GeForce 7950 GT with driver 173.14.27 "-1 No such device"

[bgnv]

(Notes to sysadmins: Please delete the other post in the wrong forum, as the forum permissions won't let me delete my own threads or move them. Other thread is http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=154763)

I have a GeForce 7950 GT card running on a AMD64 machine. Downloading and recompiling 173.14.27 using the same GCC version used with a new Linux kernel fails to load.

I am running this Debian Linux kernel:

$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-5-amd64 (Debian 2.6.32-20) (ben@decadent.org.uk) (gcc version 4.3.5 (Debian 4.3.5-2) ) #1 SMP Thu Aug 12 13:01:50 UTC 2010

The previous driver version 173.14.18 was working fine on the following previous kernel version 2.6.32-trunk-amd64:

$ cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 (Debian 2.6.32-5) (ben@decadent.org.uk) (gcc version 4.3.4 (Debian 4.3.4-6) ) #1 SMP Sun Jan 10 22:40:40 UTC 2010

(I still have the 2.6.32-trunk-amd64 kernel version, and when I rebooted into it, I could bring up the full GNOME Desktop with the 173.14.18 driver).

First the short snippet of the error I get, followed by a link to a GitHub Gist of the full log listing:

-> Kernel module compilation complete.
ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'.  This happens most
       frequently when this kernel module was built against the wrong or
       improperly configured kernel sources, with a version of gcc that differs
       from the one used to build the target kernel, or if a driver such as
       rivafb/nvidiafb is present and prevents the NVIDIA kernel module from
       obtaining ownership of the NVIDIA graphics device(s).
       
       Please see the log entries 'Kernel module load error' and 'Kernel
       messages' at the end of the file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for
       more information.
-> Kernel module load error: insmod: error inserting './usr/src/nv/nvidia.ko':
   -1 No such device

I've pasted the full /var/log/nvidia-installer.log file content on GitHub Gist at:

nvidia-installer.GeForce.7950.GT.debian.kernel.2.6.32-5-amd64.AMD64.driver.173.14.27.no.such.device.log

The log suggests that I might have other drivers loaded such as:

nouveau, rivafb, nvidiafb, or rivatv

I doubt it. I've either used the generic driver, or the latest nvidia drivers that I've recompiled each and every time on the GCC compiler that matches the version used with the new kernel. But I don't know how to check that either, to be honest.

Any ideas as to what could be the cause?

Thanks!
Brent

[bgnv]

"God helps those who help themselves". Sigh.

Quoting myself:

Originally Posted by bgnv

...

The log suggests that I might have other drivers loaded such as:

nouveau, rivafb, nvidiafb, or rivatv

I doubt it. I've either used the generic driver, or the latest nvidia drivers that I've recompiled each and every time on the GCC compiler that matches the version used with the new kernel.

It turns out that I actually did have the nouveau module loaded, after having used lsmod and pilfered through the output. I had to add "blacklist nouveau" to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf and reboot.

My complaint here is that the nvidia installer didn't check for the nouveau module and emit a message specifically for that. It should IMO.

bg