RedHat woes. Nvidia Drivers.

[AkumaBao]

I tried to install the NVidia drviers for RedHat, and came accross multiple problems. First, I installed the wrong RPM driver, and it couldn't find the NVdriver. I followed the instrutions on the NVidia page, but it really didn't like it at all. Now I have 4 NVIDIA_kernel packages, and I can't remove any of them. (Says something about multiple Packages) How do I go about doing this? I installed the Kernel file, then the GLX file. I read in the troubleshooting, and found out that it could be running off the wrong kernel. I tried insmod, but there was no such command. Same with modprobe. If there is a way I can remove all 4 of those kernel packages, I think I can get it to work. Any ideas? Also, I'm using 7.2 with the 2.4.9-21 kernel, and KDE as a DM. Plus, I did ALL the updates. Any ideas? Thanx in advance.

 

[NorthenLove]

Can't really offer any help but next time go with the tarballs. It's easy to install all you have to do is just open a terminal and cd into the directory were you extracted the tarballs ( see Nvidia readme for more detials ) and type make. Do this for both kernel and GLX Nvidia tarballs.

 

[Priit]

You say that you don't have "insmod" and "modprobe"? Any chance that you are installing those drivers under X (KDE) and you don't have places like /sbin in path?

 

[n0cmonkey]

<< You say that you don't have "insmod" and "modprobe"? Any chance that you are installing those drivers under X (KDE) and you don't have places like /sbin in path? >>



I was thinking the same thing, only that the original poster wasnt root (or didnt use sudo, PS USE SUDO!!!! ).

Use rpm -whatever_the_remove_flag_is to remove the drivers you have installed. Delete them. Then download the ones you need and follow the instructions. They are pretty good. Also might want to think about updating to a recent kernel.

 

[brian_riendeau]

I am a relative Linux newbie so keep that in mind in case I said something stupid

I have an 266A + Athlon XP + GeForce 2 GTS system and run Red Hat 7.2. Personally, I can not get the NVIDIA drivers to work with the newer kernels so I am using the default 2.4.7-10 kernel. I have followed the NVIDIA instructions *exactly* multiple times and nothing. Tried compiling from the source code and I get errors on the compile. I took multiple tries with the RPMs as well and never got anywhere. Heck, I even reinstalled Linux about four times. Messed around with Mandrake for a bit, everything worked fine with that.

I think the problem lies with the RPMs myself if you try for those. NVIDIA has RPMs listed for the default kernel and an updated 7.2 kernel but NOT the latest kernel. The source code would solve this but it never compiles correctly on my computer.

Sounds like the tarballs are the way to go...

 

[manly]

I suspect you forced the RPM installation for 4 versions of the package. Besides an unofficial kernel RPM, you should never force an installation unless you know exactly what you're doing.

It's easy to remove a package that has multiple installed versions, for example NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313 and NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2151

Usually (with superuser credentials), you type rpm -e NVIDIA_kernel

In this case, do rpm -e NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2313

I.e. you're fully qualifying the package name and version. So erase all the RPMs, and start over from the beginning (taking the advice of the other replies).

Package management is a good thing, and you should stick with RPMs whenever possible; however there are good cases to allows exceptions.

This is one of the usability problems with Linux. Although NVIDIA_GLX works for XFree86 4.0.2 or later, the kernel driver is version specific. As we can all see, driver installation under Linux is a bit more complex than double-clicking an .exe under Winblows. Of course, there are myriad device driver problems as well under WInblows (of a different nature), so we're not that much worse off.

In this case, what NVIDIA should have done is use the approach taken by VMware: bundled inside _ONE_ RPM are pre-compiled binary modules for a whole assortment of common official kernels. If one of these is not appropriate, it will compile from source instead. NVIDIA has chosen to float 30 RPMs instead, and leave it up to the user to troubleshoot. I believe the reason for this is that the distros themselves (i.e. SuSE or Mandrake) actually build the RPMs, and NVIDIA just posts them up on their official web site.

Finally, why force a kernel RPM install? Because when upgrading a kernel, you shouldn't assume the new one will work flawlessly, so you want to have both installed (and available through the boot loader). Red Hat has specific documentation on how to achieve this.

 

[AkumaBao]

Ok, when I try to uninstall from the prompt, I get an error:<filename> package not installed. If I go to the package manager, it shows four installed, (two of each one I tried to install) and if I try to uninstall one from it, I get a multiple package error.

 

[KenCleanAirSystem]

Have you tried rpm -e --force packagename?

 

[AkumaBao]

No luck with "--force". Doesn't like being used for removing packages.

 

[Epyon9283]

I did the same thing when I tried to install the nvidia drivers after installing a kernel update... I had to compile which for some reason didnt work. I reinstalled and by some miracle, compiling the drivers worked that time.

 

[AkumaBao]

For some reason it's missing the kernel-source. O well. I'm downloading now. I think I might have better luck after I do that.

 

[spamsk8r]

the kernel source is on the 7.2 disk, if youre using the default kernel, that was the only problem ive had with comipiling the drivers with make, cuz it needs the kernel source

 

[AkumaBao]

Ok, I reverted to the 2.4.7 kernel, got rid of the packages, but still want to stick with the 2.4.9 kernel. How can I get a 2.4.9 athlon kernel? I can only update to one type of kernel. Is there a way to see what arch it is supporting? I'm not sure I have the right NVidia drivers.

 

[NorthenLove]

Tarballs! Tarballs! Tarballs! Gooooooooooooooooo! TARBALLS!!!

 

[brian_riendeau]

Ok, so correct me if I am wrong but this should work...

-Install 7.2 with defaults
-Put kernel source on system
-Update kernel + other stuff
-Compile NVIDIA drivers which should work with the kernel source, edit config file for X
-Restart X

Now the big question is, which file on the 7.2 CD is the kernel source and where do I put it???

 

[AkumaBao]

Ok, I can get the kernel-source of my 2nd 7.2 CD, but is that the right one? Does it have to match the kernel, or does it work with all kernels? I recieved a 2.4.9 kernel-source off RH.com, but I don't know where it is. Also, on updating the kernel, do I just do that with up2date or through some rpm function? ( Sorry, use to just recompiling the whole thing. )

 

[NorthenLove]

<< Ok, I can get the kernel-source of my 2nd 7.2 CD, but is that the right one? Does it have to match the kernel, or does it work with all kernels? I recieved a 2.4.9 kernel-source off RH.com, but I don't know where it is. Also, on updating the kernel, do I just do that with up2date or through some rpm function? ( Sorry, use to just recompiling the whole thing. ) >>



Well when I was giving RedHat a try a while back ago I updated my kernel via the up2date feature and it worked fine. Just make sure that if you are dual-booting that you make a new boot floppy using the boot tools they have or edit lilo or grub if you are using those boot-loaders to choose which OS to boot too. Then agian your case is differrent so I would say it's up to you. Just don't yell at me if something goes wrong.

 

[AkumaBao]

Ok, found it. For some reason I didn't get it the first time I updated. PLus, I had done ALL the updates. Oh well. It's all working now. Drivers and everything.