NVIDIA drivers won't install...

[Dnzauker]

Hello everybody

I'm just new at Linux, but I followed the advice of a friend and went for installation of the NVidia drivers from .tar files.

The distro is a RH 7.3, i followed the instructions in the README to the word, but when I rebooted the bos the X server won't start, saying "unable to initialize blah blah"

if I tried a "modprobe nvidia" it said that the module did not exist.

Before someone asks I remembered to edit the Config_4 file :)

Can someone help me please?

Thanks for your attention

[ian]

Save yourself the heartache and install from the RPMs. It has worked for me on several occaisions without a hitch.

Ian.

[Dnzauker]

I'll try that, next
I went straight to the .tars because some friends of mine told me that the .rpms often didn't work

[bwkaz]

Actually, you may not have to. Try "modprobe NVdriver" instead of nvidia, and see if that helps ;)

[Dnzauker]

I tried modprobe NVdriver. the driver in effects loads after that, but the X server won't start anyway.

So i got the .rpms and installed them. no problem everything installed properly or so it seemed.

unfortunately I had the same problem on reboot. no X.

The log file says "can't load module NVdriver. can't locate module" or something like that.

NVdriver IS in /lib/modules/(etc etc)/video, so I don't know why is this.

Where is that the system makes the connection between the module name "nvidia" I put in the XConfig file and the real file name "NVdriver"? Could it be that the system someway thinks that the module is in a different location? Or is that message a "catch-all" error?

Hope someone can help me!!

Just another question I was abuot to forget: when I compiled the drivers self-handedly, should I put myself the newly compilde NVdriver in /lib/modules/(blah blah)/video or was it done automatically by "make install"?

thx

[tedkaz]

Make sure you have made the config changes to
the XF86Config-4 file. It would also be helpful if you could paste the errors you are getting. In /var/log their are log files for almost everything.

If you are learning Redhat try to stick with rpm's and not use source. Rpm's ain't perfect but they don't have a chance if you compile everything from source.

Below are the configs specific to nvidia.

EndSection

Section "Module"
# Load "GLcore"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
# Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection


Section "Device"
# no known options
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"

#BusID
EndSection




#Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
#EndSection

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Dnzauker
Just another question I was abuot to forget: when I compiled the drivers self-handedly, should I put myself the newly compilde NVdriver in /lib/modules/(blah blah)/video or was it done automatically by "make install"?It should have been done for you by make install.

The "module name" "nvidia" that you use in XF86Config-4 isn't really a module name, it's a driver name. If you look in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers, there's an "nvidia_drv.o" file. This is what Driver "nvidia" is referencing. The actual kernel module that gets loaded, though, is called NVdriver. This isn't, BTW, coded into nvidia_drv.o, either. You have to either have it loading on every boot, or make changes to /etc/modules.conf so that it gets loaded when nvidia_drv.o tries to access it ("alias char-major-195 NVdriver" or "alias /dev/nvidia* NVdriver" should work, depending on whether you have devfs running or not).