Hello, this is my first debian install.
I am trying to get my GeForce FX 5200 Video Card to work with X Server but ran into a slight problem. I figured out how to kill X(init 3..blahblah..which took a while) and i thought it would work.

I accept their license.
Then i get the message 'No procompiled kernel interface was foudn to match your kernel; Would you like the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel from the NVIDIA ftp site?
I picked yes.

No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site; this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for your kernel.

ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel. Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your kernel; on red hat blah blah blah. If you know the correct kernel source tree files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the '--kernel-source-path' command.
ERROR: Installation failed. Please see....blah blah

Well, i do know my kernel is possibly located in /lib/modules/2.4.27-2-386/

Does anyone have any idea where exactly it is inside though? Is there a search method i could use?

Any help is appreciated.

I dont understand how to use the --kernel-source-path either, if someone could explain that to me would be awesome.

uname -r

apt-get install kernel-source

make sure you get the version that matches your current kernel


then get gcc too after that.

actually if you are using the stock debian kernel all you need the the kernel-headers for your kernel...
at root
apt-get install kernel-headers-$(uname -r)

I have exactly the same problem but after installing the kernel-source I still have the failure message.
After the kernel-source being installed in /usr/src do I have to create a link named linux to the kernel source ( like when using redhat ? )
I downloaded the drivers directly from Nvidia website, is it right or is there an Nvidia driver I can get with apt-get ? ( If yes, which one )

I installed Nvidia drivers on Fedora and on Gentoo systems the process went smoothly but it looks like it's a little more difficult with Debian and obviously other Debian newbies are in the same situation.
I hope that very common problem will be solved by a detailed document on the Debian website explaining howto install Nvidia drivers ( the way it is done on the Gentoo website ).

P.S. I'm starting to be converted to Debian and it's legendary package management ( that's the 1st reason why I'm giving Debian a try )

tia for any help

I am having the same problem.

I had the same problem, until I discovered these instructions . They've worked for 3.1 stable, on a 2.4 and 2.6 kernel, and also under testing with the k7 kernel.

They were also the third result when googling for 'debian+nvidia' - not exactly hard to find...

You guys need to have the kernel-headers package, not just the kernel-source. After that just exit x, run the installer and edit XF86Config-4.

Ok I installed the driver, now what?

wow after installing the kernel headers it let me install the driver. anyone explain to me what the kernel headers actually are???

the only problem now is that my XFree86 config doesent seem to be working with this card. Although i did exactly what the NVIDIA instructions said. Can anyone help me properly edit this?

I just restarted my machine and it won't boot into x

I edited X like all the tutorials say but X crashed when i start it. even after a reboot.

i checked the log file, no errors. the resolutions keep saying hsync out of range in there. any ideas?

I'm getting the same thing.

'hsync out of range' means that the monitor settings are incorrect. Try getting the values from the manufacturers' site and editing XF86Config-4 to correct them.

I tried to correct everything, but I'm getting a "no screens found" error

COKE: make sure you edit your x config so that GLCore and dri do not load.

I edited it and now its still crashing. No idea why. Any ideas people? Please help...
**EDIT*

No errors are in the log file btw, just a few seemingly harmless warnings.
This sucks!