I have a major problem...

[Chairman Neil]

I have a GeForce2 MX with Mandrake 9. I installed NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-3123.i386.rpm and NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.mdk82up.i586.rpm, since the drivers that come with Mandrake keep giving me errors. I then changed my XF86Config-4 file accordingly. The "Device" section looks like this:

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce2 DDR (generic)"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"
Driver "nv"
# VideoRam 65536
# Clock lines

When I change the "Driver" line to "nvidia", I cannot xinit when I try to again. When I keep it as "nv", I get this error (or a similar one) anytime I try to play a 3D game:

GLUT: Fatal Error in asteroids3D: OpenGL GLX extension not supported by display: :0.0

Anyone got any tips?

[mtrr]

check:

is the module (NVdriver) really loaded?
post /var/log/XFree86.0.log
are you using devfs?
agp support enabled?

give us a little more info, please

glx will work with nvidia and _not_ with nv.

cheers

[Chairman Neil]

It's too large to put into a regular post. I'll attach it.

I don't know how to check those other things... although I don't think I'm using devfs.

[mtrr]

useless :( try again with "nvidia" and not "nv".

cheers

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Chairman Neil
and NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.mdk82up.i586.rpmThat right there would probably be your problem.

You have to use the NVIDIA_kernel that matches your distribution's version exactly. Mandrake 9 uses a completely different Linux kernel version than 8.2 did, and the NVdriver will (in all likelihood) not load under the new kernel.

Get either the SRPM NVIDIA_kernel or the tarball. Make sure you've installed kernel-source (it's on the 3rd CD, and you need ncurses-devel as well, which is on the 2nd one).

You are most likely using devfs; Mandrake has had that enabled since 8.1. [ -c /dev/.devfsd ] ; echo $? will print a 0 if you're using devfs, and a 1 if you aren't.

lsmod will list NVdriver (along with other things) if it's been loaded. If it hasn't, then modprobe NVdriver (as root) will load it -- assuming you've installed from source or waited until nVidia puts out a Mandrake 9-specific driver. You have to do this before you start up X.

[Chairman Neil]

OK, I downloaded the NVIDIA_GLX tarball and the NVIDIA_kernel tarball. When I try to make the NVIDIA_kernel tarball, I get this error:

/usr/include/linux/interrupt.h:128: `CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT' undeclared here (not in a function)
/usr/include/linux/interrupt.h:128: requested alignment is not a constant
nv-linux.h:111:28: linux/autoconf.h: No such file or directory
nv.c:99:65: missing binary operator before '('
nv.c:697:65: missing binary operator before '('
nv.c:1011:65: missing binary operator before '('
nv.c:1040:65: missing binary operator before '('
nv.c:1383:65: missing binary operator before '('
nv.c: In function `nv_kern_mmap':
nv.c:1386: warning: implicit declaration of function `pgprot_writecombine'
nv.c:1386: incompatible types in assignment
nv.c:2926:65: missing binary operator before '('
make: *** [nv.o] Error 1

Now what? :\

[mtrr]

as stated in nvidias readme: you should have a _configured_ kernel source tree
(or at least the kernel headers corresponding to your kernel image)


cheers

[Chairman Neil]

So reconfigure/recompile my kernel? Alright...

[mtrr]

a recompile is not needed, if the headers are 'configured'.
I might help you via irc or icq, if you wish..


cheers

[Chairman Neil]

When I compiled a new kernel image, it was too large. I didn't configure the last kernel manually, it came with Mandrake. LILO doesn't even see it, even though I manually edited /etc/lilo.conf (instead of using drakboot, which said it was too large). Now what? :\

[bwkaz]

After you edit /etc/lilo.conf, you have to re-install LILO in your MBR (or wherever it's set to be installed to). Run /sbin/lilo as root to do that.

The reason why: When lilo is running, it doesn't have any idea about any kind of filesystem. Basically all it can do is load a specific logical block (a 512-byte sector, I believe) off the disk and jump to the start of it. The configuration file tells lilo which files to use as a kernel (for Linux boots), and when you run /sbin/lilo, it records the logical block positions of these kernels in wherever you put it (usually the MBR, but not always).

