The Readme does not help (kernel prob)

[Atealtha]

hi guys. I was reading the huge readme file, followed the instructions and got this

I "installed" the new nvidia drivers, configured my XFree86Config according to the readme. And it does not work.

so far my /var/log/XFree86.0.log shows this:

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal serer error:
no screens found



I'm using a GeForce4 MX 440
My monitor is a Samsung SynMaster 955DF (closest drivers shown when I try to configure in KDE is SyncMaster900)

well I looked closely at the readme, and nothing that they wrote helps me out. Any thoughts?

I'm using Gentoo Linux P4 2.0gHz.

Let me know, thanks

[Andy Mecham]

From the README:

Q: My X server fails to start, and my XFree86 log file contains the error:

"(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!"

A: Nothing will work if the NVIDIA kernel module doesn't function
properly. If you see anything in the X log file like "(EE)
NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!" then
there is most likely a problem with the NVIDIA kernel module.
First, you should verify that if you installed from rpm that
the rpm was built specifically for the kernel you are using.
You should also check that the module is loaded ('/sbin/lsmod');
if it is not loaded try loading it explicitly with 'insmod' or
'modprobe' (be sure to exit the X server before installing a new
kernel module). If you receive errors about unresolved symbols,
then the kernel module has most likely been built using header files
for a different kernel revision than what you are running. You can
explicitly control what kernel header files are used when building
the NVIDIA kernel module with the --kernel-include-dir option (see
`sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4349.run --advanced-options`
for details).

Please note that the convention for the location of kernel header
files changed approximately at the time of the 2.4.0 kernel release,
as did the location of kernel modules. If the kernel module fails to
load properly, modprobe/insmod may be trying to load an older kernel
module (assuming you've upgraded). cd'ing into the directory with
the new kernel module and doing 'insmod ./nvidia.o' may help.

Another cause may be that the /dev/nvidia* device files may be missing.

Finally, the NVIDIA kernel module may print error messages indicating
a problem -- to view these messages please check /var/log/messages, or
wherever syslog is directed to place kernel messages. These messages
are prepended with "NVRM".

Please read http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9614 and attach the information requested. Thanks!

--andy

[Atealtha]

Yes I did read the readme from the start. I can not attach log files, because I'm writing all this from my laptop.

Here's my info again:
GeForce4 MX 420
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4349
P4 2.0gHz (non OCed)
Whatever MoBo Dell Dimensions comes with
Gentoo 1.4 r2
video bios:

Model: GeForce4 MX 420
IRQ: 16
Video BIOS: ??.??.??.??.??
Card Type: AGP

/sbin/lsmod shows (pipes used for readabillity)

Module | Size | Used by | tainted: P
NVdriver | 1067008 | 0
8139too | 16264 | 1
sr_mod | 17432 | 0 (unused)
sg | 29036 | 0 (unused)
ide-scsi | 9360 | 0

and my xfree log again:

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal serer error:
no screens found


hope you can help me out, thanks

ok heres some info you might be interested in. Its from the nvidia-installer.log:

no precompiled interface: true

[Atealtha]

ok since it says "No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; would you like the installer to attempt to download a kernel interface blah blah blah from the NVIDIA ftp site (ftp://......)?

I choose yes, wait a little bit, then get this:

No matching precompiled kernel interface was found on the NVIDIA ftp site; this means that the installer will need to compile a kernel interface for your kernel

so I click ok, and everything goes on and it says that its now complete. But do I need to do someting different because of my precomppile kernel interface doowhacky is different? I chose the gentoo-sources kernel when I was installing, instead of the vanilla-sources kernel (the original)

[Andy Mecham]

NVdriver | 1067008 | 0

This is the incorrect driver module. Are you upgrading from 1.0-3123?

Can you type rmmod NVdriver
modprobe nvidiaand see if that works?

--andy

[Atealtha]

yes, it seems that when I type startx, the problem is now just my screen. no NVIDIA modules warnings were ound. but when I typed in reboot, then lsmod, NVdriver is loaded again. how do I make this permanent?

nm, its modules.autoload (duh)

heh thanks for your help