Installing Nvidia Graphics adapter

Hi,

im trying to install my Nvidia Geforce 9800 GT Graphics Adapter for current Suse. I downloaded the selfextracting shellscript from nvidia.com, and launched it.

I get an error message telling me to shut down X server. I don’t exactly know what it is… so what should i do to install my Geforce flawlessly ?

thanks a lot!

The X server is an implementation of the X Window system, basically the underlying GUI used by most Linux systems.

You can avoid starting it by starting in runlevel 3. At the grub boot screen where you select openSUSE or openSUSE failsafe, put the selection box over openSUSE, then press the number ‘3’, then hit return.

You can shut it down simply enough once you’re running already by logging out back to the graphical login screen, hitting ctrl-alt-f1 to switch to a virtual console, logging in as root, and typing “killall kdm” or “killall gdm” if you’re using KDE or Gnome’s login manager respectively. If you’re using a different login manager you’ll have to work out how to kill that yourself.

Once you’re finished, type reboot and you should find it boots normally.

Thanks,

switching to the terminal with ctrl-alt-f1 and killing kdm worked out fine for solving this first problem. But the next warning just followed the first succesful step: the shell script installer is trying to download a kernel version by ftp, however, the computer is not connected to the web when in terminal mode and as i can’t use kinternet to connect :frowning:

I don’t know much about this, so wait for better advice. Maybe plug in your ethernet, try ‘ifconfig’ as root, which should give you a list of adapters, one of them is likely called eth0, then ‘ifconfig [adapter] up’ (‘ifconfig eth0 up’ for example).

Might not do anything, but it won’t hurt trying…

You obviously replied YES to the question “would you like to search online for a compatible kernel module” or whatever it asks.

Answer NO to that question because you want to compile your own.

If it asks about 32bit compat libs, say YES, and also say YES to updating your xorg.conf

But, before doing anything, you need to make sure you have the compiler, build command, and the kernel source installed otherwise the next thing will be an error message about all that lot being missing!

You can do that sinply while still logged in as root by typing this -

zypper in gcc make kernel-source

…that’s off the top of my head, but it should work. If the kernel-source was wrong, type this -

zypper se kernel-source

…and note what is spits out, then enter the correct package name in the zypper in command above

Once it has succesfully compiled, run -

nvidia-xconfig -composite

…to enable desktop effects.

EDIT: Ooops, just realised that your net doesn’t work in level3! Boot to a normal desktop, open a terminal, type su (enter your root password) and then do the zypper commands. To compile it, press ctrl-alt-f1, log in as root, and type init 3, then try compiling the module again. When done, simply type **init5 **to get back to the desktop.

ok i installed gcc and the kernel sources, but…

-> No precompiled kernel interface was found to match your kernel; this means
that the installer will need to compile a new kernel interface.
-> Performing CC sanity check with CC=“cc”.
-> Performing CC version check with CC=“cc”.
ERROR: The kernel header file
‘/lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-pae/build/include/linux/kernel.h’ does not
exist. The most likely reason for this is that the kernel source path
‘/lib/modules/2.6.27.7-9-pae/build’ is incorrect. Please make sure you
have installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are
properly configured; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sure you
have the ‘kernel-source’ or ‘kernel-devel’ RPM installed. If you know
the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the
kernel source path with the ‘–kernel-source-path’ command line option.

Looks like you have to install the headers seperately!

OK, type this from an su terminal on your desktop -

zypper in kernel-source kernel-syms linux-kernel-headers

Then crtl-alt-f1, init 3, and run the installer again.

the zypper command worked out fine and installed kernel-syms, but when lauching sh NVIDIA-* i still get the same “unknown path” message as before

cd to the folder where you downloaded the file to, and do this -

chmod +x NV(press the tab key to autocomplete the filename)
./NV(press the tab key to autocomplete the filename)

…of course don’t type the stuff in quotes or the quotes :slight_smile:

did it… same result

you are doing this as root (su) aren’t you, not with sudo?

Try this -

la /usr/src/linux

you should see something like this -

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 2009-10-29 11:02 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.31.5-0.1

If there’s nothing there, then the kernel source is not installed properly. I would try uninstalling it and re-installing through Yast GUI, see if that fixes it.

Try forcing it with this -

sh ./NV(tab) --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux/ 

yep i’m root.

i changed the path using the command line option… the error message is now somewhat different :slight_smile: Perhaps we are getting closer to the solution :wink:

ERROR: The kernel header file ‘/usr/src/linux/include/linux/version.h’ does not
exist. The most likely reason for this is that the kernel source files
in ‘/usr/src/linux’ have not been configured.

Hmm, are you using a custom compiled kernel? Other than that I really can’t be of any further assistance here sadly.

All I would do at this point is try a fresh install. Sounds a bit drastic, but unless someone else with more experience comes along soon, I don’t know what else to suggest.

You can actually do all this using only the liveCD if that might help. At least then you would be able to see it all working properly without messing with your current install.

I wish you luck.

I was having this problem just now. When you entered “zypper in kernel-source kernel-syms linux-kernel-headers” as above, you said it loaded kernel-syms. When I did it it also loaded a kernel-zen-develop and the headers. The error you described went away after that and it seems to have installed correctly.

The kernel is just the basic kernel that was installed using the currently downloadable opensuse DVd version. I reinstalled kernel-sources linux-kernel-headers etc… using yast2, but i keep on getting the same error message when usig the NV installer :frowning:

Please enter this command and post the results:

rpm -qa | grep kernel

linux-c8sp:~ # rpm -qa | grep kernel
kernel-source-2.6.27.37-0.1.1
linux-kernel-headers-2.6.27-2.28
kernel-pae-extra-2.6.27.7-9.1
kernel-pae-base-2.6.27.7-9.1
kernel-pae-2.6.27.7-9.1
kernel-syms-2.6.27.37-0.1.1

Your kernel-source is newer than your kernel. As long as this exists, you won’t be able to compile the nvidia module. I suggest you upgrade the other 3 pkgs to match your kernel-source.

kernel-source-2.6.27.37-0.1.1

kernel-pae-extra-2.6.27.7-9.1
kernel-pae-base-2.6.27.7-9.1
kernel-pae-2.6.27.7-9.1

You can try zypper up kernel-pae* (as root) and see if it offers the kernel that matches.

If you’re not using a custom built kernel, consider using the Nvidia repository. That will save you from having to recompile the driver after each kernel update. Have a look here:
NVIDIA - openSUSE