install NVIDIA drivers
 

hi friends!

i know this is a common thread and i can find many information on the web. I ve readen several articles, however i cannot find the solution.

i ve followed these steps (i ve got a debian 3.0 woody):
- download the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run file from the Nvidia FTP server.
- run this file: #sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run
- The nvidia installer need to compile a new kernel interface
- It cannot load the kernel module "nvidia.o" because the kernel module was built using the wrong kernel header files.
- I ve got installed the 2.4.21 kernel in /usr/src/linux, so i specify the kernel include path with the --kernel-include-path option:
#sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run --kernel-include-path=/usr/src/linux/include
but nvidia-installer doesnt run well.
In the /var/log/nvidia-installer.log file appear this:
kernel module load error: Warning: loading ./usr/src/nv/nvidia.o will taint the kernel: non- GPL license - NVIDIA
./usr/src/nv/nvidia.o : init_module: no such device
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect modules parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
(i dont understand this errors very well)
What have i done wrong?what must i do?
I ve downloaded the kernel-headers-2.4.21 too, but ..is there any difference with the headers contained in the linux-2.4.21.tar file?
Thanks for all and sorry for my poor english!
bye.

You are using debian? Then it is really simple
apt-get install nvidia-kernel-src nvidia-glx-src kernel-pkg wget

cd /usr/src/linux
make-kpkg modules_image

cd /usr/src
dpkg -i nvidia-kernel..........deb

cd /usr/src/nvidia-glx
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc

cd /usr/src
dpkg -i nvidia-glx.......deb

I made it always this way and this way you also can compile your kernel --
cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
make dep
make clean
make-kpkg kernel_image

cd /usr/src
dpkg -i kernel-image.......

I hope this helps you it more simple than the normal way. it is the debian way

snu
 

forgot to say that i would compile a new kernel before kompiling the nvidia-src

ok, i understand it
but what sources must i include in the /etc/apt/sources.list?
thanks

Re: install NVIDIA drivers
 

The /usr/src/linux is usually a symbolic link to the actual kernel source directory what does ls -l /usr/src/linux tell you does it actually point to the proper directory not the previous kernel you have installed. When I did this a couple of weeks ago I had a similar error because I had moved the source directory to compile a testing kernel and had forgot to move the directory back and recreate the link properly. Also I did not have to specify a path to the kernel it worked properly after I used the correct version of gcc to check which gcc you used to compile the kernel with dmesg | grep "Linux version" to see your default gcc ls -l /usr/bin/gcc I had to export CC=/usr/bin/gcc-2.95 before running the nvidia to use gcc 2.95 which I had compiled the kernel with. Also with the --kernel-include-path you could need a path of /usr/src/linux-2.4.21 this way it will point to the actual directory not the symbolic link it's worth a try anyway.
From the naming of the kernel source file I would presume that you got it from the kernel.org and not a Debian repository did you get the headers you downloaded from Debian if so the version will be different and would include patches for Debian the ones already included in the tarball should be used.

hi

thanks to snu and HappyTux. i ve already install the nvidia drivers as you said me and i ve configured the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file too. now, i have got a problem with insmod. i ve put a new thread about this in the general forum.

i hope anybody can help me

Ahh! in response to my own answer, you can apt-get the nvidia-kernel-src and nvidia-glx-src from several FTP servers. In my case i ve added the next line to the /etc/apt/sources-list (it´s only an example):

deb ftp://ftp.ie.debian.org/debian stable contrib

bye.