I really want to use Slackware 8, but...

[Wheaty]

Well, I was able to get Slack 8 last night, burn it to a CD, and install it over my RH7.1 partition. The installation went as smooth as silk. I chose to install the 2.4.5 Kernel & 2.4.5 Kernel Source only. I set up XF86 4.1.0 and everything is looking good so far, until I notice I have no sound. Major Problem #1. I then attempt to compile the latest NVidia drivers. No go. When I attempt to compile the NVidia_kernel portion of it, the compile gives me an 'error 255'. Something about dsmod not being able to find a proper module or something. Major Problem #2.

Well, it's not so bad, only 2 major problems, but I have been racking my brain over them, especially the NVidia compilation error. I have tried to recompile the kernel, but that just screws me up even more. Can anyone offer some assistance? :confused:

[Danger Fan]

For the sound problem, there's a file, i believe located in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules file (i think that's the name of it). go through that file, and find your sound card. then just uncomment the line after the name of the sound card, and you should be all set.

later,
danger

ps. you can also find lots of other cool stuff in there, like nic card drivers

[Wheaty]

Alright, here's the exact error I get when trying to compile the NVidia drivers (v1251's):

depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver
/lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver: unresolved symbol __global_cli
/lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver: unresolved symbol tqueue_lock
/lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver: unresolved symbol __global_save_flags
/lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver: unresolved symbol __global_restore_flags
/lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/video/NVdriver failed
make *** [package_install] Error 255

Could it be that they are incompatible with the 2.4.5 kernel? I find it hard to believe....

[Bernd]

That's odd, I never had problems to compile the nvidia drivers, could you post the exact error messages?

And please look in your /usr/src directory if the link "linux" really point to the 2.4.5 kernel. Using autoslack to update to slack-current this was always redirected to a 2.2.x kernel.

And why are you not able to compile your kernel? As far as I remember the nvidia drivers need a kernel source tree in which a kernel was compiled at least once (perhaps a "make dep" is sufficient; but I'm not sure about it at all).
Please give more details what's going wrong with kernel compiling.

Btw, when you are compiling the new kernel, you could add your soundcard support there and would not need to care about modules any longer (if your soundcard is supported by the kernel).

If your soundcard is not supported by the kernel, then have a look at http://www.alsa-project.org

Bernd

[Bernd]

O.k., we where writing a the same time, but you have been a little bit quicker than me :)

It's definetely not a problem with the 2.4.5 kernel since I'm also using this one with the nvidia drivers.

Do you have already run a "depmod -a "before trying to compile the nvidia kernel ?

Bernd

[Wheaty]

Originally posted by Bernd:
<STRONG>O.k., we where writing a the same time, but you have been a little bit quicker than me :)

It's definetely not a problem with the 2.4.5 kernel since I'm also using this one with the nvidia drivers.

Do you have already run a "depmod -a "before trying to compile the nvidia kernel ?

Bernd</STRONG>
Well, I tried doing a "depmod -a" a few seconds ago before trying to compile, and I still get the exact same error. I did get sound working by checking out the rc.modules file. Still, this NVidia driver thing is starting to really bug me :mad:

Regarding the kernel compiling, I AM able to compile a kernel, it's just that I usually end up breaking more things (ie. all the settings I have to go through :D) than fixing.

I just tried the "make dep" only theory, and I think I broke my source tree. I suppose I will have to recompile now :)

[ 02 July 2001: Message edited by: Wheaty ]

[Wheaty]

I was just thinking... maybe the 2.4.5 source that comes on the Slack 8 CD is not the "correct" source? Perhaps if I download the kernel source off of kernel.org, it would work? Gah... I'm just reaching blindly now :eek:

[Bernd]

Hmm, I'm getting out of ideas. For the "make dep" you will need a .config file in your kernel tree, of course.

I'm not sure if downloading a kernel from kernel.org will help, since slackware is one of the distributors which uses unpatched linus kernels.
Perhaps a "make mrproper" and "make clean" is sufficient.

I have only one idea, I send you my kernel .config file, you compile and use this kernel and then you try to compile the nvidia drivers again.
If our hardware is not completely different this should work.
Please contact me via e-mail if you want to try this procedure (see my profile for my e-mail address).

Bernd

[Wheaty]

Well, I recompiled my kernel (still 2.4.5) and now I get this message:

depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/microcode.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/gamma.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/i810.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/mga.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/r128.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/raedon.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/char/drm/tdfx.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/net/wan/comx.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/video/matrox/matroxfb_base.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/video/matrox/matroxfb_crtc2.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/video/matrox/matroxfb_g450.o
depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.5/kernel/drivers/video/matrox/matroxfb_maven.o
NVdriver installed successfully.

Well, despite what it says, NVdriver is NOT installed successfully (dosn't work in X). This is totally wierd. Why would stuff like matrox, raedon etc matter to an NVidia card? Sigh... :(

Maybe I'll check out Debian or something. It's a shame, because Slack was looking pretty damn good... :(

[ 02 July 2001: Message edited by: Wheaty ]

[Bernd]

Well, this time the unresoved symbols result from kernel modules of your old kernel (probably you havn't compiled DRI support into your new kernel, what is right since nvidia's driver doesn't use it). The same thing would also happen with Debian, it's really NOT the fault of slackware. The make script of the nvidia driver runs itself a "depmod -a" and then the unresolved symbols are reported.
If you do not want/need to use the old kernel with it's modules any longer you could delete the hole /lib/modules/2.4.5 directory, but you should run make modules_install from your kernel source directory again.

Why doesnt't the NVIDIA driver work this time?
Please run a lsmod and see if the module is loaded.
Do you have changed the driver from "nv" to "nvidia" in your XF86Config?

Bernd

[Wheaty]

Well, it has to be the precompiled kernel that comes with Slack 8 that is causing this problem. I guess I just need to figure out what 'option' is causing this when I recompile. Arghh...

[Wheaty]

Aha! Eureka! Got it working!

The main thing that was stopping this compile was one line in the '/usr/src/linux/include/linux/autoconf.h' file. I had to change
'#define CONFIG_SMP 1'
to
'#undef CONFIG_SMP'

Now everything works great :cool:

[ 02 July 2001: Message edited by: Wheaty ]