Nvidia Driver Error PLEASE HELP!!!!
 

Hi all, I did a full reinstall of mandrake and now my NVIDIA drivers won't install. I exit X (init 3) and log in as root then type sh nvidapackage.run, it comes up with the gui, i accept terms, then it comes back with the error, it states the following:

"ERROR: Unable to link kernel module."

..so I went to the nvidia-installer log file and it states the following:

"nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Sat Aug 21 17:59:05 2004

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: false
no ncurses color : false
query latest driver ver : false
OpenGL header files : false
no questions : false
silent : false
X install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
Installer install prefix: /usr
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /root/tmp
ftp site : ftp://download.nvidia.com

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> License accepted.
-> A precompiled kernel interface for kernel 'Mandrake Linux 10.0 kernel
2.6.3-7mdk i586' has been found here:
./usr/src/nv/precompiled/nv-linux.o-1.0-6106.mdk10.0_2.6.3-7mdk.
executing: 'cd ./usr/src/nv; /usr/bin/ld -d -r -o nvidia.ko precompiled-nv-l
inux.o nv-kernel.o'...
/usr/bin/ld: final link failed: No space left on device
ERROR: Unable to link kernel module.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com."

...where it says no space left on device, i left 3.4 gigs to /usr so that can't be the issue, like i said these drivers (6106 package) was working before but i reinstalled mandrake so i could create multiple partitions (hear is a good thing to do when reinstalling linux OS) with /boot, /, /usr, /var, /swap/, /tmp, /home and so forth. If anyone knows whats happening here, please let me know what to do, thanks!!!

binny

Kernel modules in mdk are located somewhere in /lib IIRC, i.e. the module will be installed in your root partition in a subdirectory of lib. Is your root partition pretty full?

The following is shown when I run the "df" command:

[binny@localhost binny]$ df
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part5
92M 65M 22M 76% /
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part1
23M 4.7M 17M 22% /boot
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part10
5.7G 63M 5.7G 2% /home
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target0/lun0/part1
35G 27G 7.6G 79% /mnt/windows
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part8
2.0G 33M 1.9G 2% /tmp
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part6
3.4G 1.8G 1.5G 54% /usr
/dev/ide/host0/bus1/target1/lun0/part7
388M 72M 296M 20% /var

65MB isn't a whole lot in / but seems like it should be adequate. However, it looks like it's installing a new kernel and kernel + modules might run into size problems. I find this odd because I always get no matching kernel found when I isntall the nvidia driver on mdk10. I still think it's a size problem with /. My custom kernel compile created a new directory in /lib/modules/custom kernel that was 38MB. IIRC when you get to close to filling up a partition, the system will refuse to write to it giving a warning message. You may be bumping into that limit. If your looking at 30 to 40 MB for a new modules folder on a custom compile(which looks like what is happening even though the kernel appears to be precompiled) I can see why you might be running into problems.

Yeah your probably right but how can I resize the partition of /??? Seems like I'm going to have to reinstall:( I sincerely appreciate your help!!!

Binny

binny,

Is this the same driver release in both cases? (working before and not now)

I encountered a similar issue on Slackware when I upgraded to Slackware 10.0 and at the same time upgraded to the latest release of the Nvidia Linux drivers. I upgraded from release 1.0-5336 to release 1.0-6111 and got the same error when starting X ("...unable to load kernel module...").

When I reverted back to relesae 1.0-5336, it worked fine, just as it always had before.

There is either some problem with the 1.0-6111 driver release or an XF86config issue of some sort, which I didn't have time to investigate.

If this is your situation as well, you might try installing the earlier release.

-Slack

it was the same release both installs, let me know if you find anything else out, for now i am going to just wait and see if anyone can help me out before i reinstall, thanks!