Hi,

After reading many many threads, i am still none the wiser as to why i get this error message.

First, let me explain my systems.

System1) Slackware 12.0 full install. I have installed the NVIDIA (100.14.11) driver and everything works fine!

System2) Linux-Live version of System1 using the same kernel as System1 only differences are:
* reduced packages
* NVIDIA driver has not been installed
* linux-live enviroment

as system2 is a modulised enviroment, i was expecting to creating an nvidia module so that i can use system2 on a machine with an nvidia display driver. So, i ran a file search on System1 after installing the nvidia drivers and i made the module to include all the files that the nvidia installer created or modified. (why - so that system2 can be used on both nvidia and ati machines - ati driver to come later - as i believe the two drivers will not co-exist)

so when i run system2, it boots fine, the module has been inserted into the system fine. i can run
* # X -configure
* # nvidia-xconfig

all is okay.

but when i run # startx

i get:

(EE) Failed to load module "nvidia" (module does not exist, 0)

no other errors, but as you can imagine this one error is enough.

if i run
* # lsmod

i can see that nvidia is being used. So the module is there, and the system does know where it is.

from my research it seems that it is most likely due to symbollic links, but ive not found anyone list which one could be missing etc.

Your help would be greatly appreciated,

Thanks,

Andy

When I had this exact problem, it was because the kernel source tree I had (which the nvidia driver uses) wasn't the same as the kernel I had booted. If you're using kernel 2.6.15-28-386 but the nvidia module is in /lib/modules/2.6.15-23-386 then you'll run into this error.

Thanks oneandoneis2 for your reply,

i am booting the kerenl that was built with the files in /usr/src and the nvidia module was built using the same files too. They are all there in system2, but also still it does not work.

what i did to double check this, is i booted system1, and made a lzm module of usr/src/linux-2.6.20 and i put that into system2 modules section. as the usr/src/ that is on system2 has not been updated since the nvidia module was compiled.

i hope this makes sense. basically it did not solve my problem, but may be related

any other ideas anyone?

Hummm.... If you've got strace installed, you could try running "startx" through it. Redirect the output to a text file and then take a look at what it's doing when it tries to call nvidia - might give you some clue

What counts is what kernel was running when the nvidia module was built, since it was built using the header files for that kernel, and it was installed where that kernel can find it to load. If you're running a different kernel now than you were when you built the nvidia module, you'll have to rebuild the nvidia module and reinstall it.

The error message is telling you the xorg driver is missing not the kernel driver

I was hoping for a little help on this subject, even though the post is old. I am getting exactly the same messages in Xubuntu Onieric (11.10). I noticed while starting that the display manager is being started twice. The first time it says starting lightDM (OK). The second time it says (FAIL) and all I get is the command prompt. I assume it is cannot load the NVIDIA module since it is already open by the first instance of lightDM. Everything was fine before installing some updates. Being a noob-tard I am not sure which startup file to edit to delete the second instance. Any help would be greatly appreciated.