Hello once again cybertaz.

Well, I got the installer to wake up and talk to me following your instructions, but I could never get very deep into it. If I didn't give command line overrides it said my source wasn't installed, even though yast said kernel-source was installed. As it suggested I tried giving it the path to the source as a command line argument (/usr/src) in my case, but then it said it couldn't find an include file. So I said, OK, I'll go down a level and give it /usr/src/linux-2.6.18.8-0.5 because that really is just above the include directory, etc. Then it says it can't figure out the kernel version. Arghhhh. It told me to look in the log file, which I've copied below in case you see anything:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Thu Sep 20 23:11:12 2007

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
no precompiled interface: true
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 : 2.6.18.8-0.5-default
kernel include path : (not specified)
kernel source path : /usr/src/linux-2.6.18.8-0.5
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.
-> Not probing for precompiled kernel interfaces.
-> Using the kernel source path '/usr/src/linux-2.6.18.8-0.5' as specified by
the '--kernel-source-path' commandline option.
ERROR: Unable to determine the version of the kernel sources located in
'/usr/src/linux-2.6.18.8-0.5'. Please make sure you have installed the
kernel source files for your kernel and that they are properly
configured; 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' command line 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.

What was the command line you used to run the installer? I just use 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19-pkg2.run'

here is my log (just the first part):
nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Thu Sep 20 22:24:22 2007

option status:
license pre-accepted : false
update : false
force update : false
expert : false
uninstall : false
driver info : false
precompiled interfaces : true
no ncurses color : false
query latest version : false
OpenGL header files : true
no questions : false
silent : false
no recursion : 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
no kernel module : false
force SELinux : default
no X server check : false
force tls : (not specified)
force compat32 tls : (not specified)
X install prefix : (not specified)
X library install path : (not specified)
X module install path : (not specified)
OpenGL install prefix : (not specified)
OpenGL install libdir : (not specified)
compat32 install chroot : (not specified)
compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
compat32 install libdir : (not specified)
utility install prefix : (not specified)
utility install libdir : (not specified)
doc install prefix : (not specified)
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.
-> There appears to already be a driver installed on your system (version: 1.0-
9755). As part of installing this driver (version: 100.14.19), the existing
driver will be uninstalled. Are you sure you want to continue? ('no' will a
bort installation) (Answer: Yes)
-> 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.
-> Performing CC sanity check with CC="cc".

Do you have gcc installed? It might fail if you don't have that. As you can see almost everything in mine says "not specified"

Yep, I definitely have gcc installed, both based on yast software management and also doing gcc -dumpversion which shows 4.1.2.

I tried three different commands to run the installer, working from simple, to 2nd try, to last ditch attempt:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8762-pkg1.run

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8762-pkg1.run -k 2.6.18.8-0.5-default --kernel-source-path /usr/src

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8762-pkg1.run -k 2.6.18.8-0.5-default --kernel-source-path /usr/src/linux-2.6.18.8-0.5

The log file I copied into my last reply was the result of the third.

I will now copy the log file that is the result of the first, since you say you never give it any parameters. However first I should mention that I've pretty much decided to return this video card and either exchange it for an ATI card or maybe just buy some different toy (errrrr, accessory) for my machine. I'll probably do that about Noon on Saturday so if you read this before then feel free to make any final suggestions. And thanks for trying! I know doing this remote control must be frustrating/annoying.

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Fri Sep 21 20:37:53 2007

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.
-> Performing CC test with CC="cc".
ERROR: Unable to determine the version of the kernel sources located in
'/lib/modules/2.6.18.8-0.5-default/source'. Please make sure you have
installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are
properly configured; 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' command line 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.

I see the problem. The driver you are using is very old! The newest version is 100.14.19. Please download that one and give it a try.

Thanks, cybertaz, that did it, as you suspected!

I now have smooth window movement and scrolling, good desktop resolution at 1280x1024, the OpenGL screen savers work, and the NvidiaCore temperature even shows up in my Kima kicker applet along with the fan speeds and motherboard temp sensors!

Once I downloaded and ran that up to date driver (without any options, as you said) it was a walk in the park, just kept saying OK. As you say I may need to do that again in the future, but it's not hard.

I think where I went wrong was avoiding the "recompile kernel" path of the instructions at the suse.de site because they said only the experienced should go down that path, and I knew I wasn't. Had I taken that path I would have used the .run file they mentioned which was almost current.

However the attempts I was making were based on a .run file I saw mentioned in posts in forums where people were trying to get things working...I must not have noticed how old the posts were (I guess).

Sorry for the trouble and thanks again for the help!!!

Have a nice weekend.

No problem. I should have asked what version you were using. I assumed that you had the latest one. That was my bad.

Glad everything is working for you. The only time that you should have to do that again is if you do a kernel update or patch.

FYI: use 'init 3' in the boot options on the grub menu and you will go right into a console. Sometimes on kernel patches the login screen won't even show up. Use the above to get to the console if that is the case.