Red Hat null(limbo beta 3), guide to install Nvidia Drivers

[utiel]

Simply, but I think that can HELP to somebody:

I installed my Red Hat null, with Desktop option.

This option, doesn't install utils for development, and if We need some tools to compiling , we need to install them.

First, We download Nvidia packages, in src.rpm format

NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.src.rpm NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm

then, we install some packages, if we didn't install them before.

rpm -i rpm-build-4.1-0.81.i386.rpm
rpm -i gcc-3.2-1.i386.rpm
rpm -i binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2.i386.rpm
rpm -i glibc-devel-2.2.90-24.i386.rpm
rpm -i glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.20.i386.rpm
rpm -i kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm

There are some RPM's we need install together.

rpm -i gcc-3.2-1.i386.rpm binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2.i386.rpm glibc-devel-2.2.90-24.i386.rpm glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.20.i386.rpm

All at the same time.

With this tools, we are capable to compile Nvidia drivers.

copy Nvidia packages in /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS

from that directory, we make:

rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm

now, our binaries RPMS, are in
/usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386

and we install them with

rpm -i NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.i386.rpm

Make some checks:

/etc/modules.conf must contain this line:
alias char-major-195 NVdriver

Nvidia Driver is installed
/sbin/modprobe NVdriver ( if it was loaded as module)

cat /proc/modules | grep NV

/home/uti# cat /proc/modules | grep NV
NVdriver 1149248 10


Finally, we edit /etc/X11/XF86Config

In Section "Module"
add Load "glx"
remove Load "GLcore"
remove Load "dri"

In Section "Device"
change Driver "nv"
to Driver "nvidia"

Check my File, as an example:
XF86Config (http://perso.wanadoo.es/autiel/XF86Config)

I think this is all.

try your system with startx ( if you are in runlevel 3) or go to level 1, and then level 3 or 5
~# init 1

and from init 1, write exit ( to default level )
or init 3, to test your new driver


Good Luck

[Matthyahuw]

Thanks utiel, I took those directions you PM'd me a few days ago for this very issue, and it worked great!

I can't thank you enough, my first successful install of the nVidia drivers! And to celebrate, I played the UT2003 demo!
Works better than WinXP! :D THANKS!

[theroice]

My friend, I cannot thank you enough for this walkthrough. I have spent all of 3 days trying to get X to run without flashing crap all over my screen. I've been to hell and back searching for drivers, compiling, etc, and I'm a white-knuckled newbie at all of it. Turns out several header files were missing since Redhat doesn't install kernel-source.*.rpm even when choosing the devpacks install option. No more unresolved symbols, no missing headers, just the welcome look of Gnome on my little laptop.

Now, the learning curve doesn't look so steep :D

Thanks again.
--roice

[utiel]

I am very happy to receive your thanks.

This guide, I supose it works for every distribution that uses RPM's, but I did it for RedHat null, which I installed in VMware. I needed install a fresh copy ;)

I am thankful your Thanks.

I hope help more people

Note my bad english :_(


Angel

[cyko]

I'm new to linux, but have used FreeBSD for quite some time now. I'm currently running Red Hat 7.3 with kernel 2.4.19.

I followed your instructions exactly as you have said, but I continue to get:
error: failed dependencies:
XFree86 >= 4.0.1 is needed by NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123

Now upon doing a version query of X, i get:

XFree86 Version 4.2.1 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)
Release Date: 3 September 2002
If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is
newer than the above date, look for a newer version before
reporting problems. (See http://www.XFree86.Org/)
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.19 i686 [ELF]
Module Loader present

I had X4 working before I tried installing these drivers. What can I do to resolve this?

Thank you for your time.

[rmkarp]

Thanks very much for this information. Got a new Dell Dimension 8200 with an nVidia Geforce 4 TI4600 and although with RedHat 7.2 I was able to install the rpm kernel and GLX modules and get it running, this did not work with Redhat 7.3.

However, your list of packages that are needed was extremely helpful in 'making' the tar files I downloaded, and I am now up and running.

