I compiled the brand new 3.0 kernel (rc1) today. After compile and reboot, my nVidia graphics would not load. I tried a 'modprobe nvidia', but it told me that module did not exist. So I tried looking for nvidia.ko, but I knew I could not link it from an older kernel since the nvidia modules are kernel specific. I tried running the binary installer from a tty session, but it told me that I needed the kernel-devel package for my kernel. How do I include a kernel-devel package in my compile, and more importantly, how do I rebuild the nvidia module for my kernel?

PS: I tried restarting akmods from tty, but it told me that I didn't have anything in my build folder in my /usr/src/<kernel version>/lib/modules directory

Thanks

Alex

I would recommend getting the driver from nvidia's web site. Generally I have found that when I have trouble, using the drivers from nvidia end up correcting the issue. When I ran gentoo based systems, I always had to download the latest drivers from nvidia if there were any updates to X.

--Shaun

Thank you for your reply. The problem is, I already have the binary installer for nVidia's drivers from nVidia's site. The installer was telling me that I do not have kernel-devel installed. How can I have a kernel-devel for a self-compiled kernel?

Alex

Like any other "kernel-devel" : a build + source link to the kernel source ..

/lib/modules/3.0/build -> /usr/src/linux-3.0/
.. where "build" is a symlink to /usr/src/linux-3.0/

I.e. : cd /lib/modules/3.0/ &&
ln -s /usr/src/linux-3.0/ build
&& ln -s /usr/src/linux-3.0/ source

..

I went and fixed the existing symlinks that were there and changed my kernel source folder because akmods was looking for a different one. I restarted my nVidia drivers installation from tty but it told me that my kernel source was not configured. I had no idea what that meant. I tried to force akmods to build the akmod for nvidia, but it told me that kernel-devel-3.0.0-rc1 wasnot installed, therefore the source rpms could not build because that was a necessity for nvidia-kmod. Is there any other way I can make it recognize a kernel-devel?

Alex

I recompiled the kernel and made sure the symlinks were correct. I tried to run the NnVidia installer again, but it told me that the kernel source was still wrong. So, I looked up my problem on Google and it turns out that there is a patch for this problem. I applied this patch to the nVidia installer like you are supposed to using this page. After patching the driver, I ran the nVidia installer and it built the kernel module, but could not load it because once again, the kernel sources were bad. Anybody actually have this problem with their new kernel?

**edit**

I forgot to mention that I tried to insmod nvidia.ko, but insmod told me that there was an unknown variable or something in the module.

Thanks

Alex

I decided to stop pursuing this matter because its too much of a hassle. I compiled a 2.6.39 kernel and nVidia graphics modules compile and load just fine. I think as the new kernel matures, as with all new things, people will start supporting it.

Alex