NVidia installer makes problems...

[Firestorm]

Now that nvidia stopped distributing the source or rpms and now has some all-in-one installer I've got problems to install the driver.
First of all it could not find a precompiled kernel image, could not download any from ftp and finally can't build one. Look at my last error log:

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Fri Feb 6 15:37:58 2004

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 : false
no questions : false
silent : false
XFree86 install prefix : /usr/X11R6
OpenGL install prefix : /usr
Installer install prefix: /usr
kernel source path : (not specified)
kernel install path : (not specified)
proc mount point : /proc
ui : (not specified)
tmpdir : /tmp
ftp site : ftp://download.nvidia.com

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: No)
-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; this means
that the installer will need to compile a new kernel interface.
-> Kernel source path: '/lib/modules/2.4.22/build'
-> Performing cc_version_check with CC="cc".
ERROR: Unable to determine the NVIDIA kernel module filename.
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 to do?
Or, in other words, how "to determine the NVIDIA kernel module filename."?

[JamminJoeyB]

Ahhhh the joy of 3d acceleration.

How about a distro?

Are your kernel headers/sources on your system?

Are you doing this as root?

Are you doing this in single user mode (init1) as suggested by the readme.

Is X running? Can't install this if x is running.

[Firestorm]

Ahhhh the joy of 3d acceleration.
-yepp!

How about a distro?
slackware9

Are your kernel headers/sources on your system?
-extracted the bz2 after the nvidia installer told me that it could not find the linux source. As you can see, now it can!

Are you doing this as root?
Y-E-S (I used su command, though)

Are you doing this in single user mode (init1) as suggested by the readme.
-Hm, I know I run the installer in tty1 but I had logged on to tty2 also I think (for man page reading and stuff)

Is X running? Can't install this if x is running.
-lol, of course it is NOT running

[JamminJoeyB]

I run slack9.1 at the house. I'll check my nvidia log file and compare it to yours to see if I can figure out why it's failing.

BTW are you installing the latest drivers? I'm still running the 4496 as they have given me good performance.

[niales]

quote
-----------------------------------------------------------
Are your kernel headers/sources on your system?
-extracted the bz2 after the nvidia installer told me that it could not find the linux source. As you can see, now it can!
-----------------------------------------------------------

You need the configured source of the kernel that's running. Since I believe slack uses gzip instead of bzip2 I think you have a generic kernel source, and not the one used to compile your kernel, (This assumes you didn't compile it yourself). If you haven't touched the kernel then get the source off the cd, otherwise make sure the it's ready to compile (2.4.xx series use 'make dep').

hope this helps.

-Niales

[Firestorm]

Since I believe slack uses gzip instead of bzip2
--wrong belief, stop believing and take a look on CD#3 (source CD)

This assumes you didn't compile it yourself
--I have not compiled the kernel source

If you haven't touched the kernel then get the source off the cd
--That is what I have done

You need the configured source of the kernel that's running.
--So you mean I need to go to the source directory and run ./configure, before I install the NVidia driver???

[Firestorm]

Please do not stone me, but I worked it out and it was just too easy: instead of extracting and installing the source from slackware9-CD3 I had to install a package from the CD1 and everything went just fine with the latest installer!

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Firestorm
Please do not stone me, but I worked it out and it was just too easy: instead of extracting and installing the source from slackware9-CD3 I had to install a package from the CD1 and everything went just fine with the latest installer!

Just in case another Slack/Nvidia user reads this thread, what package is that? kernel-source ??

[JusKickNit]

Just clear some thing's up. The kernel-source package is under "k" on the first cd. The third cd is a source cd and contains the kernel.org .tar.bz2. The reason for the error was because the third cd one. Has not had make dep,make bzImage,etc... done yet. Just so the original poster know's you'll proble never need cd3 and cd4 they are source cd's. And contain the original source for cd1 and cd2.

[Firestorm]

JusKickNit, I understand it now, thanks!

mdwatts,
it is on CD #1

PACKAGE NAME: kernel-source-2.4.22-noarch-3.tgz
PACKAGE LOCATION: ./slackware/k
PACKAGE SIZE (compressed): 37011 K
PACKAGE SIZE (uncompressed): 165840 K
PACKAGE DESCRIPTION:
kernel-source: kernel-source (Linux kernel source)
kernel-source:
kernel-source: Source code for Linus Torvalds' Linux kernel.
kernel-source:
kernel-source: This is the complete and unmodified source code for the Linux kernel.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by Firestorm

mdwatts,
it is on CD #1

So you are referring to the kernel-source package.

Anytime you compile hardware drivers, you need the kernel-source package that was used to build your current running kernel version.

Not a clean kernel source, but the one that was used to compile your kernel.