I am having trouble installing the newest driver from nvidia for my video card on mepis 3.3. I am trying to follow the instructions given to compile and install the driver, but when I get to the directory and try to make install, it gives me this error: Makefile:17: *** missing separator. Stop.

Any ideas?

Is there a reason you are trying to make the NVidia drivers from the source rather than using the built in installer that they came with? The whole NVidia thing gets very ugly on many machines, and making it from source just makes that process several steps harder. Just become root, and then run the name of the download from NVidia, and it should go through the install. You'll need the full kernel-source and kernel headers for your kernel, and as long as those are in place, you should be golden.

Peace,
JimBass

Huh? What are those and where do I find them?

Man, don't be soooooo lazy. Google is your friend - http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Peace,
JimBass

I downloaded the driver file already. I know where to get that. I don't know ANYTHING about Linux. I cannot figure out how to install anything. I tried to use the package manager to install the updated drivers from mepis, but when I reboot x will not start. I try to run the drivers and they tell me x is running, and to quit x. So I quit x and try to install the file, I change to the directory that the file is in, and Linux will not find the file. All I want is my stinking video card to work properly.

I try to install anything and it horribly fails. I follow the instrustions provided to the letter, and it STILL fails. I have tried 5 different distros, and I cannot install anything from a .gz

I didn't know I had to be a rocket scientist to even install a simple program in Linux.

The directions are on the page that you download it from. all you have to do is type or whatever version of the driver you have downloaded. And yes, X windows cannot be running when you do it. Easiest way to do that is to logout from the bottom of the start menu, then sign in in text only mode. Use the command cd to go to the directory where you have the NVIDIA file, and issue the command I have shown you above.

I get the impression that you are not taking advantage of all the resources on the internet to help you. Google has thousands of posts on how to install these drivers, or open and install from tar.gz files, so forth and so on. You can look at files like the README that is linked to the page where you downloaded the NVidia driver from. Look around, and look things up. It all makes much sense, but can seem like alot when you first get started.

Peace,
JimBass

you have to tell us:
1) exact step taken (copy paste exact commands)
2) copy and paste exact error messages

example -- unless you figured out how to extract the source from the nvidia package which given the nature of your posts seems highly unlikely -- there is no earthly way this error message has anything to do with compiling nvidia drivers..

so you see we can't help with that kind of off the wall information given out of context

Hi all,
I am trying to install something, but when I run the installer it tells me that it can't find a 'gcc' compiler. It also says to check and see if it is installed, and if it is then to check that ''cc' is in your path.

I loaded up my package manager, and verified that it is in fact installed.

Where do I go from here?

You can see if the directory where gcc is installed is in your path with
If not add the directory to your path.
You can also find it at
~/.profile for BSD, or ~/.bash_profile or something similar for Linux.

You also might not have the version of gcc that the app you are trying to install is looking for.

You might also try re-installing gcc.
should tell you where it is if you have it installed.

Add it to what path? How do I add it to the path once I find out what path to add it to? And what does ~ mean in front of /.profile?

Ok I got gcc installed correctly now.

I get one problem solved, and run into another one.....

When I am trying to install the updated nvidia drivers, I get an error about not having the source files for my current kernel. I go into the package manager and install all of the kernel source files, and rerun the driver install and get the same error.

Any ideas?

the ~ means your home directory.

Just seems kind of odd that gcc dosen't come pre-installed with the initial install of the operating system.

a couple of linux versions recently came without gcc even on the install disks. you had to download it seperately.