NVIDIA & Debian" Desperatly asking for help"

[user_deleted]

Am desperatly struggling to install my Nvidia graphics card on Debian serge,

Guys have mentioned different solutions to me I thank them one by one,
However in each approach Am facing a different error as follow:

Using official Installer from Nvidia:

No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel . . .

As an other thread here knecht advised me to make a new kernel

" you get a list of available kernel-sources, choose the right one . . . ."

I am nost sure what is the right one , however there are:

kernel source 2.6.8
kernel patch 2.6.8

I got the source,
Extracted it ,
made a link
copied the standard configuration
made the kernel

At this point am not sure at all what are the setings, basically accepted them as default ones.

Hmmm , Well nothing is changed, Still am where I was.

Module assistant solution :

The only thing in module assitant that is about nvidia is nvidia kernel which at the end gets to

" installation of nvidia kernel source failed ""

When I search manually for Nvidia kernels I get nvidia-kernel-2.4.27-1-386

but when I ask to install it I get to

nvidia ke.... .... .. . DEPENDS: Nvidia-kernel-common , But it is not installable.

The final question is after I make a new kernel ( 2.6.8 ) isn't it supposed to show this version when I use ( uname -r ) I am still getting the old one.

Any type of help and suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks

[geoffcrowther]

okay:

1. just to remind you, on debian:

THOU SHALT NOT RECOMPILE THE [censored] KERNEL.

the debian kernel is almost entirely MODULAR. you don't need to build [censored] on this distro. the kernel will just install whatever modules it needs to for the hardware, in most common configurations.

some people do custom kernel builds, there are situations where the kernel really needs to be customized and thats fine.

but the point of using debian is to not haveto really do any compiling at all.

some of your comments indicate you are expecting that, i'm just trying to head this off at the pass.

1. the problem with the NVIDIA drivers is that they aren't open so they can't really be prepackaged, or it's too much trouble to do so. you have two options:

a) use the debian way to compile the module, install it, then install glx, then change 'nv' to 'nvidia' in your x config file ( and a few other things), then restart x

note: as per previous post, the glx package has been bumped from sarge repositores to unstable repositories because of a bug and will drop back to sarge when it's remedied. for right now you can't really install nvidia kernels the debian way. that may change in a week or so however.

use the nvidia installer which basically downloads the latest nvidia source, compiles the module for you, and installs it, then you haveto change 'nv' to 'nvidia' in your x config (and a few other things) file and restart x.

to build the nvidia kernel, you need the kernel source. you got the right one listed there.

remember you are only installing a kernel module, you are not compiling and installing a kernel it self, so uname -r is showing you the correct information.

knecht .. are you familiar with the nvidia installer in depth? i avoid that thing like the plague. basically this takes some practice, and the process is exactly the same on all distros, using their installer.

[knecht]

it important do have the same kernel-source version installed as your running kernel is. It have do be configured (cp /boot/config-2.6.xx /usr/src/) and the linux link ha do be set.
then you need the nvidia driver install package, and stop your x-server.

then you have to answer mainly yes, the driver will then build from the source.
then make
modprobe nvidia

and lsmod should show "nvdidia" somewhere

then add a line with

nvidida

in /etc/modules (that the driver module is loaded at boottime)

that you have to change your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (this is disussed in some other threads)

does that work ? or on which step you have problems ?

[user_deleted]

I did what you have explained here,

Basically based an other post from you I used 2.6 for search and I got kernel 2.6.8 while my kernel is 2.4.27, How ever the other day when I made the kernel there were a lots of question and I answerd them all as defaults.

However now when I downloaded the source for my kernel 2.4.27 and I make it, When I try to install the Nvidia installer I get the message:

" Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.o'
this is most likely because the kernel module
was built using the wront kernel . . . . "

I think the fact that I once used 2.6.8 on a machine which had 2.4.27 had raised aproblem .

Do you beleive a new installation of debian will help, In fact I am interested to install it through sarge CD
to see how it goes ( Of course when the download is finished, It goes bloody slow )

The other issue is when I search for Nvidia I get many links including

nvidia-kernel-2.4.27-1-386 which is what I need, However trying to install it I get either of these errors:

Can't find the moduel Nvi.. . . .

