yet another NVIDIA install problem on Debian
 

Hello,

I have searched the LQ and I have found a few good tips on installing NVIDIA graphics driver but I could not solve my problem yet.

My problem is whenever I try to install the driver, because I do "init 1" to shutdown the X and to go to text mode, it warns me that it's better to run the insallation in runlevel 3 and suggests to use "telinit 3" to goto level 3. but I don't know why, but it doesn't work. As soon as I enter telinit 3 it does nothing and shows # as if I entered nothing.
When I ignore this message and go on, it gives an error that I have not installed kernel-sources which I am pretty sure I did. because when I open the package manager, it marks it as installed. but it can not find it and it terminates.
I don't really know what else to do.
Any comments?

Thank you very much

P.S. I am migrating from Mandrake 10.1 OE to Debian.

Alireza

First thing, at the command prompt type:

uname -r

this will tell you what kernel you are runnnig. You may have installed the wrong kernel-source package.

Go into the "Synaptic Package Manager" (should be under the system menu) and search on "kernel-source". This should list a bunch of kernel-source packages that you can choose to install. Find the one that matches your kernel and install it from Synaptic.

Once you have the correct kernel-source package installed you can do a ctrl-alt-f1 this should take you to your "text prompt". Log in as root and type the following:

/etc/init.d/gdm stop

this stops the "gnome display manager". Then do your nvidia setup as instructed. After your done installing the nvidia driver you will want to start gdm back up so you will type:

/etc/init.d/gdm start

that should start the x server back up and hopefully, if all went well, you will see your nvidia logo screen appear.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=241145

check out the links there for help

Thank you all for your replies. However, I still have the same problem.
When I issue "uname -r", it shows: "2.4.27-1-386"
I have also the following packages installed ( I found them in "file:/usr/src" ):

kernel-headers-2.4.27-speakup
nvidia-glx-1.0.2880
kernel-source-2.4.27.tar.bz2
nvidia-kernel-src.tar.gz

these are the only ones compatible with my kernel version I guess right?
So I still get the same error that there was no kernel source or header file found.
Can anybody throw another suggestion ??

Thank you all

Alireza

I had all kind of issues when I set it up on my box. Need to make sure that nvidia is in your /etc/modules file.

other then following the detailed instructions in the above link and the links that it points to i have done this a few times with that kernel (speakup can be a pain, but those steps do work)

some times i could not get the GUI tools to work and other times i could not get the CLI tools to work for adjusting what starts during what runlevel in debian so make sure you have both, and have edited your sources.list so you can apt-get install and go forward from there.

You can try the official drivers as well if you don't mind doing that?