I have been having multiple problems installing the latest (or even several versions back) Linux X86_64 Nvidia drivers.
I
am running Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackalope on an AMD Athelon 64 with
2GBytes RAM, and initially my Kernel was 2.6.28-17. When I first tried
to install the kernel modules, I did something wrong and the kernel
began to fail, losing the ability to read CDROM disks, USB drives, run
modprobe or depmode. So I downloaded a pristine Kernel source package
from Kenrel.Org, 2.6.32 and installed that and started over trying to
install the Nvidia video drivers.
My first step was to download the latest version from Nvidia, NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.53-pkg2.run.
Then I ran chmod 777 to make it executable. But when I try to run it,
it verifies the archive file then fails to extract the
nvidia-installler, or any other file. This happens if I run as me,
"sudo sh", "sudo su", and even rebooting to run level 3 (difficult to
do under Ubuntu!). I also tried adding the Kernel Source directiry
option "sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.53-pkg2.run --kernel-source-path=/usr/src". In each case, the output is:
root@mike-desktop:/home/mike/Downloads# sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.53-pkg2.run
Verifying archive integrity... OK
Uncompressing NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for Linux-x86_64 190.53...............................................................................................................................................................
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-190.53-pkg2.run: 880: ./nvidia-installer: not found
Since
it never extracts the nvidia-installer, there is no log file in
/var/log. I tried under earlier, Ubuntu installed Kernels, but
apparently they are all 32bit, so the 64bit version would not install.
Since only the 2.6.32 Kernel was running properlly, there was no point
in downloading the 32bit version and trying again in a kernel that
could read USB flashdrives.
My next attempt was to use the Ubuntu supplied driver, version 180.
I used the System/Administration/Hardware Drivers. In the pull down
menu, NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 180) [Recommended] is
not activated. When I select activate, it requests my password,
downloads a copy of the driver, but fails to activate it. I have tried
using version 173 but it also fails to become activated.
Next I Googled installing Nvidia drivers on Ubunutu and found a
third party package to help with the install, EnyNG. I was able to
download an run this program, but it reports that the Kernel Headers
were not available, even though I had just downloaded the source, ran
menuconfig, and compiled for 2 hours the current Kernel from source,
and had not deleted anything. The sample output is:
root@mike-desktop:/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build# envyng -t
+-------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Welcome to EnvyNG |
| Developed by Alberto Milone (aka tseliot) |
| |
+-------------------------------------------------+
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| EnvyNG Menu |
| |
| 1 - Install the NVIDIA driver |
| |
| 2 - Uninstall the NVIDIA driver |
| |
| 3 - Install the ATI driver |
| |
| 4 - Uninstall the ATI driver |
| |
| 5 - Restart the Xserver |
| |
| 6 - Restart your computer |
| |
| 7 - Exit |
| |
| NOTE: IF THE SCREEN TURNS BLACK, PLEASE TYPE ALT+F1 |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Please select one of the activities displayed above and press ENTER:
1
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Number | Candidate Version | Installed Version | Compatible | Recommended |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 0 | 180.44-0ubuntu1 | 180.44-0ubuntu1 | + | + |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1 | 173.14.16-0ubuntu1 | - | + | - |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2 | 96.43.10-0ubuntu1 | - | - | - |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 3 | 71.86.08-0ubuntu1 | - | - | - |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Please select the number corresponding to the desired driver and press ENTER
(or type another number and press Enter to go back to the previous menu):
0
Compiled Kernel
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Error: |
| |
| EnvyNG has detected that the headers for |
| your kernel are missing and cannot be installed |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
root@mike-desktop:/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build#
My Fourth attempt to load the Nvidia video drivers involved finding the directory "/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build". I tried "make module", according to the README file, but the compile failed with the message:
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c: In function ‘nvos_proc_create’:
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:596: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:597: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:598: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:618: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:632: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:643: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:653: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:663: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:674: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:681: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c: In function ‘nvos_proc_add_warning_file’:
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.c:708: error: ‘struct proc_dir_entry’ has no member named ‘owner’
make[4]: *** [/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build/nv.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** [_module_/var/lib/dkms/nvidia/180.44/build] Error 2
make[2]: *** [sub-make] Error 2
NVIDIA: left KBUILD.
nvidia.ko failed to build!
make[1]: *** [module] Error 1
make: *** [module] Error 2
Next
I tired to download a copy of my Kernel headers, but since I ran
menuconfig, I realized that I could not download them from somewhere
else and tried to figure out how to extract the headers from the source
files. I ran "fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --revision=custom1.0
kernel_image kernel_headers so that I coudl then load the Kernel
headers, but that failed to build also. I also tried adding soft links
to help EnvyNG to find the headers, adding
/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32 and /usr/src/linux, both pointing to
/usr/linux-2.6.32, but that did not work either.
Could someone please recommend a way to get _some_version of
the NVIDIA graphics drivers running on my system? I really miss having
that second sreen when running schematic capture and PCBoard layout.
Thanks in advance.
Mike