nvidia drivers

[imwithstupid]

Just another person who can't seem to get the nvidia drivers to work.

 

Here is what i've done so far:

1. I tried installing the kernel source via RPMdrake (i've heard that there are other ways to do this that work better...what are they?)

2. I tried installing the driver provided by nvidia and it gave me the error message about a missing "/lib/modules/2.6.3-9mdk/buil/include/linux/modvershions.h"

3. I tried installing the same sort of thing but from this guy's website...someone said he had the 2.6 drivers in the compressed file or something http://www.sh.nu/download/nvidia/linux-2.6/

-this worked but...if i try to startx i get "Failed to initialize NVIDIA kernel module"

 

I've tried all of these things in init 3 like i'm supposed to as root and not under su. I also took a look at the x-log and it went through all the device detection and properly picked out my video card. I also changed the line from "nv" to "nvidia", I have a glx line, and i don't have a DRI line.

 

Any ideas...perhaps a better way to make sure i have the right kernel source and it is configured properly.

 

(btw I'm using mdk10 rc1 for amd64...not that it should matter that much)

 

[moved from Installing Mandrake by spinynorman]

[william]

type in you favorite terminal window:

uname -r

and

rpm -qa | grep kernel

maybe, you don't have kernel-source installed.

 

edited to say: and of course paste the outputs here...

Edited June 17, 2004 by william

[imwithstupid]

will do...after work that is.

[pmpatrick]

You probably installed the wrong kernel source. The kernel and kernel source version numbers must match. Run this to see if they do:

 

$ uname -a
Linux localhost 2.6.3-7mdk #1 Fri Apr 2 09:48:58 CEST 2004 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux
$ rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
kernel-source-2.6.3-7mdk

 

If they don't match, uninstall the kernel-source package and reinstall the correct one.

Edited June 17, 2004 by pmpatrick

[Guest anon]

Or if you don't want to be bothered with the kernel sources, just get the Nvidia kernel from our download site.

ftp://mandrakeusers.com/pub/Nvidia/nvidia-kernel_2.6/

[Sherpa]

ok here are the steps that i did:

 

1. download the drivers from nvidia: Drivers save the drivers to your home folder

 

2. do what pmpatrick said: type these commands in the console:

uname -r
rpm -qa | grep kernel-source

 

3. now at this point you have some stuff displayed in the console. When you type uname -r it gives you the kernel that you are running. when you type rpm -qa | grep kernel-source, this searches your computer for anything that has "kernel-source" in its name and displays the results.

 

4. now the numbers from your kernel should match with the numbers for your kernel-source For example:

[imwithstupid@localhost imwithstupid]$ uname -r
2.6.3-7mdk

this is your kernel (in this example)

[imwithstupid@localhost imwithstupid]$ rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
kernel-source-2.6.3-4

ok as you can see in this example the kernel-source number does not match the kernel version. if this is the case you will have to get the correct one.

to continue this example i will now tell you how to update to the correct version:

so you have kernel 2.6.3-7mdk, but you have kernel-source-2.6.3-4, now you are going to have to use urpmi.

ok, open a new terminal, and type su

[imwithstupid@localhost imwithstupid]$ su
password:
[root@localhost imwithstupid]#

enter your password as prompted

you are now the super user and you can do special things, like urpmi,

you are now going to update your kernel-source type this in the console:

[root@localhost imwithstupid]# urpmi kernel-source-2.6.3-7

of course you would replace "2.6.3-7" with the number part outputed from your kernel using the command uname -r

now you are updated.

