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Nvidia Driver can't find kernel source

I was trying to install the Nvidia driver on my computer using these instructions, but when I got into the installer and accepted the agreement, it said that it couldn't find a "precompiled kernel interface". I installed the kernel sources for my kernel. Could it be that it is looking in the wrong path? if so, how do I change the path it is looking in?

here is my nvidia-installer.log:

Code:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'

creation time: Fri Apr  9 14:05:08 2004



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

  XFree86 install prefix  : /usr/X11R6

  OpenGL install prefix  : /usr

  Installer install prefix: /usr

  kernel source path      : (not specified)

  kernel install path    : (not specified)

  proc mount point        : /proc

  ui                      : (not specified)

  tmpdir                  : /tmp

  ftp site                : ftp://download.nvidia.com



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.

You kernel sources are probably installed in /usr/src/linux-<kernel-version>.
Creating a symbolic link to i called linux should solve it, e.g:

/usr/src$ ln -s linux-2.6.3 linux

I did that just now and I'm still getting the same error. Is there some sort of way to tell it where the source code is? :confused:

I'm pretty sure I got the right source for my kernal, but I could double check.

nvidia driver installation problems

i have installed pcq linux 2004 which is a linux distro based on fedora 1.
i tried to install nvidia video drivers but i got the error message that a pre compiled kernel interface was not found.please help

The precompiled interface is not a problem, simply following the prompt and let the installer compile one for your system (you will need to have the kernel sources installed).

As for the above issue with the kernel sources...
The typical sources setup for Fedora (Red Hat as well, naturally) is to have the sources installed to /usr/src/linux-<kernelversion> (where the <kernelversion> part would be replaced by the output of uname -r). The symlink mentioned (/usr/src/linux) should be there but is not crucial. The one that is crucial is found in the /lib/modules directory for the running (or compilation target) kernel.
You should find that the 'target' of the symlink /lib/modules/<kernelversion>/build points to the correct kernel sources tree, in this case /usr/src/linux-<kernelversion>.

As a specific example:
/lib/modules/2.6.4-1.305/build -> /usr/src/linux-2.6.4-1.305

The kernel-source rpm should have taken care of this for you.. so it is possible you have the wrong source rpm installed. What is the output (the complete output) of rpm -q kernel kernel-source?

kernel-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl
kernel-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
kernel-source-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl_37.rhfc1.at

I am using kernel-2.4.22-1.2115.nptl I think. That's the option I select at startup in GRUB.

Quote:

Originally posted by Forezt

kernel-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
kernel-source-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl_37.rhfc1.at

This is the wrong source rpm for the 2174 kernel, it is distributed from the ATRPMS repository, and although it might have the correct sourcecode.. it still is not the correct matching (and official) source.
If you wish to use this kernel you should remove that kernel source (rpm -e kernel-source) then download and install: http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/....nptl.i386.rpm

If you are running the 2115 kernel, then you will have to install the 2115 kernel-source before the driver can compile for it, these have to match precisely, having one kernel-source is not good enough.
Download and install: http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/....nptl.i386.rpm

It would be better to install the latest kernel than to use either of these old kernels... they are updated for a reason.
http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/....nptl.i386.rpm
for i686 processor: http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/....nptl.i686.rpm
for athlon processor: http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/...ptl.athlon.rpm

otoh Livna is back up with a mirror and you can use yum to get a pre-compiled nvidia rpm for your kernel version.
See http://livna.cat.pdx.edu/ for info.

When I try to remove my current kernel-source package, it says:

Code:

[root@localhost root]# rpm -e kernel-source

warning: cannot get shared lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages

This is an indication that you have another rpm process running (or yum / apt, which are using librpm). If you do not.. and you are certain of this then you may need to remove old, stale, lock files in /var/lock/rpm.