Debian Lenny symlink gcc question for nVidia Driver(s) compilation and Installation
 

I am attempting to install the latest nVidia drivers from nVidia. Unfortuantely, they only provide an executable which does all of this for me. When it responded that the kernal of this version of Lenny was compiled with gcc-4.1 and gcc-4.3 is installed on the machine. I posted a question about how to compile the kernal with the latest version of gcc, but only received the following response.

"Just install gcc-4.1 and then temporarily change the symlink for gcc from gcc-4.3 to gcc-4.1. "

I have installed gcc-4.1 (by sudo apt-get install gcc-4.1). While the remainder of the suggestion sounds like it should work, I am still to new to Linux to know how to do this (hence the post to the newbie forum).

a) Which symlink should be modified?
b) Where is this symlink located?
c) Is there anything "special" I must do, or not do because this is a symlink?
d) Is there a specific editor required, or will any text editor do?
e) Does doing this also use the correct "MAKE" facility, if one is necessary?

Basically what else do I need to know to solve my driver compile/make/install/compatibility problems?


Thank you in advance for your time, patients, and assistance.

No need to do that symlink, when it asks about the GCC version proceed by ignoring it and let it compile anyways it will work fine.

P.S. Let it write a new xorg config for you too

I have attempted to run the installation program and selected the option which ignored the compiler issue. Unfortunately, the results were still non-functional.

As for the xorg.conf file, I did allow the utility to write this file, but I already had a custom video configuration after having spent quite a bit of time on the xorg.conf man page. So that's really not much of an issue.

I would ask again:

a) Which symlink should be modified?
b) Where is this symlink located?
c) Is there anything "special" I must do, or not do because this is a symlink?
d) Is there a specific editor required, or will any text editor do?
e) Does doing this also use the correct "MAKE" facility, if one is necessary?

Basically what else do I need to know to solve my driver compile/make/install/compatibility problems?

Additionally, as I currently know nothing of how to address this issue, it is not unreasonable to assume that I could encounter the need to modify symlinks in the future. This will be a good learning experience.


Thank you for your assistance

The following link may help with gcc versions:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ge+gcc+version

To install the Nvidia driver i do the following:

aptitude install module-assistant build-essential

Then run the following commands as root:

m-a update
m-a prepare

Next,stop X and run the installer script.
Let the installer modify your Xorg.conf file,restart X or reboot.
If all is well you should see the Nvidia logo when X restarts.

Do it the easy way and use smxi. http://smxi.org/

do, as root: cd /usr/local/bin && wget smxi.org/smxi.zip && unzip smxi.zip && smxi

Sgfxi currently supports ATI fglrx and Nvidia drivers. It also supports converting from or to xorg free drivers like ati, intel, or nv. Smxi uses sgfxi as its graphics driver installer engine, but simply adds some option support for users.

The default driver is the driver that is installed if no arguments are used to override it. Unless your card is too old, and requires a legacy driver, in which case the script will it determine for you.

When you run the script, it will stop, and tell you what driver it is going to install. You can accept that, or exit and redo it with an override option if you want something different.

the trooper,
Thanks for the information. I shall give this a try.

craigevil
I have never heard of the smxi. The website looks intriguing. I shall give the smxi a nice close look, and a try.

Fast Question, Is the "/usr/local/bin" directory the place to store scripts in a Debian (or any other linux distro)?

smxi was orginally wriitern for sidux, but since then it has been rewritten to work on any debian distro. For installing nvidia and using to install new kernels and apt-get dist-upgrade it works great.