I have a Lenovo Y580 Laptop with Centos 6.4 version on it. The original kernel is 2.6.32. I compiled a newer version kernel 3.4.53. And I used the newer version all the time.

Recently, I decided to install nvidia driver on my Centos 6 system, and be able to switch between integrated video card and nvidia video card. I used "yum install bumblebee" to install all the dependencies. However, I encountered several difficulties.

1. The bbswitch module cannot be found. It turned out yum install the bbswitch and nvidia modules into /lib/modules/2.6.32-xxx... instead of /lib/modules/3.4.53/. I searched online, I think the reason is that the kernel header is still 2.6.32 even I am using 3.4.53. I cannot find 3.4.53 version of kernel header by something like "yum install kernel-devel-3.4.53". So I have to switch back to 2.6.32.

2. The new problem is the nvidia driver doesn't work. I tried both ways: install xxx.run from downloaded from nvidia.com direclty and blacklist nouveau; or install nvidia.ko using yum install kmod-nvidia. It will automatically blacklist nouveau driver. But after I reboot system, I cannot login, it will stuck in booting stage.

3. Another way I tried is to remove all the nvidia configuration file and remove blacklist of nouveau, so I can login using nouveau driver. I can also turn on bbswitch: tee /proc/acpi/bbswitch <<<ON. But when I try to load nvidia.ko by "modprobe nvidia" OR use "optirun glxgear", my computer will freeze forever. I have to push power off for several seconds to shut it down.


2 ~ 3 indicate that I didn't get nvidia driver installed correctly. So my questions are: (1) Is there a way to install correct kernel version when I use 3.4.53, so that I can use yum install to get the correct kernel module place.(2) More importantly, how can I enable nvidia,ko without crash the system.

Like I said in your other thread you cannot use the nVidia blob and bumblebee in CentOS you have to use nouveau. If you don't care and you still want to use the nVidia blob google kmod nvidia.