I'm driving myself nuts here...

As a newbie and with the help of many of these forums, I have found that instead of quickly posting a question, I can get more accomplished by actually reading the man and info pages and the readme files like one is supposed to. But this one has me stumped.

My ultimate goal here is to get my dual monitor setup for my Geforce FX 5200 video card. After "fubaring" my XF86Config file to death but simply cutting and pasting other's config files, I decided to RTM and take it step by step.

The first thing I need to do is install the latest NVIDIA driver on my system, RH9. Here's my problem though: I can't seem to install the kernel-source-2.4.20-28.9.i386.rpm for the life of me. Here's what happens:

I try to run the Nvidia installer package but it says it can't determine my kernel (2.4.20-28.9) so the readme says to install the source package. Ok, so I downloaded the kernel-source-2.4.20-28.9.i386.rpm and tried to run this package. When I run the package, I get a conflict that I need gcc-2.96-98.i386.rpm . So download that and run those. Then I get a conflict that I need cpp-2.96-98.i386.rpm . Did that. Now I get a conflict that gcc 3.2.2.5 and cpp 3.2.2.5 are newer versions and already installed.

Ok, so I did rmp -ivh --nodep kernel-source-2.4.20-28.9.i386.rpm, and low and behold the package was installed to the usr/src/Linux 2.4.20-28.9 and all the contents seem to be there. So I think I can now run the NVidia installer again (not in X, I telinit 3 first). The package runs but I get an error about a GCC library error and the installation does not complete.

I tried to replace the gcc 3.2.2.5 and cpp 3.2.2.5 with "--replacefiles" but I get the same error about a new version is already installed.

I need direction here. I should be golden to proceed w/ my dual monitor setup as soon as I get the Nvidia driver's installed but I am lost in kernel compiler land. Roadmap anyone???

here is my installer log file

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Tue Feb 3 22:09:25 2004

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 : false
no questions : false
silent : false
XFree86 install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
Installer install prefix: /usr
kernel source path : /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-28.9
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp site : ftp://download.nvidia.com

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.
-> Using the kernel source path '/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-28.9' as specified by
the '--kernel-source-path' commandline option.
-> Kernel source path: '/usr/src/linux-2.4.20-28.9'
-> Performing cc_version_check with CC="cc".
-> gcc-version-check failed:

Could not compile gcc-version-check.c

If you know what you are doing and want to ignore the gcc version check, sel
ect "No" to continue installation. Otherwise, select "Yes" to abort install
ation, set the CC environment variable to the name of the compiler used to c
ompile your kernel, and restart installation. Abort now? (Answer: No)
ERROR: Unable to determine the NVIDIA kernel module filename.
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.

It having trouble making a interface to your kernel as far as I can tell. Have you read the readmes about the linux drivers on nvida site? Have you tryed continueing the installation by saying no? Are those the errors at the end for saying no? Make sure you read there readmes. I am not sure how you can fix this though.

I took the readme's as far as I could go, but I read another post about installing the development rpms from the install CD's. It worked like a charm; The kernel-source rpm was installed for the 2.4.20-8 kernel was installed which allowed me to install the updated 2.4.2.20-28.9 source files. I then installed the Nvidia driver and it worked. I'm now tweaking the XF86Config file to get my dual monitors working I'm just so elated that after two weeks of frustration I'm now on the right path.

Sidenote: I consider myself a linux hobbist at this point and have made it a project of mine to configure my new system with a dual boot system to see if I can get my linux install to do everything I can with WinXP. Just when I get to the point of dumping Redhat, I get through my problem and start on another goal. I'm not a full convert yet, but we'll see.