nforce2 driver issue with new kernel
 

i compiled the 2.4.22 kernel, and everything was great except no network. so i reinstalled the nvidia drivers, but got an error message saying something about the drivers were compiled for 2.4.20 (my previous kernel) and wouldn't work. sorry i don't remember the exact message b/c i've since had to go back to 2.4.20 to get everything stabilized. i would also get about 4 screens of insmod errors while booting, though, if that tells you anything. :p

but my question is does that have something to do with the drivers themselves (e.g., they don't work past 2.420), or did i need to "make uninstall" the drivers first before installing them again for the new kernel version? anyone with nforce2 onboard lan and 2.4.22 kernel or later? i would just like to know b4 trying to recompile 2.4.22 again, thx. :)

ok here's what i did to get the nvnet drivers installed

go to www.nvidia.com and download this file

"NVIDIA_nforce-1.0-0261tar.gz" yes its the one you compile yourself.

once downloaded make yourself root, then
"tar xvfz NVIDIA_nforce-1.0-0261tar.gz"

then "cd /nforce/nvnet"
then "make"
then "make Install"
then "insmod nvnet"
and after that type "dhcpcd" at the command line to retrieve a ip address from your DHCP Server

and you should be surfing the www

when you compiled your new kernel, did you do a "make clean"

yes i did make clean. and all the other steps except the dhcpcd. maybe that was it, thanks. :) (actually, i should say i compiled the drivers from the nforce directory, not the nvnet directory, b/c i had trouble b4 from not installing all of them. thx)

edit, come to think of it, the dhcpcd shouldn't matter to the error i was getting. maybe the drivers need a path to the kernel source to install correctly. i'm going to scour the install file and see if i missed anything. thx. :)

I overcame the same problem after kernel upgrade, but I don't really understand why it works. The nforce2 platform drivers require the same version of the kernel in source as the currently running kernel. I read here: http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/.../msg01484.html that the drivers rely on the modversions.h file found in kernel headers. I made sure source and header files matched my current kernel (2.4.22). I went back to the nforce directory and did "make" and "make install", but when I tried to do "insmod nvnet", I received the kernel mismatch error. What I found that work was "make uninstall" from the nforce directory. I made sure nvnet.o and nvaudio.o were gone from /lib/modules/2.4.22/kernel/drivers/. Then I removed the nforce directory. I unpacked the "NVIDIA_nforce*.tgz" file to re-create the directory and did "make" and "make install" again. That time it worked.

Maybe someone who knows "make" better can explain why removing the directory and recreating it allowed it to compile correctly, but it is important to make sure the source kernel and headers match the new kernel.