NVIDIA proprietary install (195.36.08) fail

English Hardware
1

I tried installing the latest NVidia proprietary drivers, but it was epic fail.

[nathanb@nathanb-box ~] uname -a
Linux nathanb-box 2.6.31.12-0.1-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-01-27 08:20:11 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

OpenSUSE 11.2

It fails with an “unable to compile kernel module” error.

I stupidly overwrote the log file without backing it up. It had a lot of compile warnings, but I didn’t see anything that looked like a compile error. If you guys think it will help, I’ll try to generate it again.

2

Often new users will fail to compile the proprietary graphic driver because they failed to install kernel-source or kernel-syms or linux-kernel-headers, or even gcc or make. … or sometimes they will install a version of kernel-source or kernel-syms that is different from their kernel version. … or sometimes after building the driver and when going to configure, they will boot to a corrupted run level 5, type init-3, and end up in a run level 3 that has X process still running that failed to close after typing “init 3” (when a simple direct boot to run level 3 would have been better).

Its very difficult to tell what, if any of the above, you properly implemented, but still had the failure problem?

3

I think if fail at that, won’t it give a better error message? In any case, I’m reasonably sure I have what I need, package-wise.

[nathanb@nathanb-box ~] rpm -qa | grep  kernel
kernel-debug-devel-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64
kernel-firmware-20090821-4.1.noarch
kernel-source-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.noarch
kernel-default-devel-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64
kernel-xen-devel-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64
linux-kernel-headers-2.6.31-3.4.noarch
kernel-desktop-devel-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64
kernel-desktop-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64
kernel-syms-2.6.31.12-0.1.1.x86_64

[nathanb@nathanb-box ~] rpm -q gcc
gcc-4.4-4.2.x86_64

[nathanb@nathanb-box ~] rpm -q make
make-3.81-130.2.x86_64

Configuration isn’t an issue because things failed before the config step.

4

post log file… it’ll produce one again after you run it again

5

When going to run it again and get the log file, I decided to re-download the image just in case (I used links this time instead of Firefox). For some reason, the install succeeded this time. I don’t know if I had a corrupted file before or what.

Sorry for wasting everyone’s time :frowning:

6

no problem, happy it’s solved. Means i dont have to spank my braincells trying to help, and you don’t have to become bald, trying to figure what’s wrong :wink:

7

Glad to read its working for you.

I just finished installing the 195.36.08 64-bit on my 64-bit openSUSE-11.2 PC (a 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 w/6GB (Asus P6T Deluxe V2 motherboard) w/ PCI-e nVidia GeForce GTX260 graphics). It works well.

Immediately after that success, I then installed the 195.36.08 32-bit on my 32-bit openSUSE-11.2 PC (a 32-bit AMD Athlon-2800 w/2GB (Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard) w/ PCI nVidia GeForce 8400GS graphics). It also works well.

I tested vdpau on the 32-bit PC playing some H.264 and .mpeg files, and found it worked on an mpeg video that did not work before, so they have fixed something in the driver to make it work better :slight_smile:

8

Great to hear it’s working!
But I wait for a month now and I still can’t find this new version in repository NVIDIA. Do I overlook something?

9

I never go to the repository. It is maintained by NVIDIA and not Novell.

If you want the driver quicker, you will IMHO spend the time to learn how to install it “the hardway”.

If you insist on waiting for it to show up in the repository, then it is up to NVIDIA as to when it appears.