So once again, thanks very much.

Best Regards
Robin

[utiel]

Originally posted by cyko
I'm new to linux, but have used FreeBSD for quite some time now. I'm currently running Red Hat 7.3 with kernel 2.4.19.

I followed your instructions exactly as you have said, but I continue to get:
error: failed dependencies:
XFree86 >= 4.0.1 is needed by NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123
I had X4 working before I tried installing these drivers. What can I do to resolve this?

Thank you for your time.

Well, I think your X are installed( but 4.2.1.. is installed by you, not from RPM,i supose).

check with:

rpm -qa | grep XFree

This give you a list of rpm's installed that contain Xfree


you can "force" nvidia drivers to install

If you had a previous Nvidia drivers installed
rpm -qa | grep NV

I recommend you uninstall them:

rpm -e NVIDIA_GLX NVIDIA_kernel


and install it
rpm -i NV* --nodeps

if this doesn't work
force it
rpm -i NV* --nodeps --force

If you install a package from sources, RPM dabatabase is not actualized, and you can have XFree 4.2.1 and RPM's database say you only have Xfree 4.0

If you installed from RPMS, rebuild your database

rpm --rebuilddb ( I supose is this option, check rpm --help or info rpm )

[morian97]

sorry for partly crospposting, but my current question seems to link really well to this thread:

System: kernel 2.4.18-7.80, redhat (limbo), Visiontek G4 Ti4600


If I follow instructions outlined above for limbo: GLX rpm rebuilds fine; but nvidia_kernel does not: error: install: cannot stat `NVdriver': No such file or directory
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.69387 (%install)
RPM build errors:
user buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
user buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.69387 (%install)

what might be the problem?
thanks
m
working fifth day on fixing the driver, i'm blind from flickering soon;-)

[utiel]

Originally posted by morian97
sorry for partly crospposting, but my current question seems to link really well to this thread:

System: kernel 2.4.18-7.80, redhat (limbo), Visiontek G4 Ti4600


If I follow instructions outlined above for limbo: GLX rpm rebuilds fine; but nvidia_kernel does not: error: install: cannot stat `NVdriver': No such file or directory
error: Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.69387 (%install)
RPM build errors:
user buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
user buildmeister does not exist - using root
group buildmeister does not exist - using root
Bad exit status from /var/tmp/rpm-tmp.69387 (%install)

what might be the problem?
thanks
m
working fifth day on fixing the driver, i'm blind from flickering soon;-)

Have you selected all packages which I said?
Num-versions not correspond to Limbo(beta1), but install closest, they are in 1st disk.
rpm-build-4.1-0.81.i386.rpm
gcc-3.2-1.i386.rpm
binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2.i386.rpm
glibc-devel-2.2.90-24.i386.rpm
glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.20.i386.rpm
kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm

check them with
rpm -aq | grep rpm-build
rpm -qa | grep gcc
etc.

I remember a problem, If I didn't install kernel-source, and it dependences, Nvidia-kernel doesn't compile, but GLX does.
rpm -qa | grep kernel
and check kernel-source

If this error persists, do rpmbuid --rebuild NVIDIA_kernel*.rpm from a console, and post it, perhaps I can find the problem

Your error, is why nvidia.c ( nv.c) can't be compiled, source-problem (headers, missed files ), or gcc isn't installed well.


Above error is normal. There is no buildmeister user/group in your system, and then is assigned to root

user buildmeister does not exist - using root

[morian97]

I will work on it tonight, I'm at work right now:-(

I was thinking that i installed ALL these backages, but not exact same version numbers -> i installed from iso CDs from which i installed also redhat -limbo. i was thinking that would be right thing to do in my case...

rpm-build-4.1-0.81.i386.rpm i have: 4.1-0.5.7
gcc-3.2-1.i386.rpm i have 3.2-0.1
binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2.i386.rpm i have 2.12.90.0.15-1
glibc-devel-2.2.90-24.i386.rpm i have 2.2.90-17
glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.20.i386.rpm i have 2.2.90-17
kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm I don't have!

