Writing NVIDIA drivers to CD on Windows, then running on Linux?
 

Hi all.

Already fixed my HDD and my sound via this forum, hope this prob can be fixed too :D

Atm I have (this) machine running Win98, and it's the only one with an internet connection until I get my network cards etc etc.

My other machine has a fresh install of RH 7.3, with the 2.5.38 kernel installed (to fix HDD :) ) I need to download the NVidia drivers on here, then burn them to CD, then run them on linux.

When I try to do this, I get errors in linux. If it's RPMs then they can't be unpacked. If it's tar or gz files, the compression format is violated.

Why is this? Could it be something to do with the file naming system or something? If the names are too long they get saved as nvidia~1.rpm or whatever. Also windows has the .tar.gz files named as <name>.tar, with the file icon showing .gz (I'm using PowerArchiver).

How can I get around this problem? I desperately need to install the Nvidia drivers on my linux box... Any ideas?

Much appreciated.
T

firstly, always use the source, mcuh better for the drivers i find. right, well try running "file blah.tar.gz" on the files under linux and see what they report. naturally your windows archiver will report them as it has, as windows likes to hide known file extensions... can you get into the files under windows?

Hope this may help as would be easier solution

in windows (98se or later) create a new folder called nvidia
download drivers to this folder

restart system in linux

mount the windows drive within linux

mount /dev/hde5 /mnt/windows

where hde5 is the device number you are mounting, and windows is a folder named windows which you create using
the mmod file.

when then want to load the drivers just go to your newly mounted drive and choose from there.

He saids he is using 2 box,without network. come on!


Be sure to download file in binary mode if you're using FTP. Also, do not let any win progs touch them, I found windoze archiver tool to be very stupid about .targ.gz

Burning it on a cd (using iso-9660 mode can be a good idea) without opening it with windoze before should provide uncorrupted data.

But be sure your download is good, maybe you just taked a wrong mirror site distributing corrupted files. This happen sometime.

GRRR I just spend ages writing a post, then posted it, got taken to the wrong thread, and then came back and nothing had happened.

Anyway. I'll try turning Powerarchiver off first, and see what happens. BTW when I write the CD in Adaptec it says it's being named as foo.tar.gz but it actually gets written as foo~1.gz or whatever. This seems to be because the software is using the MSDOS file naming system? Is that what JOLIET is? Could that be causing the problem or not?

I don't still have the .gz files, but I think I could get into them, although if I recall correctly there was some error or another. I'll d/l them again and see if I can find out what exactly was happening.
I'm using flashget to d/l them, I'm pretty sure that downloads in binary mode, tho I'll check to be sure anyway.

And acid: if I run the tar.gz files in Linux I get an error saying that the compression format has been violated. I can't get the exact wording at the moment because I don't have the files.

Basically it starts unpacking, then fails. Nothing actually gets uncompressed.

:( I don't have Tuxracer...

Joliet is the M$ long name support on cd. It probably doesn't like your .tar.gz file. You can try renaming the files before burning it or to use Iso-9660 fs.

Appologies
 

My appologies for my original reply, I didn't reliase it was 2 seperate machines.

The best util for writing windows files to cd to be read by linux is nero. You must remember to allow long filenames, jolliet format and ascii code.

Wouldn't it be easier for you to setup your network first then, download the files via linux straight to your linux drive, and then install them....

regards
DragonLord

Yeh it would be easier to just download them but I don't know how long it's going to be before I get my comps networked - could be a few weeks.

Half-Elf - what can I rename them too? I tried renaming kernel.tar (listed as a .gz file in properties because of powerarchiver) to kerneltar, in the hope it would be known as kerneltar.gz. It was, so I tried to rename it to kernel.tar.gz then unzip it (in linux). This yielded the same results as above.

How do I enable iso-966? Any 'generic' ways? I'll go check the adaptec help anyway. As for Nero - I have an old version, and also Nero 5.5, but it doesnt run on this comp, it moans that it only works with the CDRW it was packaged with :( Maybe there are some 'help' files to deal with it somewhere.

Thanks again. I'll go try it out.
T

If your windows machine is connected to net then download either the new version of nero, or the cdrom configuration file. Nero will work with any cd-writer and not just the one it was shipped with. I know that because I got nero with my original scsi writer and have updated twice now, and using a ide drive and same software runs.

it shouldn't matter what the filenames are called but you could rename them like the following.

NVIDIA_kernel-0.1.3213.tar.gz
NVIDIA_GLX-0.1.3213.tar.gz

then enter the following

tar xfvz NVIDIA_kernel-0.1.3213.tar.gz
tar xfvz NVIDIA_GLX-0.1.3213.tar.gz

change to the NVIDIA_kernel-0.1.3213 directory
make install
change to the NVIDIA_GLX-0.1.3213 directory
make install
vim /etx/X11/XF86Config-4

put a hash at the beginning of the line Load "dri"
add a new lines
Load "GLcore"
Load "glx"
then modify the driver "nv" entry to read driver "nvidia"
save file
restart X
and all should work

I had to do this on my system, and the instructions are from another post I found. Not sure why the standard rpm's wouldn't work as they were ok on my mates machine.

Regards
DragonLord

Yup I've done all the editing stuff and installing from source on my original and first linux, RH7 :D Thanks anyway tho.

Tried writing as iso9660 but it still had to rename the files from kernel.tar.gz to kernel_tar.gz?

And when I go to linux and rename them and everything, I still get errors when I try to decompress them - format violated. For the GLX it said something about an obscolescent base 64 file, or something similar. It named a particular .so file that had been problematic. Could all these problems be due to the CD Writing??

Thanks.
T

Well it looks like it could be - when i write via nero i always set it to joiliet, ascii and ensure the greater than 8 directories and filenames greater than 255 chars is selected. if set to 8.3 mode then this is your problem, it doesn't matter about it saying not readable by msdos as you're using it for windows/linux anyway.

I have written lots through windows to cd and can pull them in via linux.

When you drag files from hdd to cd are they written with long filenames on hdd, and lose them when transfer to cd so they report as 8.3 filenames before writing - if so make the changes above first.

Another way is tell it to use the virtual recorder and save as an image on hdd, then use a program like iso buster or winimage to look at the directory structure of iso

1) if iso contains long filenames then burn it to cd and then see if kept names or not. If it doesn't then it would suggest a hardware fault.

2) if iso does not contain long filenames then it would suggest a software configuration error. Try uninstalling then reinstalling software.

hope this helps