LinuxQuestions.org - [SOLVED] Nvidia driver problems....

I used to love my nvidia card, the drivers were so easy to install. But no more, since kernel version 3 it has been nothing but trouble.
I upgraded to kernel version 3.7.9 today. I compiled it myself. I applied 3 patches to it, 2 were related to my wireless card, and the third was the famous BFS scheduler patch.
Now I am running nouveau, and in kernel 3.7.9, I am actually surprised by how well it works, dreamchess and minecraft actually run. However, they are noticably slower, minecraft is unplayable (arguably its been unplayable since they switched to the internal server for single player...)
So although I am becoming happier with nouveau, I still want the nvidia drivers installed for maximum performance, which is what I care about most.
However, the drivers do not install, always complaining about my kernel source not being configured correctly... I installed the same way I always do, and the source is definitely there. but it doesn't seem to even want to try, even though everything is there. What kind of check does it do to determine that its not configured?
According to the installer log file, it looks in /lib/modules/linux-3.7.9/source/ for the kernel source, which is fine, that directory is there and populated with source. I also tried manually giving it the option --kernel-source-path=/home/prushik/Sandbox/linux-3.7.9/ which is the kernel source tree that I used to build the running kernel, but that does the same thing.

my nvidia installer log is as follows:

Code:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'

creation time: Wed Feb 27 11:57:47 2013

installer version: 313.18



PATH: /home/prushik/perl5/bin:/opt/gcc/4.6.2/bin:/home/prushik/bin:/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games



nvidia-installer command line:

    ./nvidia-installer

    --no-x-check



Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface

-> The file '/tmp/.X0-lock' exists and appears to contain the process ID '1067' of a runnning X server.

-> Continuing per the '--no-x-check' option.

-> License accepted.

-> Installing NVIDIA driver version 313.18.

-> There appears to already be a driver installed on your system (version: 310.19).  As part of installing this driver (version: 313.18), the existing driver will be uninstalled.  Are you sure you want to continue? ('no' will abort installation) (Answer: Yes)

-> Running distribution scripts

  executing: '/usr/lib/nvidia/pre-install'...

-> done.

-> The distribution-provided pre-install script failed!  Continue installation anyway? (Answer: Yes)

-> Performing CC sanity check with CC="cc".

-> Performing CC version check with CC="cc".

-> Kernel source path: '/lib/modules/3.7.9/source'

-> Kernel output path: '/lib/modules/3.7.9/build'

ERROR: If you are using a Linux 2.4 kernel, please make sure

you either have configured kernel sources matching your

kernel or the correct set of kernel headers installed

on your system.



If you are using a Linux 2.6 kernel, please make sure

you have configured kernel sources matching your kernel

installed on your system. If you specified a separate

output directory using either the "KBUILD_OUTPUT" or

the "O" KBUILD parameter, make sure to specify this

directory with the SYSOUT environment variable or with

the equivalent nvidia-installer command line option.



Depending on where and how the kernel sources (or the

kernel headers) were installed, you may need to specify

their location with the SYSSRC environment variable or

the equivalent nvidia-installer command line option.

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.

(ignore the bit about the --no-x-check, I have tried it without x running as well)