NVidia driver will not load after kernel upgrade
 

Hello to all, again,

I'm having this problem

I had updated my kernel from the original one to 2.6.10-1.741_FC3
using up2date. Then I downloaded and installed the nvidia drivers using yum
yum install nvidia-glx kernel-module-nvidia-`(uname -r)`

And that worked fine. 3D acceleration and no problems. But I was having problems with this kernel because (since I'm connecting to the internet via GPRS) everytime the connection failed the computer just freezed and nothing worked (even the keyboard was dead). So as soon as the new kernel go out I used up2date to get it. And it's working fine only that I can't get the nvidia drivers to load. I get this message during startup that something like nvidia.ko or something like that can't load. I installed again the nvidia driver, I think correctly because I didn't get any error messages, changed the xorg.conf file according the instructions but still nothing. I get those error messages that I can't make out because it's too fast and I don't know where could I look for them after login.

And when I start my previous kernel I have 3D acceleration. What should I do?

You have to reinstall or recompile your nvidia driver to suit the new kernal.

But I did reinstall the driver, manually, downloading the driver from nvidia and installing it using the instructions I found somewhere in LinuxQuestions.

Sorry, missed that...

hmmm looks like the nvidia driver is still compiling on the old kernal version. Make sure things like the /usr/src/linux link i pointing to the new kernel and there was something else to check, but it's like 1 am here and my brain is not working well...

At worst you should be able to run the nvidia driver as extract only and then run the installer with options pointing at the right kernel source. Try the link and stuff first tho...

hmm there is no /usr/src/linux file or link... Should I create a symbolic link to ... where?

At least you have a brain, even if it's temporarily out of order, I think I've been brain dead for a long time now..

The /usr/src/linux link should point to the kernel source if you have it installed.

It is my understanding that the Nvidia drivers no longer need the kernel source to install properly.

I am unclear, how many kernels do you have? Or installed?

Which work with the Nvidia driver, which don't?

I have 3 kernels installed, but no kernel source
I have the original kernel (6.9 something), 2.6.10-1.741_FC3 (which works fine with the driver), and the one I downloaded a couple of days ago, 2.6.10-1.760_FC3.
Now with the first one I haven't even tried to install the driver because, immediately after I installed fedora I downloaded the second one and then installed the drivers using yum. And that worked.

But now with the latest one 3D acceleration doesn't work. Even screensavers such as GLMatrix are terribly slow.
I tried doing the same thing I did with the other kernel, that is updating via yum but this is what I get:
[root@fedoras petros]# yum install kernel-module-nvidia-`(rpm -q --queryformat="%{version}-%{release}\n" kernel | tail -n 1)`
Setting up Install Process
Setting up Repo: core
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: dag
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: atrpms-stable
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: livna-stable
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: base
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 1.1 kB 00:00
Setting up Repo: updates
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: updates-released
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: livna-unstable
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: freshrpms
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Setting up Repo: livna-testing
repomd.xml 100% |=========================| 951 B 00:00
Reading repository metadata in from local files
core : ################################################## 2622/2622
dag : ################################################## 1694/1694
primary.xml.gz 100% |=========================| 312 kB 01:55
MD Read : ################################################## 988/988
atrpms-sta: ################################################## 988/988
livna-stab: ################################################## 136/136
base : ################################################## 2622/2622
updates : ################################################## 684/684
updates-re: ################################################## 659/659
livna-unst: ################################################## 32/32
freshrpms : ################################################## 477/477
livna-test: ################################################## 40/40
No Match for argument kernel-module-nvidia-2.6.10-1.760_FC3

And so I tried to install manually the driver but still nothing

Looks like the yum repositories you are using do not have that package available yet. Just a guess.

What errors does the Nv installer give when installing manually for 2.6.10-1.760_FC3?

Okay, yeah. Looks like you are using the downloaded kernel modules for the driver. You'll have to download and install the kernel source and run the nvidia shell install and let it compile a new kernel module. A little more tricky...

Or just use the older kernel for a bit and wait for yum package. I'm still using 2.6.9 :) I have to wait for the win4lin patches to catch up...

So all I have to do is just wait and it'll just appear sometime in some repository? I just didn't know that! I could see a kernel-module-nvidia-2.6.10-1.741_FC3 in synaptic but I thought it was just generated somehow by the driver installation. So I guess there will also be a pack for the original kernel, in which I don't have 3D acceleration...

Alright! Thanks to everyone for the help!

Well alright! It's already out on yum repositories, did a yum install again an hour ago and it's working great!

Linux just amazes me more and more!