problems with nvidia and amd 64
 

Hi all!

I have some problems installing nvidias driver for my graphic card) FX5600.

My processor is an Athlon 64 3000+. I installed slackware 10.0 which went fine. When I downloaded graphics drivers from nvidia, I realized that nvidia had 64 bits drivers. So I came up with the idea of recompiling my kernel with 64 bits support instead, which lead to the fact that I downloaded the source for 2.6.9 and starting to recompile it.

I use make menuconfig to set up the configuration and I have no problem selecting Athlon 64 / K8 as my processor.

The compilation works fine and rebooting the new kernel is no problem. The problem arises when I try to install the nvidia drivers. The script keep telling me that my machine is a i386 and that I need a 64 bits machine.

When I use uname it tells me that my processor is "unknown" and that my platform type is "unknown"

I don't know what I have done wrong. Any suggestions?

Do I need to recompile anything else? How do I make sure that my kernel is using my 64 bits.

//daniel

I think you need a 64bit gcc too. I mean a toolchain for x86_64.

Basically, what you have done, is installed a 32bit OS and then tried to change the kernel to 64bit. I don't know for sure, but it won't work well. All of the apps you are using are 32bit binaries from slackware. If you had installed Gentoo AMD64 or Mandrake AMD64 and recompiled the kernel, then, yes, the 64bit drivers from nvidia would work. But, because your system is basically a 32bit install with a 64bit kernel, it won't work. The way you have it set up now, the nvidia 32bit drivers are the only drivers you would want to use right now. However, although i'm not totally sure, what you've done might be possible, but you need a couple of the 64bit libs installed - i would think the Xorg or XFree source compiled for 64bit would need to be installed for the nvidia 64bit drivers to work. Hoped it helped a bit.

Hi!

Sounds correct I almost suspected that. So my options are to install Gentoo or rebuild *a lot* of stuff for slackware?

I guess I'll have a look at Gentoo.

Thanks lot!

//daniel

I would certainly take a look at Gentoo. But, there are other 64bit options, you just have to decide which one (i'm a Gentoo guy myself). And yes, i wouldn't waste my time recompiling, creating /emul/ directories and such for Slackware.