I'll find it from my cd tonight!!! if i get errors I'll uninstall all and download exact same versions you told me and will try again
I'll let you know how it went.

thank you very much again for help!
/m

[morian97]

Hi...

couldn't resist, find a rpm and just checked
1) rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
nothing prints in shell

2) if I install a file:
..root]# rpm -i kernel-source-2.4.18-7.80.i386.rpm
nothing prints in shell, it just goes to another line without complain:
...root]#
-Uvh or --force don't change anything...
if I rpm -e kernel-source-2.4.18-7.80
shell prints me that it is not installed
rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
nothing prints on screen...just #
I don't understand why the kernel source file doesn't install...
m:-(
:confused:

[morian97]

First I did try to install kernel_source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm
as 'my' kernel-source-2.4.7-18.i386.rpm didn't seem to work. It did work with a warning: kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NO KEY, key ID 897da07a
Nvidia_kernel still refused to build...so i rushed to:

Second I did try to unistall my old "needed(=binutils etc)" rpms, but run immediately to problems with many dpendecies. So I did -Uvh for all (3 together as recommended in the first post, others separately after that)
rpm-build-4.1-0.81.i386.rpm
binutils-2.13.90.0.2-2.i386.rpm
glibc-devel-2.2.90-24.i386.rpm
glibc-kernheaders-2.4-7.20.i386.rpm
except
gcc-3.2-1.i386.rpm
because gcc-3.2-0.1 was needed by 4 other packages... In addition binutils gave me warning: binutils-2.13.90.0.2.i386.rpm:Header V3 DSA signature NO Key, key ID 897da07a , but installed itself.

if I did rpm -qa | grep xxx.xxx
they all were installed, except gcc for which I still had 3.2-0.1

rpm -i kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm installed again with an warning: kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature NO Key, key ID 897da07a

When I did try to rebuild GLX and kernel rpms from SRPM directory, both errored:
rpmbuild: relocation error: rpmbuild: undefined symbol: rpmcliRcfile

i'm not sure has this anything to do that all but my src dir contains 3 directories: linux-2.4.18, linux-2.4.18-11 and redhat...kernel headers I used for staroffice installation I know are in linux-2.4.18...

ahhhhhhhhhhhh:confused: :confused: :confused:

[utiel]

Originally posted by morian97
if I did rpm -qa | grep xxx.xxx
they all were installed, except gcc for which I still had 3.2-0.1

rpm -i kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm installed again with an warning: kernel-source-2.4.18-11.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature NO Key, key ID 897da07a

When I did try to rebuild GLX and kernel rpms from SRPM directory, both errored:
rpmbuild: relocation error: rpmbuild: undefined symbol: rpmcliRcfile

i'm not sure has this anything to do that all but my src dir contains 3 directories: linux-2.4.18, linux-2.4.18-11 and redhat...kernel headers I used for staroffice installation I know are in linux-2.4.18...

ahhhhhhhhhhhh:confused: :confused: :confused: [/B]

Well, check where points
/usr/src/linux
and /usr/src/linux-2.4

they have to point to your running kernel.

that helps you, I supose

about rpmbuild... I never found that error...I don't know how solucionate.

[utiel]

Originally posted by morian97
Hi...

couldn't resist, find a rpm and just checked
1) rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
nothing prints in shell

2) if I install a file:
..root]# rpm -i kernel-source-2.4.18-7.80.i386.rpm
nothing prints in shell, it just goes to another line without complain:
...root]#
-Uvh or --force don't change anything...
if I rpm -e kernel-source-2.4.18-7.80
shell prints me that it is not installed
rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
nothing prints on screen...just #
I don't understand why the kernel source file doesn't install...
m:-(
:confused:


Better install sources from your CD's before installing others.

rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
[me
/home/uti# rpm -qa | grep kernel-source
kernel-source-2.4.18-11
]
If you want to remove it, you have to do:
rpm -e kernel-source
NOT rpm -e kernel-source-2.4.7....


if no prints nothing, install it from 2nd CD.

rpm -i kernel-source*
and check for dependencies... perhaps need to install something more.


