashing to desktop at random

For anyone who's interested in the history behind this lookup my username. Having had a complete sysem failure, I reinstalled MDK 9.2 (-kernel 2.4.8.22-10)-(Xserver 4.3) Abit KT7-A board(no raid) -AMD Tbird 1.3 -NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti200 -Sound Blaster Live (I've yet to have working sound in MDK) I am once again back to a MDK install that runs for only a few minutes and then locks completely. Cannot kill x, Alt-SysReq sequence doesn't work, or anything else, manual reboot is only option. It seems to happen most frequently when traversing directiory structure through the GUI, but also happens on the desktop and all browsers. It also happens in all the optional destops that ship with MDK (KDE, Gnome, Ice, etc..) My newbies guess is that it's an XServer problem, because if I boot to console only it's stable, and I can do whatever I want without a GUI. I came up with this guess by scouring NGs for five days. I've done a ton of troubleshooting on this and have given up ever finding an answer. I'm trying to find what logs to read and/or post to try and find out why this thing is locking up. I've wondered about trying another Xserver but not sure what to try. I've also considered going to MDK 10 but I figured the problem may migrate with me, and it's fairly new...yak..yak. My other option that is looking better every day is going to Gentoo. Don't get me wrong, I'd really rather get this working. Any input is welcome. Dan

Tried to use fix option on MDK boot CD. Install couldn't find the partitions. Since I've yet to get this system working I opted for the complete reinstall method. It boots so now I'm back to older post install problems. In my opinion this was a non fix. But thanks to all who took the time to advise me. Dan

Well, the more things change...... After the problems I have detailed here: http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=13535 Now I can't even boot my MDK install to try and fix it. Last night Lilo failed to boot saying it couldn't find vmlinuz--something or other. So I was using GRUB. This evening GRUB won't boot, saying it can't find the linux boot partition. So here I am back in Windoze, having used all my spare time trying (but never fixing) my original problem. I know I can, and eventually will, find the fix the Lilo/GRUB problem. If anyone wants to throw me a link or two to speed up the process I'd appreciate it. Who knows, maybe I'll just spend the rest of my Mandrape exerience fixing my install and reading about how MDK works, instead of actually using it. Thanks for any advice that you can lend. Dan

OK I ran urpmi kernel-headers and response was "already installed". Then I ran the rpm pkg and response was Tried to run the run files (in home/* directory) to make the pkg and it said the file didn't exist, even though I was logged as root.How do I update the dependencies or is it possible? If this NV driver set has worked with others kernel of the same number why doesn't mine? I'm about to throw in the towel on this fight. It surprises me that I could have such a big problem getting this fixed compared to most users. Thanks for the help, I haven't given up yet. But there comes a time when continuing becomes foolish. I'd installl MDK 10 if I thought I would get a solid setup, but I'm afraid this problem would follow me. Dan

OK I followed your instructions for the kernel source code and it was probably the easiest thing I've done since loading MDK. The NVIDIA driver problem seems to be getting uglier. I ran the NVIDIA RPMs and the system couldn't find them, even though I stored them in the root directory and was logged in as root. So I tried to access them from the webpage, guess the urpmi system doesn't work that way cause it couldn't access the page (I verified the address, but I was trying to access the standard http: downloads). I finally got them (the ones I previously downloaded while in the GUI) to run by logging into my user account (in the shell). Surprise! "NVIDIA cannot install..yak..yak.. installation will terminate" because it cannot find right kernel. I was using (trying) the drivers bvc suggested. I'm sure of my kernel and it's source. If the NV drivers are the ones that should work, should I try to trigger a force mode type install? Or am I still doing something wrong? I'm open to any suggestions at this point, the tearing sound you might hear is the hair being shredded from my scalp. Thanks to all those who care to comment.

OK to demonstrate my newbie-ness I'll ask the following. Would you recommend I stay with the kernel I currently have? (2.4.22-10) -what does the -10 mean? Since I can't keep the GUI up, can you tell me the exact commands to get the source code. Also I'm not sure how automatic the process is, but the only time my MDK mirrors were updated was when I did the post install updates, will these be sufficient places to get the code? Sounds to me like I should follow Qchem's directions first and follow with the ones from bvc. Hopefully I'll get this cured. I want to run MDK, but without success I've been looking at Gentoo. I'm not asking anyone to sell me on 'drake. I picked it after a little study. We'll see, thanks for all the advice, I'll share the results.

Learned a new lesson-How to identify what kernel I have. Not real big lesson but new nonetheless. Now I need to find out if kernels are backward compatible. If I update to 2.6, or what ever is out there, will the NVidia quit complaining for 2.4.x.x ? Or should I keep the kernel I have and find different drivers? Are some kernels less stable? Of course I'm starting at -1 in terms of stability so I guess I can only go up.

bvc, That first line wasn't directed at you. Without your help, I would have formatted the partitions long ago and resigned myself to M$ and their chaos. Thanks Dan

The sh*t just keeps getting deeper. I followed your instructions and this is what I got. When running the first rpm NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.mdk81up.i386.rpm I got this: And then the install dropped back to the prompt. I'm not entirely sure how to identify what kernel I'm running, but at the prompt when I log into shell only (no GUI) it says kernel 2.4.22-10. I will say that I downloaded my MDK 9.2 ISOs off an Asian server about two weeks ago, is there a possibility that I have been doing all this with an outdated kernel or something? Anyway, I'm out of ideas for now. I was going to go out and look for other NVIDIA rpms but thought better of it. Also, I was running the "nv" driver all along. However I did try the XFree86 4.x.x GeForce3 (generic) driver at one point and got the same results so I switched back to the "nv" Dan P.S. The NVIDIA rpms require that the basic driver and the GLX be installed seperately. However this was not the case with the tars I loaded the other night, or I did it wrong from the beginning. Remember though that I originally started trying to update to cure the same problem I have now (lockups).

Since installing MDK 9.2 I have not had the Xserver run while being used for more than 5 minutes. Every desktop locks up solid. No keyboard response or anything, completely locked. -I thought it was bad NVidia generic driver. I updated and got a whole new mess of problems on top of old ones. -I have run XFdrake about 100 times and tried all options available, including going from XFree 3.xx to 4.xx and back. -Thought it could be my USB mouse, swapped to PS2 mouse, no change. -Have been unable to reinstall the NVidia drivers because the thing crashes before I can get it done, and I can't work well enough at the command line to do it. -I have tried KDE,Gnome, IceWM, WindowMaker and whatever else came with this release of MDK. All lock up the same. Mozilla seems to work longer than anything, konqueror crashes as soon as it's opened. -Command line functions all seem to work, but I don't work deep enough to really stress test things. -I've read and reread XFree86.x.log.x and seem to have standard faults, kernel module wasn't installed at first, then fail init GLX extension. -Modified config file manually about 5 times. I'm now wondering if there was a problem with my install, although it went easier than I had anticipated. Are there crash logs anywhere? Aside from the XFree86.x.x.x bunch? Is there a way to completely delete X and all things associated for a fresh reinstall? Would complete reinstall of MDK be better. I will skip posting my XFree logs because my errors have been duplicated numerous times elsewhere, but their fixes don't seem to help me. Sorry for being so long winded, it's Saturday and I put in 7 hours trying to fix this and have not progress. I'm open to any possible solution. Next I will jump over a cliff with my MDK box tightly in hand. Thanks, Dan P.S. Not sure if this is affecting it at all but, I've never gotten sound to work yet. I always see some ALSA fault but haven't tried a fix yet.

I have had a nightmare trying to get the whole NVidia driver thing sorted out for my card I found a site (livna.org) that has them packaged in RPM form for Fedora. Am I right in the assumption that as long as I have the right version for my kernel that they would install in MDK? Has anyone tried this method? Any feedback? I'm thinking this may be my cure. Thanks, Dan

True about break and learn, that's my best teacher too. I too, have learned the cost of wanting the latest and greatest. However, being a student blah,blah... I need an OS to function in also. Truth is I approached this with the intent of eventually running M$ Winblows on only one of 4 machines. Thanks for the input, Dan

I don't mean to be insulting, but as a Newb I don't know how to recognize advantages or disadvantages. As a Win32 programming student I know that a hell of allot of work went into 10 as well as any release and I respect that. I'm into learning new things, but I'm still new to 9.2 and don't want to have to learn all new stuff unless it's has a benefit. And I don't want to wind up with an install that I'm not smart enough to fix. I posted this here because I wanted the opinion of those who are in the process of teaching me what I know about 9.2. If someone wants to bump it elsewhere that's fine. Thanx, Dan Moved by Ixthusdan

I installed MDK 9.2 with nearly all the whistles and bells. Now it looks as if I'll never use alot of them. What is the safe proceedure to remove some of these. I don't want to hose anything. How do I check dependencies prior to deletion. Any advice or links would help, I'm a Newb. Thanks Dan

Hey guys, I feel like a kid at Xmas. I'm accessing this from the Linux side of my box instead of the winblows side. And the desktop is still up. Here's what I found: In the XFree86.0.log -EE Failed to initialize NVIDIA kernel module -EE Screens found but none have a useable configuration Ran XFdrake and used driver for my card -Crash Ran again and used "nv" driver and all is well. Haven't run any tests yet, but this is the longest I've ever gone without desktop crash. I doubt the nv driver is giving me the best out of my card. I'm going to try again to update, but one fail and I'll leave it alone. Any other suggestions to improve my video performance? Thanks again, this is great. Dan

Thanks for the quick response guys, I will go home and try all of the above and post my results. This is why I wanted to go to *nix, like my experience in programming areas, the communal attitude beats the "hidden code" attitude every time. Thanks again, Dan