NVIDIA Drivers on Debian
 

I have installed many distros on my home machine and set up my Nvidia card from scratch many times.

I have had Debian running now for a month and still haven't managed to get the nvidia installer to run. It keeps returning errors telling me I don't have the correct header files. I have tried everything I can think of. I am running the 2.6.7-1-386 kernel and have the corresponding headers package installed but no good.

I have tried adding --kernel-source-path /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.7-1-386 but it tells me that /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.7-1-386/include/linux/kernel.h does not exist but it definately does.

This is driving me mad - can anyone help?

download the drivers from the nvidia site stick them in your root directory and run the install from there. you do have to change the /etc/X11/XF98Config-4 file though so read the readme.

Done that
 

I have the installer and have been running it in roots home folder. The problem is that it tells me I don't have the header files and I do and have told it exaclty where they are.

you shouldnt have to tell it where anything is. did you read the readme?

whats the name of the file you downloaded from the nvidia site?

try installing these packages:

kernel-headers-yourkernelversion
kernel-source-yourkernelversion
linux-kernel-headers

I'm not sure if linux-kernel-headers/source is even needed, it should work with just the kernel-headers-yourkernelversion package.

Re: NVIDIA Drivers on Debian
 

A couple of ideas.

ln -s /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.7-1-386 /usr/src/linux

To link the headers to the directory the Nvidia installer is looking for if this does not work then.

ln -sf /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.7-1-386 /lib/modules/2.6.7-1-386/build

If this one does not work then have you ever built a kernel before? With your fully configured source tree installed and the link for /usr/src/linux pointing to it, this will work without problems. A guide to doing it if you want to go this route.

http://newbiedoc.sourceforge.net/system/kernel-pkg.html

often a good thing to do when downloading kernel headers (and other stuff (in my LIMITED experience)) is to replace the version number with the command

`uname -r`

Note that those are backticks that have been used, not apostrophees (sp).

an example would be

apt-get install kernel-headers-`uname -r`

that last command automatically queries the kernel and downloads the the correct files (in this case headers) for your version.

I believe (from memory) that `uname -r` can also be replaced with

$(uname -r)

From memory, either encasing the command with backticks, or $() automatically runs the envclosed file.

That should make sure you have the correct headers.

Now as to the driver, this can be difficult, as apperently Debian and nVidia cannot agree on file locations. Try following the instructions here...

http://tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/debia...-dri-howto.txt

Now these didn't help me too much (note I was trying to follow these instructions BEFORE I had installed x-window-system). Even after X was installed, this set of instructions didn't seem to work, however the nvidia installer (6111) did work where as (6106 i think) didn't. Please note that at least one person on these forums has followed these instructions (see here)and they have managed to install their graphics card by doing so, where the nvidia installer failed. Hope this helps.