Ahh, if kernel-source is installed , rpm -i can NOT install
rpm -U can NOT install if is the same package

if all is ok, rpm -i does say nothing


Check /usr/src directory
/usr/src/linux need to point to /usr/src/linux-2.4
and /usr/src/linux-2.4 to your current source /usr/src/linux-2.4.etc.etc

Angel

[rogerdv]

When i try to rebuild, rpm simply freezes in Installing NVIDIA-xxxx.src.rpm. What is the problem?

[utiel]

Originally posted by rogerdv
When i try to rebuild, rpm simply freezes in Installing NVIDIA-xxxx.src.rpm. What is the problem?

problem is when rpmbuild --rebuild?
or just installing rpm?

You need to be root(superuser) to do all

you need space in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS and /var/lib directories, in /tmp too

Be more detailed. I am a RedHat user, not engineer :)

Do this:
1: copy Nvidiaxxxx.src.rpm to /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS
2: from that directory do rpmbuild --rebuild NVidiaxxxx.src.rpm (one file each time better )
3: go to /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
4: ls -al ( if there is any file, rebuild has gone fine )
5: install files , both at the same time ( rpm -i NV*.rpm)
6: if all is OK, edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config manually

[rogerdv]

Originally posted by utiel


problem is when rpmbuild --rebuild?
or just installing rpm?


I have found that my files are corrupted. I downloaded them again, but problem persist. Can somebody give me a link to an alternative location (not the oficila ftp mirrosr, they dont work)
Thanks for your answer.

[utiel]

Originally posted by rogerdv


I have found that my files are corrupted. I downloaded them again, but problem persist. Can somebody give me a link to an alternative location (not the oficila ftp mirrosr, they dont work)
Thanks for your answer.

I have download from Nvidia oficial FTP.
If you use Linux, I recommend you download with "wget"...

wget -c ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-3123/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.src.rpm

wget -c ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.src.rpm

-c Option is for continuing downloading(resume)

[rogerdv]

Originally posted by utiel


I have download from Nvidia oficial FTP.
If you use Linux, I recommend you download with "wget"...

Thanks a lot!!
I tested the first and works (at least i can browse it).

[rogerdv]

After succesfully downloading and compiling, i got this when try to install the kernel rpm (was my first step, havent tried yet to compile/install GLX )

depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: kernel-module version mismatch
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver was compiled for kernel version 2.4.18-11custom
while this kernel is version 2.4.18-11smp.
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver failed
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: insmod NVdriver failed

NVdriver installed successfully

What should I do to compile for smp kernels?

[utiel]

Originally posted by rogerdv
After succesfully downloading and compiling, i got this when try to install the kernel rpm (was my first step, havent tried yet to compile/install GLX )

depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: kernel-module version mismatch
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver was compiled for kernel version 2.4.18-11custom
while this kernel is version 2.4.18-11smp.
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver failed
/lib/modules/2.4.18-11smp/kernel/drivers/video/NVdriver: insmod NVdriver failed

NVdriver installed successfully

What should I do to compile for smp kernels?

This is easy (Nvidia for Monoprocessor and kernel multiprocessor)

When you compile your kernel, kernel version is in file
/usr/src/linux-2.4/Makefile
In redhat, in null , 2.4.18-11custom

You need to change it to 11smp , and save

Then, you need to configure your kernel, to adequate to smp.
Default is Uniprocessor.

You need to do (in /usr/src/linux-2.4 directory ) make menuconfig
and configure your options. You need to able support for SMP (multiprocessor )

Save your configuration

and do: "make dep clean"

I think, this is sufficient to RE-compile Nvidia drivers, not need to compile kernel, and avoid the above problems.

I don't have SMP system, but I've hear that there are some problems with nvidia and SMP.


Good Luck

[Matthyahuw]

I'm going to let this die now that 8.0 is out...thanks utiel :cool: