'nvidia' module doesn't persist for nVidia GeForce2 DDR card

The system is Mandrake 10.0, kernel 2.6.3-4mdk

I installed the nvidia driver from the pkg file from their site (using 5336 version)
After installation, I changed XF86Config-4, replacing 'nv' with 'nvidia' in the drivers section (as listed in the README)
Issuing startx from the console worked fine.

But... after a reboot, the nvidia kernel module is not loaded again.
From the forum, I learnt that "modprobe nvidia" will load the module. This works fine.

How do I make this persist? There are similar posts, but I am unclear as to what I have to write in /etc/modules.conf to ensure that the nvidia module is loaded by the kernel everytime?

I looked at the /etc/modules.conf file from Mdk 9.1..

probeall scsi_hostadapter usb-storage ide-scsi
probeall usb-interface usb-uhci
above snd-cmipci snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cmipci
alias /dev/nvidia* nvidia

This is the /etc/modules.conf in 10.0:

probeall scsi_hostadapter imm ppa
probeall usb-interface usb-uhci
above snd-cmipci snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-slot-0 cmpci
alias /dev/nvidia* nvidia #####

The last line marked ##### was added by me, but still a manual modprobe is required.

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Googling and stumbling around a bit, here's what I understand so far:

1. the nvidia kernel module is /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko , ascertained after doing a modprobe --nv nvidia

2. modprobe depends on entries in the following files: /etc/modules.conf , /etc/modprobe.conf , /etc/modules

However I am still not able to follow how to load the nvidia module at startup What should be entered/changed where to enable this?

Any advice or suggestions gratefully accepted.

Thanks and regards.

Solution:

Putting an entry for the module in `/etc/modprobe.preload` is required for kernels 2.5 and above.
I was making the entry in /etc/modules, but kernel 2.6.x does not read that...

This is what the file looks like on mdk 10.0 on my system now...

# /etc/modprobe.preload: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file should contain the names of kernel modules that are
# to be loaded at boot time, one per line. Comments begin with
# a `#', and everything on the line after them are ignored.
# this file is for module-init-tools (kernel 2.5 and above) ONLY
# for old kernel use /etc/modules

scsi_hostadapter
intel-agp
nvidia

I hope this is helpful to others also!

Ethier turn of hardrake at startup or update harddrake. This is a known problem

I also use that same nvidia driver, and I don't have to load it manually, but it is not in /etc/modprobe.preload

Works, though...

This may not be relevant to Mandrake, but it worked for me...

I upgraded my RedHat 9.0 from 2.4.22 to kernel 2.6.5, and then installed the latest nvidia drivers (5536), but it wouldnt load the nvidia module automatically anymore... I put it in rc.local and it worked ok but it still bugged me. I kept playing with other things and found no modules were loading automatically anymore... I thought I messed up my kernel compile, but I did some reading. In the FAQ for the module-init-tools-3.0, it says:

Q) I'm using RedHat and modules don't autoload any more. A) RedHat turns module autoloading off if /proc/ksyms isn't found. Change line 337 of /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit from: if ! grep -iq nomodules /proc/cmdline 2>/dev/null && [ -f /proc/ksyms ]; then to if ! grep -iq nomodules /proc/cmdline 2>/dev/null && [ -f /proc/modules ]; then

My rc.sysinit wasnt exactly like that, but I found the line that was looking for ksyms and changed it to modules. Removed my modprobe from the rc.local (startup script), and rebooted. Lo and behold, the nvidia module loaded automatically at boot when X started, and so did a bunch of other things that had stopped working.

Hope this helps.

Hi there,

to autoload the nvidia driver is verry simple. Fist at all you have to understand how the modules.conf / modprobe.conf works. Then you add a line : alias char-major 195 nvidia ... have a look at u're /usr/src/linux-`uname-r`/Documentation/devices.txt to find out more about char & block device major and minor numbers - it is usefull to mknod too ;-)

have a lot of fun but from the scratch !

--
WHOOPS: Posted to the wrong thead - but maybe this helps on you're distribution

I have this strange problem : every time I update my network configuration (to change from dhcp client to a static IP, or whatever), the next time I want to start X, itwon't start, and tells me of en error in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, with "no screen found".

As far as I know, my XFConfig-4 has *not* been modified a bit.

What I have to do to get X to start again, is to reinstall the nvidia driver.

And the punchline is : I don't have to modify XFConfig-4, which proves it was not changed.

Does anyone have an idea of what and why ?

I'm running Mandrake 10 Community.

I put 'alias char-major-195 nvidia' in /etc/modules.conf.
But it didnt work until i put 'nvidia' in /etc/modprobe.preload. As required for kernels 2.5 and above.

Nvidia loads at every boot now.