I have a dual boot XP and Mandarake 9.2 on a Dell 4100.
XP is on C and Mandrake on D.
I was initially satisfied (I'm a newbie) until I made the mistake of downloading the NVIDIA update on the XP side.
Initially I had no problems logging into XP or 9.2. I logged out of 9.2 into XP, then rebooted to 9.2 and can't get KDE:
EE Screens found, but none have a useable configuration.

I have been all over the place (Mandrake, NVIDIA, etc.,) looking for a way to get a driver that I can install.
FTP at the command line keeps giving me invalid command messages.

With only a terminal available (command line), how can I retrieve from someplace a driver I can in install. I even tried to uninstall the NVIDIA update I installed in XP, but was afraid I would loose that display also.

I have the new 9.2 book open, Complete Reference (Linux), spent hours searching Google on how to make FTP work, can't get the file from NVIDIA.

Just a little help, someone?

John

first of all, do you have the kernel source installed, if not use you update to get it. Then go to nvidia, get driver 4499 or 4496 (something like that) not newest one, problematic

edit inittab to no x

reboot

run sh nividia driver file from where you copied it

edit xf86config (or xf86config-4 file) ( no familiarity with mandrake)

uncomment "load glx"

edit driver from "nv" to "nvidia"

edit inittab to X

reboot

Should work

When I reboot and select the step-by-step install, I have 2 FAILED indicators:
1. Loading sound module - "Can't locate module CS46xx"
2. Starting X Font Server - "Mounting other filesystems: Mount: fs type supermount not supported by kernel"

At the command line [root@localhost doc]# I entered 'ls *N*' and got:
NVIDIA_GLX-4496:
GL/ LICENSE NVIDIDA_Changelog README README.DE XF86Config.sample
and
NVIDIA_kernel-2.4.22.10mdk-4496: LICENSE README

So I concluded I must have '4496'. right? or wrong?

I can't figure out how to find out what kernel version is-installed.

I did go to the NVIDIA site (via XP on another PC) and found 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1_0-4496-pkg2_run'. It is 7.84MB.
How do I get that file installed from the command line in my Linux P?

I started investigating FTP to see how I would use that tool if I knew where to go to get that NVIDIA driver and the appropriate kernel, if I needed it, but I need a lot of time to understand FTP.

Just so you know I am not trying this on the fly, I have 3 books open now.

So, I need to know what kernel I have and how to get that NVIDIA Driver
installed.

John

1. I think I know I have 'kernel-2.4.22-10mdk.i586', but don't know how to prove it
2.

uname -r

That will give you your current kernel

w3m

You might have that web based browser installed. If you do, you can download everything / browse any web page, directly from console.

Good luck.

XFree86 installs support all NVIDIA drivers with the default nv driver. You claim you are pretty new to Linux, so my question is, what makes you think it is the drivers?

Having X configured to use XFS and XFS can't start could cause problems with X.

If you just installed Linux, and it worked fine at first, you could just install it again. You could also uninstall and reinstall XFree86, or do a forced install of it to make it overwrite any changes made. Since you are new to it, probably the fastest thing for you to do is reinstall instead of trying to fix something that you are new to.

I took the advice of rtaft and re-installed - success and, thank you. I got that temporary nvidia display, like I get with XP.
Also a thanks to Jose Muniz for that command. I would have never found it with a month off from work.

What started this search for a driver was after a reboot from XP to Linux. Igot an error message that read like this:
NV could not open control device /dev/nvidiactl (no such file or directory)
EE NVIDIA (0): failed to initialize the NVIDIA Kernel module
EE NVIDIA (0): aborting
EE Screen(s) found, but none have a useable configuration

That, and a whole buch of traffic at Mandrake, etc., about problems with NVIDIA drivers, led me in that direction.

Wonder what happened, but I'll never know.

The re-install made me aware of something I missed: sound card mis-identified. I have a Santa Cruz WDM and the install says I have a Cirrus Logic\CS4614/22/24. One reboot exercise told me that the CS46xx driver can't be located. I wonder how to change that, if necessary. I have had problems running XMMS, connecting it to radio internet.

I still haven't figured out where to go to read about how to check out how to FTP.

But Linux is back for me.

Thanks