driver NVIDIA Knoppix 5.0.1 version CD

[blueberry]

Hello, I had installed in the hard disk Knoppix 4.0.2 DVD. I installed without no problem driver nvidia doing:

# init 3
# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-7174-pkg1.run

The problem comes now when I want to update to Knoppix 5.0.1 version CD. I have tried to install driver nvidia, but it has not worked to me. In Internet I found that when having now Xorg 7,0, I had to say to him where to put the modules, doing:

# init 3
# sh NVIDIA-Linux.x86.1.0-8762-pkg1.run --x-module-path=/usr/lib/xorg/modules

But when doing it says to me:

Error: Unable to build the NVIDIA kernel modulate


Somebody knows like solving it?

Thanks beforehand

[posmanet]

I have an older TNT2 ultra card so i have to use the nvidia "legacy driver", version no 7182, but i'm seeing the same problem:

"ERROR: Unable to build the NVIDIA kernel module." at the end of building kernel module

can anyone help?

[posmanet]

I tried some things and found out that

modpost

seems to be missing somewhere in the sources. From /usr/src/linux-2.6.17/scripts/mod/ there is a link:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 2006-07-08 14:23 modpost -> /usr/src/kernel-headers-2.6.17/scripts/mod/modpost
(i did apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.17-1)
But in the linux-headers dir there isnt even a directory called scripts.

In /usr/src/linux-2.6.17/scripts/mod/ i found a modpost.c and modpost.h. Does anyone know how i could build a modpost from this - or any other way to fix this problem?

[chris_startx]

I have the same problem trying to install the NVIDIA chipset driver for audio and network on a laptop (Gateway MX3410). I installed Knoppix 5.0.1 on HDD and ran the NVIDIA installer, at the end of building the module it says that it encountered some error. Looking at the log, I can see there is some error during compilation. Digging a little deeper, I found a package in Knoppix DVD (linux-kernel-headers-knoppix) that has a lot of missing files and which is maintained by mr. Klaus Knopper but which is nowhere to be found on the net. I've been googling around for it and nada, niente, nope, nothing. So I'm just wondering, is this some bad joke or what? Is it Open Source or Open Curse? I will actually post a whole new thread on this matter, maybe someone will notice it.

[posmanet]

Right now i'm using the nvidia video driver (7182 which is the legacy driver) on my Knoppix 5.0.1-cd hd-installation. All You need for proper compilation/installation of the nvidia closed-source video driver is the kernel sources with some of the scripts compiled.

So what did i do?

apt-get update
apt-get install linux-source-2.6.17
- now there will be a linux-source-2.6.17.tar.bz2 in /usr/src
- take the mc (midnight commander) (for example) and copy the contents of the folder linux-source-2.6.17 in this archive over /usr/src/linux without overwriting anything
cd /usr/src/linux
make menuconfig
- just go exit this one, without changing anything, but saving the config (=yes)
make
- make will produce some error, but this doesnt matter because we dont need a new kernel but some scripts in /usr/src/linux/scripts that make built for us right now
- now, you can install your nvidia-driver (just follow the instructions they give)


chris_startx: As You can see, there's no bad joke here and everything EXCEPT THE NVIDIA DRIVER (!) is open source and You can get the kernel source almost everywhere...

I wish You people success!

[chris_startx]

To posmanet: well, what can I say? I take a bow before the expert. I'm not a Linux expert yet, not by a long shot. And as far as I understand, you actually downloaded the "official" 2.6.17 kernel sources and "merged" them with whatever already existed on the DVD. I don't think I would have thought of this... especially because I knew the knoppix kernel is not the same with the official debian kernel.
But what bothers me is that - as I said in my first post - there is a "knoppix-specific" package on the DVD (linux-kernel-headers-knoppix) which is maintained by Klaus Knopper AND WHICH HAS MISSING FILES !!!
Now my question was where in the world could I download the FULL package, to replace the messed up one on the DVD? ANSWER: NOWHERE!! PACKAGE TOP SECRET, courtesy of mr. Knopper. There once was a site where one could download those "knoppix-custom" packages, at developer.linuxtag.net/knoppix/i386/ but this website completely dissapeared.
THIS is what i called BAD JOKE.
I now understand though (considering what you just said you did) that this package is not actually required for having the working kernel sources. As a matter of fact, in Knoppix 4.0.2 DVD, the same package has the same missing files (for what reason, God only knows...) but in 4.0.2 I was able to compile the nvidia drivers with no problem. Well, I still have a hard time trying to configure the sound driver, but anyway.

Anyway, posmanet, thanks for your solution to the problem. I could use a friend like you (linux guru I mean) because I really have no friends and so I don't have anybody to guide me through this big linux challenge...

[chris_startx]

Sorry, but your procedure described above does not work. I did not get any error at "make". And Nvidia modules still do not build.
So f***. This Knoppix 501 is totally messed up.

[linookser]

I agree this should be simpler, but I did get Posmanet's procedure to work for me. I used this to compile some wifi modules and also the nvidia module. I did it slightly differently but it amounted to the same thing. I made the /usr/src/linux link point to the /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17 folder and copied the contents of the existing /usr/src/linux-2.6.17 folder into linux-source-2.6.17, using Konqueror, overwriting all, instead of the other way around (less to copy). It works either way. Then I did the "make menuconfig" and exit, with errors, in /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.17 (=/usr/src/linux because I changed the linux link). I didn't do the following "make". Then I compiled several modules using module-assistant, for example to compile the nvidia module I just did a "m-a -k linux a-b nvidia-kernel", it downloaded what was necessary and left an installable deb package in /usr/src. I could have had it install the package as well, using "m-a -k linux a-i nvidia-kernel". I specified the kernel folder for module-assistant (m-a) to use explicitly with the -k option to avoid any problems with it trying to use the Knoppix headers. So here's what I did step by step, if it helps anyone:

su
apt-get update #make sure you're not in a package handler like synaptic or kpackage when you use apt
apt-get install linux-source-2.6.17 #This brought in version 2.6.17-8
exit
cd /usr/src
tar xjvf linux-source-2.6.17.tar.bz2
alias cp=cp #this removes prompting for overwrites, if doing the copying on the command line
cp -r linux-2.6.17/* linux-source-2.6.17/ #can also do this in a file manager
ln -s linux-source-2.6.17 linux
cd linux
make menuconfig #just exit and save the .config
cd ..

su
apt-get install module-assistant
m-a -k linux a-i nvidia-kernel #compiles an nvidia-kernel module, installs it and leaves the deb in /usr/src
m-a -k linux a-b madwifi #compiles an upgraded madwifi module
m-a -k linux a-b acx100 #compiles an acx100 wifi module (also need firmware)
etc.

Make sure your version of gcc matches the one used for the Knoppix 5.01 kernel. I had upgraded to gcc 4.1 and was getting "invalid module format" errors when loading the modules. I downgraded back to gcc 4.0.3-4 from http://snapshot.debian.net/archive/2006/06/22/debian/ testing main repository and recompiled, then it worked. I downgraded g++ to the same version.

For nvidia to work, you also need two other packages:

apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common
apt-get install nvidia-glx

P.S. I upgraded the madwifi module because the version included with 5.01 didn't work well with my Netgear WPN511 adapter, slow connection with a lot of packet loss. An upgraded version from Debian/Unstable works well.