RHEL WS 3.0 re-packaged custom.run?

[w3bst3r]

hello,
using this .run downloaded form nvidia on RedHat Enterprise WS 3.0

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run

The precompiled binaries( i assume) do not exist for this platform, using the .run file i can compile the drivers for this platform. Using the --ad-this-kernel option I can add the files to the .run creating a custom.run. Is there a way to extract only the needed files for this platform and package them in a .tar or .rpm, so I can ease the installation across multiple boxes. All of the workstations will be using the exact same kernel, installed from the exact same cd, so my real problem is which files do i need to extract from the .run, in order to correctly configure such a thing. My ultimate goal would be a .rpm that i could install during the installation of the OS, to eliminate the need for the user to log in without X running and execute the .run.

Any help on this is appreciated. Or a list of the files that are needed as opposed to those that are not.

thanks in advance

[patbob]

No, Nvidia has not generated a copy of the installer that contains precompiled files for RH EL3 (a good thing right now, IMO). When you use Nvidia's installer to install the modules, you can have it leave the source and built binaries around by specifying the --keep option. That gets you the files. Running the installer in expert mode (--expert) will get you a list of things it is going to do and one last confirmation chance before it does them. There's a fair number of libraries that need to be replaced and other changes made in order to use the new driver, you'll need to collect all those files into your rpm and do the equivalant actions. Dont' forget you'll need to also modify the XF86Config file too (a manual step with the Nvidia installer) to have it use the new driver.
<P>
I'm not too saavy about rpm stuff, so I can't be of any help with that part of this effort. However, since you'd be modifying the standard install anyway, is there any reason you couldn't just include Nvidia's installer, modified with pre-built modules, as something that gets run as part of the OS install? Add a small script to modify the XF86Config file and it might be almost automatic (except when it breaks :-)
<P>
Lastly, I recently went through issues of getting Nvidia's drivers working on RH EL3 WS (article at http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/show...threadid=22198 ). My experiences were not necessarily all good but I did finally find a recipie that worked on the two machines I had available to play with. YMMV.

hope that helps,
patbob