Other OS boots are similar -- it just loads up the boot record for, say, Win98, and jumps to it. Which is all that the normal Win98 bootloader does, so you see the exact same startup as normal.

Edit: when you built the kernel image, did you make zImage or bzImage? If your problems are truly due to having too large a kernel, then I'm pretty sure bzImage allows for larger kernels (bzImage is "big zImage"). But for the nVidia kernel module to compile, you will have had to compile in support for modules when you configured the kernel, and at that point it's almost easier to build some things as modules (like your network card driver, sound driver, agpgart, and other auxiliary things like that). DON'T make anything a module that you need to boot up, like your IDE chipset's support. But anyway, making some of these things into modules will also make your kernel smaller.

[Andy Mecham]

Can you make sure the md5sums of the files you downloaded match the ones posted on the driver page? If they don't, you've got a case of corrupted files. You shouldn't be seeing "missing binary operator" errors unless you've got a file that's not quite right.

(to check md5sums, type 'md5sum /path/to/your/files')

--andy

[Chairman Neil]

I made it into a bzImage. I reinstalled lilo and it's still too big.

Root device is (3, 1)
Boot sector 512 bytes.
Setup is 4651 bytes.
System is 1277 kB
warning: kernel is too big for standalone boot from floppy

Perhaps if I make some of the things compiled into the kernel modules...

Here's the md5sum:

9496c1b260985eaea59d3760b1e42eb4 NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-3123.tar.gz

I'm not exactly sure what this tells me though. There IS a specific NVIDIA driver RPM for 9.0 on MandrakeClub. Perhaps it would be a good time to join MandrakeClub. :p

[bwkaz]

That's just a warning, nothing to get worried about... :)

It's saying you can't put it on a floppy. Which is OK, since you won't be booting to a floppy anyway... right? As long as you don't try telling your bootloader to boot to a kernel on a floppy, you shouldn't have any problems with it.

Yes, making more things into modules will help, but it isn't really necessary.

From the nVidia driver page, the md5sum should be 9496c1b260985eaea59d3760b1e42eb4, and that matches what you've posted, so your NVIDIA_kernel tar file should be OK.

[Chairman Neil]

That might just be a warning, but...

Added linux
Added linux-nonfb
Added linux-enterpris *
Added failsafe
Fatal: Kernel /boot/vmlinux is too big

That isn't. :(

And thanks for the tip using md5sums. I'll be working with them more from now on. :D

[novafluxx]

Well I found the answer to my problem...now I have another one...is there anyway I can get the kernel-source package without downloading the entire 3rd CD? I only downloaded the first 2, thinking the 3rd was just extra stuff I wouldn't need or even have space for on my 4GB linux-testing drive. :)

[bwkaz]

If you go back to the Mandrake download page, and don't hit the links for the ISO, but rather something in the link set above those, you'll get taken to a mirror of the RPMs that they package on the CDs. You should be able to find kernel-source somewhere in there.

For example, I went to the academic-only internet2 mirror (and my God, was it slow! Must be the 15K/sec Slackware ISO downloading in the background made the network admins here pull the "eff you" switch on me or something :rolleyes: ), in the Mandrake/9.0/i586/Mandrake/RPMS/ directory, and found it right there (named kernel-source-2.4.19-16mdk.i586.rpm). Should work for you.

[mtrr]

he solved it, up and running, playing ut2003 demo right now, but thanks anyway


cheers


ps: I found him a fast mirror, so he's happy now

[Chairman Neil]

I am trying the mdk patched kernel-source srpm now. I'll post how it goes (hopefully the image will be smaller).

Then I'll try the NVIDIA tarballs again. Thanks for all the help, I think I might be on the way to solving this problem.

[Chairman Neil]

This problem is resolved. I installed Gentoo. :)

[bwkaz]

Originally posted by Chairman Neil
This problem is resolved. I installed Gentoo. :) ROFL!!

Well, that works, I guess... :D