nvidia driver and mega stress!
 

Originally kanotix install, but done the various available updates (well as far as I can get anyway).

So, I've got the newest kernel that synaptic is showing me (for unstable/testing) i.e. 2.6.17-2-686

I've also installed the kernel-headers for it (and the kernel-source-2.6.17 package which has been untarred).

I've downloaded the nvidia driver (8762) from www.nvidia.com - If I try to install this in the traditional way (with the nvidia installer), I get errored out withbeing missing. I've just checked in konqueror and it now says that thats missing/no longer available (even though the folder is still there).

The nvidia driver installer also continues to tell me that the is incorrect.

So obviously I have to do something about this, but what?

I've been reading stuff for hours, and tried various possible solutions - though none of them seem to address the missing lib/modules/2.6.17-2-686 etc etc.

Is it possible that someone can advise me how to do this please?

regards

John

p.s. Oh and yes, the kernel version is a pre-compiled one downloaded/installed via synaptic (got the German sources for unstable/testing in sources.list as it was originally a kanotix install)

In Etch/Sid, install it like this:
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756-pkg1.run --x-module-path=/usr/lib/xorg/modules
...worked for me.

This may help - http://www.kanotix.de/FAQ-id_cat-15.html#q109 , howto update kernel and install nvidia using kano's excellent scripts.

Try using the module-assistant package to install the driver with something like.

Making sure that you have non-free in your sources.list.

don't even have to do all that.

just run module-assistant

you will get a list of modules to make. Nvidia is one of the choices.

I just ran it about 10 minutes ago.

Thankyou all for you replies.

The problem still exists. Whatever I do, it keeps returning to the missing kernel.h file I mentioned in my first post.

A quick visit to konqueror showed me this

file:///usr/include/linux/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.14-kanotix-9/include/config/debug/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.14-kanotix-9/include/config/lock/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.14-kanotix-9/include/linux/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-2-686/include/config/debug/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-2-686/include/config/lock/kernel.h
file:///usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.17-2-686/include/linux/kernel.h (this one is
an empty link)
file:///usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17/include/linux/kernel.h

I'm guessing that the top 3 can be discounted as they refer to the old kernel
version, the next 3 can also be discounted as they are the debug, lock and
the empty link, which leaves me with the last one.

Now that is the linux-source, so I don't know what to do with it from there
(apart from going to the synaptic listing again to see if theres a
linux-headers package that I may have missed).

Or is it that I need to link the
original /lib/modules/2.6.17-2-686............../kernel.h that the nvidia
driver can't find to
the /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17/include/linux/kernel.h ?

I don't really understand if they (the missing lib/modules.........kernel.h and the one that showed up in konqueror as /usr/src............kernel.h) are actually the same file that sometimes gets copied to different locations for various possible reasons? or whether it would normally be the case that the file is in one place and gets linked to everywhere else?

regards

John

p.s. and yes, I'll go back and read that link posted by beagle2 again - I have been trying to sort this with the install_nvidia_debian.sh script but currently to no avail (actually I now can't even re install the bloody driver under the original kanotix kernel version either).

cracked it! :D

beagle2's directions to the kanotix instructions did the trick.

Actually, it meant that I've installed the latest Kanotix kernel as well, rather than just making the debian one that I was trying, work.

Bugger! That means that I'll have to go and read the kanotix website as well.

Damn! this last two and a half days of stress has been one hell of a learning curve (again). I wonder how much of it will sink in!

Thankyou very much, all who posted ideas, suggestions, links and possible solutions. They are very much appreciated. If you're in my "neck of the woods" I'll find time to "stick some beers down your neck" :cool:

regards

John

"Kanotix Manual"
http://linux.kopporama.de/en/km_kanotix.html There is a pdf file you can download as well.

Covers updating kernel, video drivers install, etc.

I would also suggest installing the Kanotix-update-gui, makes doing dist-upgrade and kernel upgrades very simple.

Oakey Doakey, that does seem like a damned good idea.

TVM

regards

John

I found this thread searching for a way to get the 8774 nvidia drivers to compile, so, in an effort to post something that might actually help someone who searches, I'm just going to post what worked for me since it's not here.

this is on a basically fresh install of etch b3 from the netinst cd, installing the base system and desktop system.

When I tried to install the nvidia driver with #sh NVIDIA... , I kept getting the errors about the missing header files. I tried searching synaptic for "kernel-headers" and kept finding nothing.

(at long last!) I found the Notes on installing NVIDIA Linux graphics drivers on recent distributions thread in the nvnews forum. I should have been searching for "linux-headers" !

note that according to Xorg.0.log I have xorg 6.9
I don't think any of that stuff was there with just the base and desktop systems. I had found a few threads in my googling that suggested some of these packages, but never the whole deal. nvidia-glx is not installed on etch b3.

after I grabbed those packages it almost let me compile a module, but complained about missing the libc development package. installing libc6-dev did the trick finally and I got my modules compiled.

this ends the part about how I got the damn thing to compile... I'm putting the explanation of how I actually got it working in this thread, because at this point, after modifying my xorg.conf to remove the unwanted modules and enable the nvidia driver instead of vesa, the x server would not start and instead gave me a fancy ncurses menu asking if I wanted to see the log. I did. it said:
if you're getting this error, check out this thread.