HI, I just installed Debian etch in my box, and now I am facing the problem of installing the nvidia driver. My graphic card is nvidia GeForce 8400 GS, and my currently using kernel is:
Linux debian 2.6.24-1-amd64 #1 SMP Thu Mar 27 19:16:18 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
I installed the kernel from the repository. I have downloaded the following drivers:
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run
&
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-173.08-pkg2.run
Every time when I try "sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run" I will get imformation like "NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-169.12-pkg2.run: line 779: ./nvidia-installer: No such file or directory"

Meanwhile I have tried to install the nvidia driver from the repository, but with no success. It reports that "nvidia-kernel-169.12 could not be installed" I checked on debian's website, and it says the package is not available.

I have stable, sid and lenny in my sources.list file, and I got really confused and dont know what to do. Any suggestion would be appreciated.


--------- my sources.list file -------------------
### Debian Stable Repositorys
deb http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian/ etch main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian/ etch main

### Debian Stable Security Repositorys
deb http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://security.debian.org/ etch/updates main contrib

### Debian Testing Repositorys
deb http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
#deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian lenny main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian lenny main contrib non-free

### Debian Testing Security Repositorys
#deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free

### Debian Unstable Repositorys
deb http://ftp.uni-kl.de/debian/ sid main contrib non-free
#deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main non-free

### Debian Unstable Security Repositorys
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib non-free

Well, it's generally difficult to maintain a system with mixed repositories. You should stick with one branch of Debian until you're more experienced. Pick either Etch (stable), Lenny (testing), or Sid (unstable). It'll be much easier. As a newbie, I'd probably pick either Etch or Lenny.

Now having said that, I would use debian's module-assistant to install the nvidia drivers. Here's a link. Use method 1 - module assistant.

This is what works for me.

Install the driver in home:
apt-get install linux-headers-(uname -r)
apt-get install nvidia-glx
apt-get install build-essential
apt-get install module-assistant (some of this stuff may be unnecessary but it's how I do it.(me nubi 2))

from root terminal:

/etc/init.d/kdm stop <--if you use KDM -- or gdm if you use GDM
login as root
init 3>cd /home/username>sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run
shutdown -r now

Do you have the kernel headers installed?

The .run file is a text file. You can open it and look what is on line 779. Most likely it will use a variable ($1, S2...) to point to that directory. If you can find out what the value of that variable is, you might see what goes wrong.

Alternatively, if you run the NVIDIA with "sh -x" you see an awful lot of tracing. Might be awkward with the installer interface. Or gives you just enough information to find out what is wrong.

jlinkels

Thanks you all. Yesterday I followed the DebianWiki and installed 2.6.18-6-amd64 kernels, and the nvidia driver installation went through well. Although after rebooting I could not start the X-server, I am still very happy I will work on it today, and hopefully the problem could be solved.

anchunlei