insmod nvidia FAILED

[jmz316]

The nvidia drivers installed with out problems, but when I try to " insmod nvidia " it gives errors and wont load. It mentions it might be caused by not having something called GPL or something similar. Im unable to use the driver without being able to load the module, please help.

My System Setup:

AMD XP 2100
512MB DDR
GeForce 3 Ti200 64MB w/TV out
Gentoo Linux
kernel 4.4.20
Newest XFree86 4. something.

[bwkaz]

The message referencing the GPL doesn't have anything to do with why it's failing. That's just a warning that the kernel developers won't act on any bugreports that were generated with your kernel, since they don't have access to all the source code.

After you do /sbin/modprobe nvidia, do an /sbin/lsmod and look for "nvidia" to be listed. If it isn't, then paste the *full* output of the /sbin/modprobe nvidia command.

[jmz316]

# modprobe nvidia

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.o: unresolved symbol _mmx_memcpy
/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.o:

Hint: You are trying to load a module without a GPL compatible license and it has unresolved symbols. Contact the module supplier for assistance, only they can help you.

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.o: failed

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/video/nvidia.o: insmod nvidia failed

[bwkaz]

When you ran the installer, were the kernel sources configured the same as they were when this kernel got built? (by "this" kernel, I mean 2.4.20-gentoo-r2)

It looks like /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r2/build was set up for an MMX processor, but the kernel you're running was built without that support.

Try to find Gentoo's 2.4.20-gentoo-r2 .config file, and see if you can use that. Alternatively, rebuild the Gentoo kernel (or a different version of it), reboot into the new kernel, and try the installer again (it'll recompile the kernel glue code).

[jmz316]

Switched to Slackware 9.0 and the drivers installed without any problems.

Thanks for all the help. If someone finds away to fix this problem in gentoo please post the fix. I might want to switch back to gentoo in the future.

[Andy Mecham]

Thanks for all the help. If someone finds away to fix this problem in gentoo please post the fix.You need to make sure that your kernel sources are configured to match your running kernel. Usually, that just means making sure you have the same kernel and kernel source packages.

--andy

[jmz316]

I switched back to gentoo, gentoo is easier to upgrade and keep updated. I only have the source from 1 kernel on the machine and I compiled the kernel from that source. I'm going to try again when I get to that point. What I dont understand is that when I used the same kernel in slackware, and it worked with out any trouble. I used all the same methodes to compile and install it.

Please keep sending any new suggestions you may have.

Thanks

[Soul-Crusher]

This is somewhat off-topic, but you may want to try to emerge gaming-sources to get Gentoo's gaming kernel. It's chock full of patches that optimize scheduling and latency for games and can make the user interface more responsive when the system is under heavy load.

Sounds like a kernel recompilation would do you good anyway.

[jmz316]

Thanks for informing me about the game-sources. Im a big gamer and sometimes I notice that linux has trouble playing highly demanding games. Is this a completely different kernel or is it just a specially configured version of the same everyday kernel. I use winex3 to run my large collection of windows games, since windows games are so easy to come by, but I can barely get any of the games to work. I usually get invalid windows size or something similar. I had GTA3 working in linux with winex3 1 time, and that was it, it never worked again, even after several reinstalls and a system wipe out. Too bad, because it seemed to play more smoothly in linux than in windows. I have tried several other games such as, "Mech3 and 4" plus "Messiah" and tons of other well know games. The only 2 that work almost all of the time are Starcraft and WarCraft 3, but the mouse pointer is off by almost a centimeter, so you have to indirectly click on your workers. I know this is off subject but if any one know why I get "Window size errors" please post a solution.

Thanks,

[Soul-Crusher]

Wine/WineX is always flaky with games, I don't think a new kernel is going to help you with that. However, native ports such as UT2003 and Neverwinter Nights may run faster. I've noticed a boost in my minimum framerate in UT2003, but YMMV.

Try doing as Andy suggested and getting emerge gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r2, and link or move the source tree to /usr/src/linux instead of 2.4.20-gentoo-r2. If that fails, a recompilation is likely in order. After your recompile, run the nVidia installer again and your problems should be solved.

[jmz316]

Thanks for all the Help everyone. I think it did envolve having the wrong kernel stuff. /boot wasnt mounting so it was using the wrong one. I mounted /boot and now it works.

Now that NVIDIA works I have another problem. I can get into X ok and the NVIDIA stuff works, and I can ALT + F1-F6 to get into another terminal, but when I try to ALT+F7 back into X while its running, the screen scambles and freezes, I cant even ALT+F1-F6. The only command that works is CTRL+ALT+DELETE, that properly executes a shutdown command, and at a certain point during the shutdown X closes and Im back at the terminal again but its too late to stop the shutdown. It happens everytime too. Is there anything that anyone can tell me about this problem. It only seems to happen with the machine using NVIDIA, so I think it might be NVIDIA related.

Thanks,