 

5. ok now this is the easy way to do this, but:

go to the mandrake control center, then go to boot

then auto login. under this menu you should see a checked box that says "launch graphical environment" or something along those lines, uncheck that box. press apply and ok

 

6.now reboot your computer

 

7.it should now come up to a prompt that says:

bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla
bla bla bla bla bla bla
login:

type root, and enter the root password

you are now loged in as root,

now "cd" to you home folder

[root@localhost root]# cd /home/imwithstupid
[root@localhost imwithstupid]#

now you are ready to install the driver by typing this command

[root@localhost imwithstupid]# sh *.run

you will now be presented with a graphical setup, say ok to everything and eventually you should get to a thing that says "building kernel module" or something like that and it will have a progress bar, after that is done it will say that the driver is done and you will have to change you XF86config-4 file, press ok

 

8. you will be returned to the prompt

 

9. now type startx

[root@localhost imwithstupid]# startx

and now you will be brought back into the graphical enviro...

 

10. go to the start menu and click on home, a konquorer browser should start up

 

11. type this in the address bar : /etc/X11/

 

12. you should see a file called XF86config-4

 

13. open it

 

14. under the module section (think it is the third section down) make sure there is a line that says: load glx

make sure that there are no # signs before this line also....

 

15. keep scrolling down and you should see a place where it says, section "device"

 

16. in this section there is a line that says: driver "nv"

 

17. change this line to say: driver "nvidia"

 

18. save and close

 

19. now go back to mandrake control center>>boot>>autologin and recheck that box that says "launch graphical enviro..."

 

20. press apply and ok

 

21. go to log out

 

22. you will be brought back to a prompt

 

23. type reboot

 

24. your computer will restart any you should come back to a graphical login screen :)

 

25. your done

 

 

hope this helps

[imwithstupid]

Ok here is where i'm at now

 

i did uname -r and rpm -qa | grep kernel-source and they didn't match. So I uninstalled the 2 that were there that didn't match. Then I installed the one that matches. Then I tried installing the driver...but I still get the error that says it is looking for /lib/modules/2.6.3-9mdk/build/include/linux/modversions.h and that it is probably because the kernel sources aren't configured properly. Problem is...according to you guys and rpm -qa | grep kernel-source the source is properly configured. Do I have to compile object files or something? Any ideas would be helpful...

 

Also mods you might want to sticky this post...Sherpa has a lot of good info here.

[william]

After a google search, I found this link

I hope it solves your problem. It's a bug for amd64 processors. If you face problems to install the patches, come back here.

Edited June 17, 2004 by william

[imwithstupid]

Ok I got it to work:

 

-I used the drivers from that brazilian website that I had previously installed that didn't look like they worked.

 

-All I had to do was type

modprobe nvidia

and it worked.

 

 

Now my question is: If that works, is there some sort of startup file or script or something I should put modprobe nvidia into?

[william]

Add

nvidia

to /etc/modprobe.preload

[william@poseidon william]$ cat /etc/modprobe.preload 

# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.

#

# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are

# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with

# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.

# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY

# for old kernel use /etc/modules

nvidia

mousedev

scsi_hostadapter

intel-agp[/etc]

[william]

Please, correct someone if I'm wrong. But I'd also add in etc/rc.d/rc.local:

modprobe nvidia

 

Actually, I don't know the difference in editing these 2 files. Adding nvida in preload file has the same effect of adding in etc/rc.d/rc.local?

 

imwithstupid: run in terminal glxgears to check how many FPS you get.

 

PS: if you had been there before and installed the patch, it means that the problem was that your source was not matching the kernel version.

Edited June 18, 2004 by william

[imwithstupid]

it works...awesome

 

Thanks a billion

 

oh and glx gears gets 1113.2 FPS in default size and about 93 full screeen (how does that compare)

 

I'm run a geforce 5200

AMD 64 3000 soon to clock like the 3200

and an MSI K8T NEO

and 512 K RAM

[imwithstupid]

Everything works fine, except tuxracer. However, racer from racer.nl works like a charm (only runs at like 20 fps tho). If you guys are into cars or racing at all, take a look. Maybe someday this will rival gt3 (maybe)

[Sherpa]

Also mods you might want to sticky this post...Sherpa has a lot of good info here.

thanks

Edited June 18, 2004 by Sherpa