Hi Guys,

I have made a full install of Slack 13.37.0. When I try to run the installer of the NVIDIA GF 8400GS card (NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.29-pkg1.run) downloaded from nvidia.com, I receive an error message. It says that the kernel source cannot be indetified/found. /lib/modules/2.6.37.6-smp/source and .../build links to /usr/src/linux-2.6.37.6-smp, which contains the full kernel source (can be compiled), including the header .h files in include/linux. The same NVIDIA installer can be run successfully on my previous Slack 11. What is the problem, what do I do wrong?

Thx,
KEA.

The driver is too old for the 2.6.37.6 kernel, try with newer one, like NVIDIA-Linux-x86-275.21.run. Pick one from here.

1 members found this post helpful.

try doing "make prepare" on the kernel source, then run the installer...

cd /usr/src/linux
make prepare

You need to use the latest driver (as zeroberto mentioned), or at least one from the 27x.y series. You do not need to run 'make perpare' on the kernel source.

You can also try Slackbuilds.org.

2 members found this post helpful.

If you use the NVIDIA download tool on on their website, you should be able to find the correct driver. I did that and it worked perfectly. I needed version 275.21.

Before doing that, make sure you know which chipset you have, by running /sbin/lspci. Then go to the web page and follow the instructions.

Slackware 13.37 loads the Neauveau (sp?) driver for the NVIDIA chip I have (ION, on an Acer Revo 3610 with Slackware64). The installer will ask you if you want to disable it (answer "Yes"). Then you have to reboot in Runlevel 3 (can't be running X, and I didn't try "telinit 3" without rebooting so I don't know if that will work), then compile and install the driver.

The driver from NVIDIA works much better than the Neauveau driver. Video is much more responsive now.

1 members found this post helpful.

Hi Guys,

you were right. The latest NVIDIA driver can be build without problems. The error msg means that the structure of the kernel source was probably re-organized. Thank you.

ps.: I think I will downgrade from Slack 13.37 because X freezes, and which is worse, kernel cannot make eht0 work. It is an onboard Intel 1 Gbit, and works perfectly with kernel 2.6.24.5-smp. It doesn't work with the kernel built by me nor with factory-default hugesmp.

KEA.

Are you using Xscreensaver? If so, disable it. I had the same problem while running Xscreensaver on all my 64-bit machines, in Slackware, Ubuntu, and Mint - in other words, it's not a distro issue. No need to uninstall it if you are using the power-management functions, just disable the screensaver, log out, and log back in again. I haven't had any problems since.

I've not had any wired Ethernet problems with any version of Slackware - ever - and I go back to 7.1. Wireless, on the other hand... (and we have several threads on this problem already, so I won't go into it here).