Problem installing nVidia driver on Linux Cluster

[EonStrife]

Hi, I have a Linux cluster (and it uses something called ROCKS) to use, and I could connect remotely to one of them (the frontend). The OS is CentOS4.

I needed to install latest geForce driver since when I used glGetString(GL_RENDERER) and glGetString(GL_VERSION), I got

Version 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)
Renderer Mesa GLX Indirect

so, I downloaded the latest driver, installed it, and then remotely reboot the computer using telinit and (/sbin/reboot command).

However, when I checked the version again, I still got the same result :

Version 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.4.1)
Renderer Mesa GLX Indirect

I checked the xorg.conf, and it seems that it's okay

Section "Module"
    Load           "dbe"
    Load           "extmod"
    Load           "type1"
    Load           "freetype"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection
.
.
.
Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Videocard0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8800 GTX"
EndSection

I installed the driver many times by using sh NVIDIA-bla-bla-bla.run. The funny thing is that I always got the same message:

"There appears to already be a driver installed on your system (version:1.0-9755). As part of installing this driver (version: 177.67), the existing driver will be uninstalled. Are you sure you want to continue? ('no' will abort the installation)"

Of course, I chose yes to uninstall previous driver. But, if I tried to run the installation again, I'll get the same message again. Meaning, the version 1.0-9755 was never uninstalled to begin with. I believe that's why the OpenGL version I kept getting is 1.2 with Mesa renderer. I wonder why it failed to uninstall 1.0-9755.

I tried using yumex (or yum) to uninstall xorg-x11-Mesa-libGL, but yum checks dependencies on many application (or, there are many dependencies), so I abort the installation, fearing yum might remove the applications depending on libGL.

This is the log file of the installation (nvidia-installer.log):

nvidia-installer log file '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log'
creation time: Sat Sep 20 11:17:38 2008

option status:
  license pre-accepted    : true
  update                  : false
  force update            : false
  expert                  : false
  uninstall               : false
  driver info             : false
  precompiled interfaces  : true
  no ncurses color        : false
  query latest version    : false
  OpenGL header files     : true
  no questions            : true
  silent                  : true
  no recursion            : false
  no backup               : false
  kernel module only      : false
  sanity                  : false
  add this kernel         : false
  no runlevel check       : false
  no network              : true
  no ABI note             : false
  no RPMs                 : false
  no kernel module        : false
  force SELinux           : default
  no X server check       : false
  force tls               : (not specified)
  force compat32 tls      : (not specified)
  X install prefix        : (not specified)
  X library install path  : (not specified)
  X module install path   : (not specified)
  OpenGL install prefix   : (not specified)
  OpenGL install libdir   : (not specified)
  compat32 install chroot : (not specified)
  compat32 install prefix : (not specified)
  compat32 install libdir : (not specified)
  utility install prefix  : (not specified)
  utility install libdir  : (not specified)
  doc install prefix      : (not specified)
  kernel name             : (not specified)
  kernel include path     : (not specified)
  kernel source path      : (not specified)
  kernel output path      : (not specified)
  kernel install path     : (not specified)
  proc mount point        : /proc
  ui                      : none
  tmpdir                  : /tmp
  ftp mirror              : ftp://download.nvidia.com
  RPM file list           : (not specified)

Using built-in stream user interface
ERROR: An NVIDIA kernel module 'nvidia' appears to already be loaded in your
       kernel.  This may be because it is in use (for example, by the X
       server), but may also happen if your kernel was configured without
       support for module unloading.  Please be sure you have exited X before
       attempting to upgrade your driver.  If you have exited X, know that your
       kernel supports module unloading, and still receive this message, then
       an error may have occured that has corrupted the NVIDIA kernel module's
       usage count; the simplest remedy is to reboot your computer.
ERROR: Installation has failed.  Please see the file
       '/var/log/nvidia-installer.log' for details.  You may find suggestions
       on fixing installation problems in the README available on the Linux
       driver download page at www.nvidia.com.

Maybe all this time I fail to install the driver, even though in installation interface it's never written that the installation is a failure

However, there's no error in Xorg.0, and it seems that the X Server loads nvidia drivers successfully:

.
.
.
(II) LoadModule: "glx"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/extensions/libglx.so
(II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.9755
	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 0.1
(II) Loading extension GLX
(II) LoadModule: "nvidia"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib64/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.9755
.
.
.

So, What should I do ?

Thanks.

[pe1chl]

Did you read the article about installing the driver on modern Linux distributions?

[EonStrife]

yes, I've read it, but it might not be very useful. For example, the OS is CentOS which basically is RHEL4, while that topic provides solution for RHEL5 such the solutions can't be used. For example:

Linux/x86 (32-bit):
# chcon -t texrel_shlib_t /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so

and

Linux/x86-64 (64-bit):
# chcon -t texrel_shlib_t /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so

can't be used since in my computer there's no such folder.

BTW, I uploaded the nvidia-bug-report.log of the computer to :
http://www.eonstrife.com/myFiles/nvidia-bug-report.log


Thanks.