I think kernel-devel-xxx maybe what your after

Can't find that one, either. :|

Is it always this complicated to get videocard drivers to work?

The driver itself is easy. Redhat does not like doing what you want it to do a lot of times. Try to google the kernel on google. There may be a repostory somewhere with that package.

Please re-state your remaining questions. The ones that are as-yet unanswered.

Video cards can be complicated to set up, but in your case I'm not sure that it should be this troublesome. Have you checked the vendor's web site?

Sometimes when you try to solve a problem you can box yourself into a corner and totally lose sight of what brought you there in the first place.

The remaining questions are:

1. How do I install my videocard drivers?

Yes. I checked the vendor's website. It's nVidia. I've got the driver. I'm just having difficulty installing it because, aside from me having no idea what I'm doing, it wants something compiled.

And yes, I've tried googling the rpm. No luck there, either.

2. Why is my sound so icky?

Using the EQ in XMMS I solved the issue of having crappy sound when it plays music, but when it comes to everything else, it's still horrid.

That's basically it, for now.

So...any ideas?

You could try to download the vanilla kernel from www.kernel.org, but it may or may not work cause RH might of done things to the kernel. After that, the Nvidia installer should work without any problems. They are really good cause they make it so easy. As for sound, mess with muting and unmuting channels. some of the channels can interfere with the sound. It is sometimes better to use OSS instead of ALSA for old true SB clones.

I have clicked and pushed all sorts of buttons in KMix, where I think all the channels and such are. It didn't do much.

I'll check out the vanilla kernel in a minute. Thanks for the response. :D

Ok. It might be easier for me to figure out what I am doing, if I understood what I was doing.

Could someone please explain to me exactly what this kernel source thing is and what it does and why the hell my computer so desperately needs it to compile the nVidia drivers?

Anyone?

!
 

ok- you know what a kernel is, right? (motor to the car, etc, myriad of other analogies)

Right, all software is built from source. Sometimes it gets built for you. This happens with software installs, and with "packaged" software like Red Hat's RPM. Sometimes, though, you have to build it yourself using a compiler.

Unix's (including linux) are built using a lego block approach. This means that the programs can be smaller because they all use eachother. So, the Nvidea drivers use parts of the kernel to work - (making them just that much smaller to download)

so, you need have the source code available for the Nvidia drivers to use to compile (to get video working)

let me know if you need some more help.
titanium_geek

EDIT:
the LQ wiki (http://wiki.linuxquestions.org) is a GREAT resource.
Welcome to LQ!

FYI this link might help with some of your difficulties related to getting the kernel source installed. FWIW the way Fedora does this is probably not as straightforward as it ought to be, but it's not so bad once you've found the documentation that describes how to do it.

Thanks a lot! If I only had more time I would check it out, but this has definitely answered most of my questions. It's just a bit hard to wrap my brain around all of it right now. I'll get there, I promise. :)

Hooray. I found the source. I installed the source. I'd like to think life is good. Unfortunately...life is not good. nVidia installer tells me the path is not specified. Now...I could specify said path via the "--kernel-source-path" command...if I knew what this command was. So...bit o' help?

nVidia drivers...again.
 

I have read the tutorials, I've asked already, I still can't get it to work and the other thread seems to be dead...again.

Output from the nvidia installer log file:
nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Sat Aug 13 00:44:36 2005

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 : true
no questions : false
silent : false
no backup : false
kernel module only : false
sanity : false
add this kernel : false
no runlevel check : false
no network : false
no ABI note : false
no RPMs : false
force tls : (not specified)
force compat32 tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
installer install prefix: /usr
utility install prefix : /usr
kernel name : (not specified)
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel output path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp mirror : ftp://download.nvidia.com
RPM file list : (not specified)

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.

Output from uname -r:
2.6.12-1.1398_FC4

If anything else is needed, just ask. I REALLY want to get the drivers to work. This 800x600 crap is starting to get to me.


:edit:

Having spent an ucky amount of time poking around, I've found out that I have no idea how to use the --kernel-source-path option. I link it to the directory, it says /usr/include//include/linux/kernel.h is not there. I link it to /usr/include/linux/kernel.h, it can't find the damn kernel source. I link it to just /usr/ thinking it might find it, and still soupless I am left. Double Ew Tee Ef?