Starnge dependency error trying to install kmod-nvidia
 

Hullo All,
I've just built a new system and installed Fedora 8 from magazine DVD.
The installed kernel is 2.6.23.1-42.fc8, and having had F8 on my old system for a while thought that the first things to do would be a kernel update then install the kmod-nvidia drivers.
I asked yum to 'list available kernel' and it responded with 2.6.24.4-64.fc8, so installed that, then asked yum to install kmod-nvidia.
Yum went through a few motions then reported dependency error, 'kernel-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 required'.
This seemed a bit odd, as the package manager knows about the fedora, fedora updates and livna and should have been able to get any kernel that related to a kmod-nvidia package currently available.
I decided to remove kernel 2.6.24.4-64 and use kernel 2.6.23.1-42 and see what kmod-nvidia package was listed as available, then asked it to install. Yum reported the same dependency error.
I then went to the linva site and found the kmod-nvidia-2.6.23.1-42, which should correspond to the installed kernel and downloaded that the asked yum to do a localinstall, and it gave the same dependency error. Kernel-2.6.24.5-85 needed.
This all seems very strange.
I did have a bit of trouble a couple of months ago when I updated the kernel on my old system and tried to update the kmod-nvidia, only to get dependency errors, which turned out to be a fault in the kmod-nvidia package. When the problem was fixed and the revised package made available it installed OK.
Surely we don't have the same sort of problem again.
Can anyone throw any light on this?

Cheers,

kmod-nvidia is compiled for a specific version, so the version numbers need to match. You probably need to wait for the driver version in the repo to catch up with the kernel version

Yes, that was my understanding, and why I went back to original kernel and specifically sought the kmod-nvidia that matched that kernel, as you have suggested is the right approach, but still got the dependency error citing a kernel version that I haven't seen yet.
Doesn't it all seem a bit odd?

Cheers,

Why don't you just get the nvidia version and do it yourself whe nthe kernel gets upgraded? Only takes a minute to recompile after an update.

I remember trying that some time ago and having all sorts of trouble, so decided to use the binary packages after that.
I just went through the motions again, just to be sure that I wasn't doing something silly.
1. ask package manager to search for 'nvidia'
2. Choose kmod-nvidia-2.6.23.1-42.fc8, and apply
3. Package manager returns error message, details are: 'Missing dependency: kernel-i686-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 is needed by kmod-nvidia-2.6.24.5-85.fc8'

Clearly something wrong here. The message relates to a package I haven't asked to be installed.

Time to generate a bug report I think.

Cheers,

is kmod-nvidia-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 installed already?

remove kmod-nvidia-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 first,but why are you trying to roll back to an even older kernel? Is kernel-i686-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 working with the nvidia driver?

Edit - what kernel are you running?

No, kmod-nvidia-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 isn't installed. The system has a fresh install of Fc8 from a Fedora DVD and the kernel version on that DVD is 2.6.23.1-42.
I don't have kernel 2.6.24.5-85.fc8 installed.
You may have missed some of my original post which did explain all this.

Cheers,

Hello:

When running an install/update, yum will always try to install/update to the latest available version of any package, even on packages tagged as multi-version like the kernel. So, if you give it for example: yum install kmod-nvidia, it will look for the latest available kmod-nvidia, and then the needed prerequisites for that version. That does not seem to explain why in this case the required kernel-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 was not pulled in as a prerequisite for kmod-nvidia-2.6.24.5-85.fc8, nor why it balked and returned an error when you specifically tried to install kmod-nvidia-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 - that specific command should have installed the (older) kmod-nvidia, instead it returned the error you noted about the *-2.6.24.5-85 packages.

Avoid "Package Manager" and try the install from the command-line. Open a terminal and (as root user) command:
yum install kmod-nvidia-2.6.23.1-42.fc8

Assuming as you say that this kmod-nvidia is still available in the Livna repo, yum should comply and install it. If not, you may have to download and manually install all the necessary packages in the video driver suite with 'rpm'.

Very strange indeed.

Regards,
V

I was using the command line.
I posted a bug report, and got a response that the repository mirrors that yum was trying to get the various bits from must have been out of sync...ie the livna mirror had the appropriate nvidia stuff but the mirror that should have had the corresponding kernel hadn't been updated, hence yum couldn't find the kernel.
I have since tried again and all went well, or almost...one of the packages didn't have the security whatnot file, so yum failed. I tried again using --nogpgcheck and it worked.
Useful to file this little experience away for future reference, as it is probably all going to happen again.

Cheers,

I tried to install an older version kmod (one for which I knew I didn't have the kernel installed):

I suspect the dependency error occurs because the kernel is not in the repos. But as you can see it attempts to pull the kernel.