Hello. Well I did my first recomple to add support for video 4 linux into the kernel. I cd'd to usr/src/linux and did >

make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
make bzImage
make modules
make modules_install

It all took about 10 minutes or so .

I was using the old config that I had that would have included
all the modules, etc that were in the default kernel. I think that I left out NVIDIA support though. After doing all the above I cd'd to /boot and renamed 'vmlinuz' 'vmlinuz.old' and then copied the new bzImage to /boot and renamed that vmlinuz. Then I edited my /etc/lilo.conf to make it so I could boot either kernel which after running /sbin/lilo was successful. Now I can boot either kernel but X will not work with either one. I get this error upon typing 'startx' >

(EE) NVIDIA (0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA (0): *** aborting ***
(EE) Screen (s) found, but none have a usable configuration

Fatal server error
no screens found

Is my only option to do a complete reinstall?

thanks

No just reinstall the NVIDIA video driver or edit your XF86Config to use the "nv" driver instead of the "nvidia" one.

i changed driver to 'nv' and it did not work either.

so I should just recompile and find the NVIDIA driver(module) and have it compiled in?

thanks

Hey when you recompiled and installed you did a "make modules" and a "make modules_install" right?

When your rebuilding a kernel its a good idea to move the old modules to a backup dir( "mv /lib/modules/2.4.18 /lib/modules/2.4.18old") also save the old kernel image, or name the new one something different.
To name the rebuilt kernel something different open the makefile in /usr/src/linux (or whereever your distro keeps the source) and change the "EXTRAVERSION" variable. Make sure and name the initrd and System.map with the same convention.


What is the error you get when you change your XF86Config file to the "nv" driver?

If you don't have support for your video card, X can't run. Either
make sure your nVidia driver is built as a module (in which case,
you need to load the module before trying to startx--man
modprobe), or recompile your kernel with nVidia support enabled.