Mandrake 8.0, nVIDIA and other stuff

[richardve]

Well, after some big partition errors caused by winblows I've decided to only install Mandrake 8.0

Now I have one little problem: I want HW acceleration (GeForce2 MX), but since this is Mandrake 8 there aren't any drivers for it on nVIDIA's site..
(I can't use Mandrake 7.2 because it won't install on my system)
Can I just install the 7.2 drivers or do I have to wait for 8.0 drivers?
If so, does someone know when they'll be available?

I also 'd like to know how I can run those MESA demos..
They don't even run with software rendering.

Can someone please help me?
(I feel like a newbie again )

Thx!

[jackz]

Best way to get nvidia drivers to mandrake is to get the tar files from nvidia web page.

after installing those you should be able to run mesa demos and tux-racer.

thise nvidia drivers are only I know witch are easier to compile than use RPM-files.

there are good README files includes so there should not be any problems

Originally posted by richardve:
Well, after some big partition errors caused by winblows I've decided to only install Mandrake 8.0

Now I have one little problem: I want HW acceleration (GeForce2 MX), but since this is Mandrake 8 there aren't any drivers for it on nVIDIA's site..
(I can't use Mandrake 7.2 because it won't install on my system)
Can I just install the 7.2 drivers or do I have to wait for 8.0 drivers?
If so, does someone know when they'll be available?

I also 'd like to know how I can run those MESA demos..
They don't even run with software rendering.

Can someone please help me?
(I feel like a newbie again )

Thx!

Mandrake uses RPMs to manage their files. The EASIEST way (in my opinion) is to get the .src.rpm file. Compile them with:

rpm --rebuild name.of.src.rpm

For Red Hat systems (Mandrake is a derivative of Red Hat), you would look in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386 for the compiled binary. I'm guessing Mandrake uses a similar setup. In there you will find the NVIDIA_kernel rpm which can be installed using:

rpm -ivh NVIDIA_kernel-version.rpm

Make sure you see a message saying something like "NVdriver installed successfully".

Next, install the GLX rpm with:

rpm -ivh NVIDIA_GLX-version.rpm

This package takes care of ALL file dependencies for you and also displays a message about them being moved (renamed) to something different to prevent library conflicts.

Hope that helps,
rs1n

[richardve]

Thx for answering..

I'm first trying the tar files because they look easier to me.

I've followed the instructions from the README but now I've got another problem:

There's a header that should be included with nv.c (line:50) but it (/usr/include/linux/modversions.h) does only have the following contents:

#error Modules should never use kernel-headers system headers,
#error but headers from an appropriate kernel-source

This is the part of the nv.c file wich includes the modversions.h header:

// pull in the versioned kernel api defines if needed
#ifdef CONFIG_MODVERSIONS
#define MODVERSIONS
#include <linux/modversions.h>
#endif

Can I just remove this include?
What should I do now?

[richardve]

Well, I've tried to comment those #error messages in modversions.h and it did compile but I'm now getting a lot of unresolved externals (basic functions like sprintf).

I'll try searching for a version of modversions.h wich doesn't have that error msg inside (kernel 2.4.3)

[tfpsly]

1_ Mandrake is NOT based on redhat. Only mdk6.0 was. since 6.1 it hasn't been.

2_ The way to even with nvidia drivers is :
* get the NVIDIA_{GLX,kernel}*tgz
* tar xfz blabla...
* uncompress your kernel sources - if not already done- in /usr/src. You should have a rpm named kernel-sources-* (2nd cd).
* edit NVIDIA_kernel*/Makefile. Find the line with all the include directory : it contains -Isomething (-I. if I remember right.) Add "-I/usr/src/linux/include " at the beginning (just after the "=")
then for NVIDIA_{GLX,kernel}* directory
* cd ;make

Now enjoy

[richardve]

Ah, that's better language..

I'll try it as soon as I've got that 2nd ISO file on my HD.

[richardve]

Yahoo!

It works!!

just a quick note for future readers I had the exact same problems mentioned here a week ago, the only error is that you need to install the kernel sources, other than that the src tar file and the generic glx binary should work straight off
so the procedure is simply
1) install X4 (select it in install)
2) install kernel sources (again can be done while installing)
3) download the nvidia kernel tar file and extract
4) run make
5) run make install
6) download the generic nvidia glx rpm and install it
7) reboot
8) load Tuxracer =)

[tfpsly]

Just 2 errors :

>the only error is that you need to install the kernel sources, other than that the src tar file
> > uncompress your kernel sources - if not already done- in /usr/src. You should have a rpm named kernel-sources-*
Exactly what I told =)

> reboot
Needless.
Only relaunch X11