Driver install problem on Fedora 8

[mrstoney]

I've recently upgraded to Fedora 8 and have been trying to update the Nvidia driver. From the sticky instructions, I've installed the kernel devel RPM and the install of NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.07-pkg1.run appears to go well. But, when trying to start X with twinview, it all comes crashing down. Can you look at my log file and give me some advice?

The last time I upgraded, this process was very smooth. I can't figure out why it's so difficult this time. I've wasted a lot of time.

[AaronP]

Your bug report indicates that you're using the "nv" driver. Please switch to the "nvidia" driver by running nvidia-xconfig and then generate and attach a new bug report.

[mrstoney]

Sorry about that, I produced it with a default xorg.conf. Try this one.

[AaronP]

The driver is failing to load the kernel module, and there are none of the expected NVRM messages in your kernel log. What happens when you try to run "modprobe nvidia" as root?

[mrstoney]

modprobe returns

FATAL: Error inserting nvidia (/lib/modules/2.6.23.1-42.fc8/kernel/driver/video.ko): Invalid module format

[zander]

nvidia: version magic '2.6.17-prep SMP mod_unload PENTIUM4 REGPARM gcc-4.1' should be '2.6.23.1-42.fc8 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS '

The kernel development files you built the driver against do not match the target kernel; please make sure you have the correct kernel-devel package installed.

[mrstoney]

The correct kernel-devel was installed, however the driver was defaulting to a path that pointed to /usr/src/linux which had a virtual link to linux-2.6.17 (from a previous build?)

So, I reinstalled with both the kernel and kernel path called out. This seems to have fixed that problem I think.(see the attached installer log).

But, I'm still not able to start X with driver set to "nvidia." I've attached a new bug report. Plus, "modprobe nvidia" is still returning the same error.

Thanks so much for your help...

[zander]

If `modprobe nvidia` fails with the same error, you do not have the correct set of kernel development files installed; the driver will only fall back to /usr/src/linux if the symbolic links under /lib/modules/$(uname) are not setup or setup incorrectly.

[mrstoney]

Yep, I just noticed in the bug report that it was complaining about 586 and wanted 686. I've updated my RPM and will try rebuilding.

nvidia: version magic '2.6.23.1-42.fc8 SMP mod_unload 586 4KSTACKS ' should be '2.6.23.1-42.fc8 SMP mod_unload 686 4KSTACKS '

[mrstoney]

OK,

I tried to reinstall the driver after intalling kernel-devel-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.i686.rpm (I've attached the installer log).

But, there's still something wrong. modprobe now returns with

FATAL: Could not open '/lib/modules/2.6.23.1-42.fc8/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.ko': No such file or directory

[mrstoney]

OK, I finally got the driver installed correctly. On a whim, I decided to run the script w/o using the kernel-name and kernel-source call-outs. For whatever reason, this ended up working.

Thanks for the help from all of those who posted.