Major Headaches with Mandrake 9.0 and Nvidia Card

Originally posted by rubbertiki hi, im tryin to install the drivers too and i was following the instructions, but then i typed urpmi kernel-source it says no such package . i tried searching for kernel in the mandrake control center but there was no file with the name kernel-source. so what do i do now?

Try this How-To: http://www.linuxloader.com/modules.p...showpage&pid=6
It's really not too hard.

This one is MUCH better:

http://www.zebulon.org.uk/

Had similar problems with a GEForce 6200 (XFXForce) on MDK 10.1. No driver was found, so I had to build one.
Installed kernel sources, and the supplied .run script buildt me a driver.
Also changed /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the supplied instructions in this discussion. No luck. I got the VGA screen after reboot.

So what really did the trick was 16b of otish1000c reply (posted 06-16-2004 12:25 PM). After updating the /etc/modprobe.preload, I got my graphics screen up and running.

Thanx folks, this really saved me from returning the card to my distributor (would have been the second time, too :-)


Regards
Hawkis

I'm posting this to help anyone else who might make the same mistake ....
Well this is my story
I downloaded all the Read-me's and How-to's on the subject
studied them very carefully
waited until one quiet evening when the kids were in bed
and started
I was installing the drivers for a FX 5200 onto an Intel 815 mobo
Pentium III 700 with 256 Meg Ram
running Mandrake 10.0
so I fired up Kwrite to edit the XF86Config-4 file
I noticed that when I typed " that the " was different to the one on other lines
but a " mark is a " mark - right ?
anyway I saved my work
set initab to init 3
rebooted
found and ran the NVidia script
no problems
rebooted, went to startx
major panic, X wont start with error messages I dont understand
got the nvidia flash screen but no X
managed to cd to the XF86Config-4 file
I was going to try to reset it to what it was before
and fired up vi, never used it before, what a learning curve !
noticed that the line instead of >Load "glx"<
now was > Load ?glx?<
with the question marks highlighted
sooo ummm this was my problem - yes ?
so I had a crash course in vi
with "Sams Teach yourself Red Hat 7" at my side
and my II yr old reading the vi instructions to me
thankfully there was already a line that said
### Load "glx" # 3d
so all I had to do was delete the #'s
delete the line I added before which caused the problem
save my work and reboot again
this time it worked
and X is now sweet
ran glxgears and got 1900 FPS
so the moral of my story
1. Dont use KWrite to edit config files
2. and a " is not always a "
and I learn't a little about vi along the way

hope this helps
floppy

That vi does have a pretty stiff learning curve. I sort of had the same thing happen to me. I wrote a how to on installing the drivers. It's on here somewhere.

Glad you got it working now.

Later

Dalek said ...
I wrote a how to on installing the drivers. It's on here somewhere.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

yeah I know, I got it printed off and stored in a folder here for reference
many thanx
it was your how-to I referred to to get me out of the #$$%@
I should have taken your advice about getting to know vi before I needed it it LOL

floppy

You can also install nano. It is real easy compared to vi. It is really small so even if you are on dial-up it will only take a minute. It reminds me of MS word back in the old DOS days.

I guess people still use that guide after all. I know it has had a lot of views the last time I looked. There is a way to do it wothout rebooting though. I should have wrote one for that too. I use Gentoo now and don't even have Mandrake installed anymore. I did get a copy a while back in case I need a rescue of some kind. I would not want to write a guice without actually doing it and writing down the steps and checking it to make sure it is correct.

Later

Originally Posted by Kadett Otis sent you an email about this and the "solution" well pretty much at least! Thanks all

I was wondering if I could get a copy of those instructions too please. I "just" installed Mandrake and it really doesn't like my FX5800 card. I can't get anything but a command line and since my knowledge of Linux is nil (I installed this to learn on) :-) I am stuck!

I did manage to figure out how to shut things down appropriately from ROOT, so I am hopefully trainable.

Also, should I need to uninstall this how does one go about that?

