I have tried getting the Nvidia drivers working for about 2 hours now. They simply refuse. I use the bareacpi.i kernel from the Slackware 10 cd. The first thing the installer says is that it can't find a precompiled kernel image for my kernel and asks if it should download it. Of course, it can't find one to download either. Then it says that it will compile one. Then, it complains about gcc (the order might be messed up, can't remember). It asks if I should ignore the error. Answering "yes" will bring me to an error about /usr/src/nv/conftest.sh. Nothing I have found on the internet have been very helpful. I have tried modifying the conftest.sh, didn't work. I have tried with 2.6.8.1, wont work there either. I have tried older drivers. Won't work. Is there a way of installing drivers for Nvidia cards in Linux? The urge of throwing Linux in the wall and installing Windows again is rising.

Any help will be greatly appriciated.

The gcc error is because you're using a different version compiler than the one your kernel is compiled with. For me the only thing that worked was downgrading to the gcc I compiled the kernel with or recompiling the kernel with your current gcc.

The kernel source is downloadable from www.kernel.org . Untar it in /usr/src and make a symbolic link linux to it. The driver should now recognize it.

a couple of things to try. make sure your running kernel and kernel source versions are the same, if not just rename the source to match the running kernel(to avoid bogus error messages) do a 'make cloneconfig' and 'make prepare-all' from within /usr/src/linux. try running the nvidia installer with --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux appended to the normal sh. NVIDIA-Linux-blah-blah.run line.

root@david:/usr/src/linux-2.6.8.1# make cloneconfig
bash: make: command not found
root@david:/usr/src/linux-2.6.8.1# make prepare-all
bash: make: command not found
root@david:/usr/src/linux-2.6.8.1#


I have installed the 2.6.8.1 kernel along with the source. I figured /usr/src/linux-2.6.8.1 would be the correct source path. Still not working.
How do I check what version of gcc the kernel is compiled with?

Did you make a symbolic link to you source folder like this:

It;s also useful for other programs.

Exactly what does that do?

Nothing has worked yet. I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with my hardware soon. Even though it works just fine in Windows XP. It can't be that hard to make drivers that actually work, can it?

It's sort of a shortcut to the folder (if you do "cd linux" it will bring you to the linux-2.6.8.1 folder). It's easier to use cause programs search for /usr/src/linux as that one isn't dependent on versions but links to the proper kernel source.

Is that for an error you're getting or do you have another error?

It's a software problem btw. Nothing wrong with your hardware . I think you're now having the error with the wrong gcc version isn't it?

Yes. Is there anyway of checking what version the kernel was compiled with? I downloaded the packages for 2.6.8.1..

Did you install that kernel as well? Or do you only have the packages?

I have installed it, and I am using it now. I have installed all the packages on mirror.pudas.net.

You can find the version of gcc the currently running kernel was compiled with using like so:

cat /proc/version

It said gcc version 3.3. I could find 3.3.4 on swaret. Is it close enought, or do I keep looking for 3.3?

Ok, looking back through your other posts, I'm not sure you even have the required development tools installed to build the module:
You mention swaret, so I assume you're using Slackware? Anyway, what's your output for these commands?

gcc -v
ld -v
make -v

If you get command unknown, then most likely gcc, make and binutils aren't installed. If that's the case, then you'll need to install the them.