Can't even uncompress nvidia-installer

[Doug]

Hi, I'm new to Linux and to this board.
I just installed Mandrake Linux 7.0 because that was the only version I could get my hands on (if could have installed 9.1 I would be happier right now, belive me).

I have an GForce 4 MX440 SE so I downloaded the latest drivers for linux.
When I type : sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run
I get a message like this :
This script is for x86 versions, and you are using a i?86 version.
or something like that, so I can't even get to install it and see if it works well for me.

I would like to thank in advence the person who will reply to me.

[bwkaz]

Can you write down (and then post) the exact error that you're getting?

Thanks.

[320mb]

hey, do you have the Kernel Source installed? Looks to me like the installer can't figure out what Kernel version you are using!!

[Doug]

Here is the exact text I get when I type 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4363.run' :

Error : this .run file is intended for the
Linux-x86 platform, but you appear to be
running on Linux-i?86.
Aborting installation.

Aloso, I'm not sure that I have my kernel source installed. Can you give me a hint on how to verify that, please?

[bwkaz]

Oh boy. You appear to have a broken uname installed (... or something...). If you can read shell script, take a look around line 412 of the run file (the first bit of it is readable text, including where it does this check).

When you do a uname -m, it says "i?86", right? That's the problem -- the installer is looking for "i386", "i486", "i586", or "i686" from uname -m, and it's not getting one of those.

If you temporarily move /bin/uname to something like /bin/uname.real, and then create a new uname script, like this, does it help at all?:

cat <<EOF >/bin/uname
#!/bin/sh

if [ "\$1" == "-m" ] ; then
    echo "i386"
else
    exec /bin/uname.real "\$@"
fi
EOF

You'll have to run chmod a+x /bin/uname after you do this. And do it all as root, too.

Try the installer again after doing this.