Nvidia driver fails installation (again)
 

Hi there,

just in advance, I already read some other posts, but couldn't find a suitable answer.

I installed Mandrake 9.2 recently and in order to get the graphics right, I have to install the drivers provided by nvidia.

The installation routine wants to compile the kernel interface itself for it doesn't find a kernel it provides a precompiled interface for. But now, installation fails due to missing kernel headers.

I found the kernel-2.4.22.10mdk-1-1mdk.src.rpm source-rpm on a mandrake mirror. Well I installed it, but that didn't fix the problem either. So I browsed some directories and found the /usr/include/linux directory containing a lot of header files. Thus I ran the installer with the "--kernel-header-source" option passing the /usr/include directory. Then the compilation process didn't complain about missing headers, but failed again.

I have absolutely no idea what to do, to get that interface compiled.

Did anyone experienced the same problem too, or has at least an idea what to do?

Would appreciate that.

So long...
SilenceX

i just downloaded the kernel source from this site
ftp://mdk.linux.org.tw/pub/mandrake/...Mandrake/RPMS/

when i ran the installer
at first i got the "cannot find suitable blah blah"
then the installer kicked in as expected
now 3d accelerated properly
amegatron playing MUCH better than on 9.1
about to install ut2003 again

So, now I found the problem causing the compilation abort. I installed the wrong package which included header files that do not belong to the kernel installed on my system.

Now, with the right header files, the nvidia drivers compiled successfully and are now working fine.

SilenceX,

Can you say which is the correct package that you installed to get up and running? I'm getting a hernia trying to install a modem driver with thsi 9.2 and trying to find the correct kernel source. I can only find kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk-i586.rpm while my system shows that I am running kernel 2.4.22.10mdk.1-1mdk.

Would appreciate a reply before I jump to Fedora/Red Hat or stick with Windows.

Tnanks.

2.4.22-10mdk is the correct number
it means you're runing the 2.4.22 kernel
so the sourse you found is correct

Thanks salparadise,

I installed kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk-i586.rpm and that didn't work, so I uninstalled it. I subsequently located kernel-2.4.22.10mdk-1-1mdk.src.rpm which I assume to be the source (and the correct one) but I can't seem to install this latter one.

Any clues?

.src.rpm need to be rebuilt
this is achieved with the following command

rpmbuild --rebuild name.of.package.src.rpm

when it's finished, the built rpm is to be found in /usr/src/RPM/i586/

Thanks again salparadise.

I just found your reply to a post "Trouble installing an rpm..." and was about to log off and try. So, do I install the created rpm that's in the i586 directory or will it display in the packages list?

you need to manually install it
either by clicking on it (double clicking if you havent got the mouse set to single click)
or from the command line

It's now 8:50 p.m. I started the rpm rebuild at 11:30 a.m. and stuff has been scrolling in a console window ever since. Is that normal? When will it end? I was about to do ctrl alt del or stop the session but I noticed that directories referred to in the console were actually filling with files and sub directories.

Seems this is going to be a long days journey into night. How long will this rebuild last?

Thanks.

FYI---

When you are installing the Nvidia driver in console, if you get that message, dont reboot to X and go looking for the package. Look on CD 2 or 3 and just use rpm -ivh xxxx.rpm to install the source for your kernel then rerun the program. If you installed from CD, you have the kernel sources on the cd.

If you don't know how to do the above, try this

su -
password

mount /mnt/cdrom
find | grep kern*

it should show you the kernels and you can install the source once you know where it is on the CD.

rpm -ivh /mnt/cdrom/Mandrake/RPM3/kernelsource_you_found_using_grep_above

all done...

Actually, I'm trying to install an Intel 537 modem driver. The sources aren't on the 9.2 downloaded CDs.

I think I'll just forget about Mandrake and try Red Hat and if that's the same experience I'll just be satisfied with Windows.

well
i didn't expect it to take that long

the trouble with these things is
the longer you leave it, the closer you are to the end anyway

the kernel source, when unpacked is approxiamately 170MB
that's a lot of code to compile

be glad you aren't compiling kde from source, that takes about a week

Well, I gave up at about 11 p.m. because it was going in a loop. The process seemed to be rewriting the directories and recreating the files it created in the first place. One moment there are 270 files and 10 directories total size 5.7 mb within, for eg, /drivers/char; next it's back to 212 files, 10 directories 4 mb.

That's one weeks worth of frustration in a day. Next question: uninstalling Mandrake on a dual boot system with XP.

I installed kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk-i586.rpm and that didn't work

when you say didn't work
what do you mean?