Re: Newbie Nvidia/Woody problem
"Andrea Vettorello" <andrea.vettorello@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:32XVe-2Rx-3@gated-at.bofh.it...
> On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 10:30:17 -0000, Brian <bcap@clara.co.uk> wrote:
> > Hi there,
> >
> > Complete Linux newbie here. Successfully partitioned the disk on my W2K
> > box, and got it dual-booting with Woody (installed from a CD set). I
> > thought that was pretty cool, and I was going good! Tried startx, and
got
> > this: (EE) No devices detected.
> >
> > Hmmm, no video driver presumably. My video card is a an ASUS V9520
Magic
> > (Nvidia GeForce FX5200 Series). No Linux drivers at Asus, so tried
Nvidia:
> > lots there! Unfortunately the most recent ones all refused to install
> > because they don't support kernel versions earlier than 2.4 (despite the
> > readme saying that 2.2.12 is the minimum). The Woody install seems to
have
> > given me 2.2.20.
> >
> > So, by trial and error, I have finished up with driver version 5328.
> > However, when I run the Nvidia install, I finish up with the following
> > error: "Unable to load the kernel module nvidia.o. This is most likely
> > because the kernel module was built using the wrong kernel header files.
> > Blah blah blah."
> >
> > Now, I've used apt to install kernel-source-2.2.20. I have used the
> > kernel-include-path switch on the Nvidia installer to point at the
folder
> > containing the kernel.h file, which is what the installer seems to want.
> > Thus, my command line is this:
> >
> > sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-5328-pkg1.run --kernel-include-path
> > /usr/src/kernel-source-2.2.20/include
> >
> > But, I still get the error described above.
> >
> > Incidentally, before the install fails, I get a warning that "The
compiler
> > used to compile the kernel was gcc 2.7; the current compiler is gcc
2.95."
> > Thus far I have overriden this warning and gone ahead anyway, but could
> > someone tell me how to set the CC environment variable, as suggested by
the
> > installer, to get the correct compiler?
> >
> > If all this is complete codswallop (or if indeed I am in the wrong
> > newsgroup!) please don't spare my feelings! As I said, I am a complete
> > newbie, and all help will be very gratefully received, even if only to
> > direct me elsewhere! If any technical help is forthcoming, please,
please
> > treat me like an idiot! I need actual commands to type!
> >
>
> Surely someone with a nvidia card that read this list will answer
> helping you, but in the meantime you can search for former answers in
> the Debian mailing list archive (http://lists.debian.org/search.html)
> or with google (you can search "debian woody geforce" or "debian woody
> nvidia").
>
> Said that, probably you'll find easier to switch to Sarge, if you have
> a network connection, that should have better support for your card,
> as there should be some packages with support for the nvidia binary
> drivers, but YMMV... =)
>
>
> Andrea
>
Thank you Andrea for your reply. I have spent hours trawling archives, and
found lots of threads about Nvidia drivers, but none that I could
understand! I really need a complete idiot's guide to doing this which, as
you say, will need to come from someone who's done it.
Regarding Sarge, isn't that unstable? What exactly does that mean? How
exactly would I switch to it? I deliberately chose to install Woody, from a
set of CD's, because I felt that for a complete dunce like me it would be
far easier than downloading and installing bleeding-edge stuff that I don't
understand.
I do have a network connection, which is working OK.
Thanks,
Brian
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