Thanks (hopefully I don't get toasted for not knowing anything)
Brian

i have a lil problem myself ( i have fx5200 128mb/128bit)
i instaled the drivers the GUI runs great BUT when i use alt+ctrl+Fn
it say " signal out of range" and i dont c nothing
i get the nvidia logo at startup.. so i think the drivers r installed
basesclly i dont have "txt grafic interface" only the GUI
from where i should start?
wich files should i post?
i have mandriva 2006 and i really wanna learn a lil bit of linux
ps:before posting here i read almoust everything related to nvidia driver but no1 has this problem
edit: i have 3D in KDE but when i use alt+ctrl+F2 (for example) my monitor shows " signal out of range"

i have found the solution

remove VGA=788 from lilo.conf
very easy but if u dont knoe is very hard

Originally Posted by Kadett Otis sent you an email about this and the "solution" well pretty much at least! Thanks all

There was definitely a bug with the framebuffer which caused my computer to also go black. I used to press F1 at the installation prompt, and type in the framebuffer number. Have you been able to see the GUI?

It very much seems that some cards work better than others... I had terrible trouble with Mandrake 10 and an FX5200, which kept giving me a black screen and a friend told me she had had the same problem, but when its fan wore out and I had to replace the card with an FX5500 - poof! The drivers worked straight away, without even having to do any of the stuff the Readme file warned about...

PLEASE NOTE:you must have the kernel-source installed that matches your kernel in order for the nvidia drivers to function! in terminal as root type uname -a to get current kernel version. then, in terminal as root do urpmi kernel-source-(same kernel number here).

I am newbie for linux. I got problem when installing nvidia driver under mandriva 2006. I use "uname -a" to to get current kernel version such as kernel-2.6.12-12mdksmp. Then type "urpmi kernel-source2.6.12-12mdksmp ". The screen pops up unknow kernel-source2.6.12-12mdksmp. If type "urpmi kernel-sourceor", it show up "1. kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm; 2. kernel-source-stripped-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm
What is option?
So I do not know waht I should do next step since it looks like that I have the kernel-source installed that mismatches my kernel in order for the nvidia drivers to function? Thank in advance.
haibo

Originally Posted by haibo PLEASE NOTE:you must have the kernel-source installed that matches your kernel in order for the nvidia drivers to function! in terminal as root type uname -a to get current kernel version. then, in terminal as root do urpmi kernel-source-(same kernel number here). I am newbie for linux. I got problem when installing nvidia driver under mandriva 2006. I use "uname -a" to to get current kernel version such as kernel-2.6.12-12mdksmp. Then type "urpmi kernel-source2.6.12-12mdksmp ". The screen pops up unknow kernel-source2.6.12-12mdksmp. If type "urpmi kernel-sourceor", it show up "1. kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm; 2. kernel-source-stripped-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm What is option? So I do not know waht I should do next step since it looks like that I have the kernel-source installed that mismatches my kernel in order for the nvidia drivers to function? Thank in advance. haibo

Sounds like the same problem I had installing ATI drivers from plf. Since kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm was the only one available, that was what I downloaded. It complained that it was looking for kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-12 when dkms tried to load the module. What I ended up doing was install the 2.6-2.6.12-22mdk kernel, and then set up lilo to boot using that kernel. Everything worked fine after it was running the correct kernel.

Originally Posted by sporkinum Sounds like the same problem I had installing ATI drivers from plf. Since kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm was the only one available, that was what I downloaded. It complained that it was looking for kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-12 when dkms tried to load the module. What I ended up doing was install the 2.6-2.6.12-22mdk kernel, and then set up lilo to boot using that kernel. Everything worked fine after it was running the correct kernel.

Thanks for your help. One more question: Do I need to uninstall kernel-2.6-2.6.12-12mdk.i586.rpm , then install kernel-source-2.6-2.6.12-22mdk.i586.rpm ? And also how to set up lilo, please give me the detailed info? Thanks in advance.
Haibo