hi Guy's,
I am a newbie to debian i recently got hold of debian sarge dvd and installed it but to my bad luck xserver is not starting i did all the steps in the threads posted here but still nothing is happeneing.Even tried downloading the latest nvidia drivers from the website and that also did not work.

the kernel version is 2.6.8-1-386

is there any way of installing the latest kernel with out recompiling like an rpm in redhat .pls let me know,

guy's i am desprate for solutions as i hav to get the xserver started.

thankx

Paste the log file / the error message that you got so people can help you better. To install the new stock kernel image (assuming you're using 686), you can just type: apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.10-1-686

Instruction on how to install nVidia driver, see here: http://www.tinyplanet.ca/~lsorense/d...-dri-howto.txt

thankx for the reply guy's the saddest part is i am not using a 686 kernel it is a 386 kernel is ther a way to install 686 kernel .and will post the log.

thankx

The drivers can be installed in another way as well. I have written about that one iin the following document: http://serios.net/content/debian/nvi...ay-drivers.php

here is another problem when i isssue this command
#apt-get install kernel-headers-$(uname -r)

I get an error saying no header found for this version

what do i hav to do the kernel version is 2.6.8-1-386 and i hav an AMD atholon 2200xp processor
guy's could u pls tell me which kerenel i should upgrade to which is easier to configure how to go abt it

if you have an amd processor then i would install the K7 kernel for it

apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.8-2-k7
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-k7

i also install the source
apt-get install kernel-source-2.6.8-2-k7

there are others that you may need, some are requested others are required
kernel-package
kernel-patch-debian-2.6.8
kernel-tree-2.6.8

dont forget to reboot, if you are using grub, the new kernel will already be selected
no need to recompile unless you need to. i have never compiled a kernel and havent found a need to yet
log in as root and install the nvidia driver

thanks for the reply guy's i installed the new kernel 2.6.8-2-k7 but the cmds

#apt-get install-headers-2.6.8-2
# apt-get install-headers-2.6.8-2.k7

are giving me error saying no header found for this version what do i do??


and this is the log message i got when i tried nvidia's installer:
nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Thu Apr 7 01:30:36 2005

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: false
no ncurses color : false
query latest driver ver : false
OpenGL header files : false
no questions : false
silent : false
no backup : false
kernel module only : false
sanity : false
add this kernel : false
no runlevel check : false
no network : false
no ABI note : false
no RPMs : false
force tls : (not specified)
force compat32 tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
installer install prefix: /usr
utility install prefix : /usr
kernel name : (not specified)
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel output path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp mirror : ftp://download.nvidia.com
RPM file list : (not specified)

Using: nvidia-installer ncurses user interface
-> License accepted.
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you li
ke the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface for your kernel f
rom the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://download.nvidia.com)? (Answer: Yes)
-> No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site;
this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for
your kernel.
ERROR: Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel.
Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your
kernel; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you have the
'kernel-source' rpm installed. If you know the correct kernel source
files are installed, you may specify the kernel source path with the
'--kernel-source-path' commandline option.
ERROR: Installation has failed. Please see the file
'/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details. You may find suggestions
on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

well hopefully those are just typos here. to install the headers type the following

first do
apt-get update
and then
apt-get dist-upgrade
and let it upgrade anything it has listed

then for the headers
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-k7

you can actually put them both on the same line, like this
apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.8-2 kernel-headers-2.6.8-2-k7

you had in your last comment
apt-get install-headers-2.6.8-2
apt-get install-headers-2.6.8-2.k7

see the difference? hope this helps. i do this all the time. i like reinstalling debian (call me crazy) but the debian-installer is great and it allows me to install just what i want.

Use: apt-cache search <insert-name-or-part-of-it> to find out the proper names for the packages you want. And use: apt-cache show <packagename-or-part-of-it> to find out version info.

You could also just install synaptic and choose the right packages from there.