Re: nvidia driver "disappeared"
> I had been using nvidia's accelerated driver (version 6106) plus
kernel 2.6.8
> without trouble with Sid until Nov 10 (I had done a dist-upgrade the previous
> evening). Now, X says the nvidia driver does not exist. I noticed that
> there was a newer version of the nvidia driver (6629) as well as kernel
> 2.6.9, so I compiled a new kernel and new modules in the "Debian Way" using
> make-kpkg, installed both resulting .debs, updated Grub, but I still have the
> same problem. If I do a dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86, the nvidia driver
> does not appear as an option. I confirmed that I really had installed the
> nvidia-kernel*2.6.9*deb with dpkg. Has there been a recent change in XFree86
> that causes it to look in different places for drivers than previously? I am
> using the version currently in Sid (4.3.0.dfsg.1-8). If there has been a
> recent update to XFree86 causing this behavior, how can I most easily go back
> to the old version? Alternatively, is there a symlink I could create to tell
> XFree86 where to find the nvidia driver?
First of course be sure that /lib/modules/2.6.9/nvidia/nvidia.ko exists.
That's still the standard location for that driver, AFAIK.
Run lsmod | grep nvidia. Is the nvidia module already loaded? If not,
then modprobe nvidia. What's the result? Now can X start?
Two possible causes of your problem:
(1) The kernel module loader was loading that module automatically
before, but now for some reason it isn't. The solution may be as simple
as mentioning nvidia in /etc/modules, to force it to be loaded
automatically at boot.
(2) The module can't load into your new kernel because of some build
problem. If so, modprobe nvidia will tell you.
Good luck,
Andrew.
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