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Problem installing the nvidia driver

Hi all, I'm following this howto on installing the nvidia driver on Debian Etch. I installed the linux-source-2.6.15, the linux-headers-2.6.15-1 and the linux-headers-2.6.15-1-686 packages while on rescue mode. Then I ran the nvidia driver installer but I got the following error:

"The kernel header file '/usr/src/linux/include/linux/version.h' does not exist. The most likely reason for this is that the kernel source files in '/usr/src/linux' have not been configured."

Any idea about what might be wrong and how to solve it?
Thanks in advance.

Hey, I did the EXACT same thing this morning with no problems. Here is what I did, it may help...

Download Nvidia binary NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run from the nvidia site (or the most recent version)

open synaptic (if you can) and uninstall anything that mentions nvidia, including kernels

Install the following via synaptic:

linux-headers-2.6.15-1
linux-headers-2.6.15-1-686 (for my machine anyway)
linux-image-2.6.15-686

Press Ctrl+Alt+backspace to kill X (may need to do it more than once)

Code:

$su

*password*

# cp /home/downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run /usr/local            (or wherever you downloaded to)

# cd /usr/local

# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8178-pkg1.run

Follow the instructions, don't download the headers, it should compile against the headers you have already installed.

Code:

# reboot

Should work, you can tell if the nvidia logo appears
Also try:

Code:

$ glxgears

I have 1,700fps

Be aware that you current issue may be related to your grub configuration

Code:

su

$ *password*

# gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

And have a root around there

Post back if you have continuing problems, I found it a little tricky at first

If you have a custom kernel, did you also build and install the kernel headers for your kernel?
If not, you may need to update your kernel to match the linux-headers you just installed.
You can run
cd /usr/src/<linux src dir> && cp /boot/config-`uname -r` ./.config && make oldconfig
to configure you kernel source tree

If you are just running a kernel from the repository, nvidia-kernel-2.6.15-1-686 and nvidia-glx is all you need.

The Debian Way:
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source module-assistant build-essential nvidia-glx nvidia-kernel-common
m-a a-i nvidia
dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

dracae seems to be in the know, follow their suggestion before mine, makes kernel updates simpler?

ok, this is weird, I ran 'cd /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.15 && cp /boot/config-2.6.15-1-486 ./.config && make oldconfig' as root, but I got the following error: "bash:Permission denied", so I did it step by step with no problems. Then I changed directory to '/usr/src/linux/include/linux' but still there's no the 'version.h' file there.

I tried the debian way but i got: 'Cannot find the package nvidia-kernel-source'(I also looked the nvidia-glx package in synaptic but I didn't find it). Which repository should I add to my sources.list to download these packages??
Thanks for your help.

I had the same problem. I had to download the kernel source. Then compile it, in /usr/src (if I told it to compile to a diffrent directory it caused problems something to do with not being on the correct path I think). Then install x-windows don't run, then install the nvidia driver.

So

1. download and unzip kernel to /usr/src
2. do all the make,menuconfig,installmodules
3. apt-get x-windows-system (? think thats the file name)
4. install the driver.
5 then startx

Done! I added the non-free and contrib repositories to my sources.list and installed the driver "the debian way". It's working fine now.
Thank you all for your help. :)