OR

nvidia-kernel-2.4.27-1-386: Depends: nvidia-kernel-common (>= 1.0.6629) but it is not installable

Any way as I said in the other post, Am not much concerened about the driver, I mean not as much as I am bout the missing libraries.

Best regards for all the kind help

[geoffcrowther]

** snip **
Basically based an other post from you I used 2.6 for search and I got kernel 2.6.8 while my kernel is 2.4.27, How ever the other day when I made the kernel there were a lots of question and I answerd them all as defaults.
** snip **

so you don't have sarege installed, you have woody installed. this is the part that ticked me off originally. you need to upgrade to sarge and your kernel. on debian you don't need to build your kernel.

what is ticking me off is that all these questions are as a result of you not following instructions.

okay do the following and post replies cleanly please:

1. uname -r ... what kernel do you have installed now?

2. open up your /etc/apt/sources.list file and post a few lines here. i want to see what you are actually running.

3. if you are running woody we will help you upgrade to sarge.

4. to install a new kernel in debian you usually don't build your own kernel, you just do apt-get install kernel-version. when you upgrade to sarge, the kernel will be automatically updated.

please stop bouncing around doing what you want and pleaase follow instructions.

[user_deleted]

1- uname -r = 2.4.27-1-386

2- etcaptsource.list=

#deb file:///cdrom/ sarge main
deb http://people.debian.org/~rdonald/nvidia modules-unstable/i386/
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main
deb http://security.debian.org/ testing/updates main
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main

"""""""""""""""""
3- !!!!!
4- !!!!

Guys I am really appreciating what you did and are doing to help me sort this, but irrelevantly am not really happy
being blamed for none instruction following, These are the steps I have gone through

Downladed sarge net ins ( 110 mb ) from the link on the other post.
Installation of the basic OS.
Going through ftp installation method.

If it is still woody am really off of this trial and error.
Don't like to carry on any more, since the very initial idea was to have an stable, easy to use OS.
this is becoming a course of operating system managment .

Thanks

[knecht]

like i see it here, you don't use woody, thats sarge
(because of the testing/sarge after the sources)

You don't need that line
deb http://people.debian.org/~rdonald/nvidiahttp://people.debian.org/~rdonald/nvidia modules-unstable/i386/
(and i wonder of the messages you got when installing the driver . . thats for unstable flavour of debian, thats like you want to install a RH7 rpm on a Fedora Core3)

download the nvidia driver here !!!!!
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_1.0-7167.htmlhttp://www.nvidia.com/object/linux\_display...2\_1.0-7167.html

you also don't need that lines:
deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main
deb-src http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ testing main
(there are just kernels, no software, and the entries are double)

You just need:
deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/ sarge main
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian sarge main
(with them you get all software and the kernel-source you need, too)

after doing that make a
apt-get update

when you have installed kernel 2.4.27, you need kernel-source-2.4.27 !
Or you upgrade your kernel by installing a newer kernel image
(do a
apt-cache search kernel-image-2.6
and install the kernel you want)
If you have then i.e. a kernel 2.6.8, you need a kernel-source with the same revision 2.6.8 !!

Be that as it may, you need the same kernel-source Version installed as your kernel you run is !!!

[mhornsby]

I have gone thru the Nvidia-Debian hell several times, and because I can see you are hurting, here is a small guide of how it worked for me:

As root:

#uname -r

this will give you the version of the kernel you are using. For this post purposes we will say it is 2.6.10-1-686

now you go and get those packages you are going to need:

#apt-get install kernel-headers-2.6.10-1-686

remember to replace the 2.6.10-1-686 with your own kernel version

you also need the Nvidia kernel source:

#apt-get install nvidia-kernel-source

And make sure you also get Module-Assistant

#apt-get install module-assistant

Now the fun part, module assistant does all the hard work for you:

#module-assistant auto-install nvidia

Install the nVidia user-space libraries:

#apt-get install nvidia-glx

Now you have to edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4:

In the "Module" section, make sure that you have a line that says:

Load "glx"

Comment out any lines that refer to the "dri" or "GLCore" modules. (put a '#' in front of them)

Replace:

Driver "nv" or Driver "vga"
with
Driver "nvidia"

reboot your system. and you are done...

[knecht]

Very good, think that will helps a lot !

My problem by helping on NVIDIA problems is that i never experienced any problens on my own . . .