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Old August 28th 03, 12:55 AM
Keith Clark
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Default how to install the Nvidia 4496 Linux driver on a 2.6 kernel

After some Google searching and experimenting, I got the latest Nvidia
driver to work with the 2.6-test4 kernel yesterday, so if you're running
the 2.6 kernel and don't want to wait for Nvidia to officially support
it, here's a mini how-to that worked for me (but your mileage may vary).
This how-to was posted on another web page but it didn't work as
originally written so I "corrected" it based on my results with Red Hat
9.

Assuming you've already downloaded 4496 from Nvidia, are running the 2.6
kernel, and are in init level 3 (no X servers running):

1.grab the correct patch and a modified Nvidia installer binary here
http://www.minion.de

2.extract the Nvidia driver:

../NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run –extract-only

3.cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2/usr/src/nv

4. patch -p1 –dry-run NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.5.diff

5. if no failures, then:

patch -p1 NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.5.diff

6. mv Makefile.kbuild Makefile

7. replace the Nvidia installer binary in
NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2/ with the one you downloaded from
www.minion.de

8. run the (modified) Nvidia installer


Here's some kernel 2.6 info for those who haven't gotten RPM or modules
to work :

http://people.redhat.com/arjanv/2.5/RPMS.kernel/

http://thomer.com/linux/migrate-to-2.6.html

If you go to the first link, you'll find "RedHat" versions of the kernel
- that is, the kernel compiled with all the options that RedHat uses. Or
you can download the source RPM, and when you install it if you look in
/usr/src/linux2.6*/configs you'll find files that you can load into
xconfig and then tweak slightly (for NTFS read access of whatever) and
compile your own (recommended). You'll need to install the utilities in
that folder (and an updated version of db4, a dependency for oprofile),
plus read the info on the next link for some info on USB modules and the
different configuration file for loading modules. RedHat's RPM doesn't
work with the 2.6 kernel, but there's a workaround and a possible
solution on Thomer's page (second link). By the way, I did upgrade my
version of RPM from the link on Thomer's page and it worked fine for me.
Red Carpet and up2date now work for me with the new kernel.

I like it (the 2.6 kernel) a *lot* so far : everything seems
"snappier", much more responsive, especially when starting a lot of
applications at the same time - and no this isn't on a production
system, just my home machine that I edit digital video with almost every
day, along with Photoshop (yeah, you can install it on Linux :-) and
play a little Unreal Tournament 2003 and the occasional DVD rip or audio
CD burning...

Good luck,

--Keith