On Fri, 2004-07-30 at 07:28, cam wrote: > Hello all, > > I've just moved to debian in the last few days after several years of RH - > usual reasons. Enjoying it very much so far. I installed woody with bf24 kernel > from dl'd CD and just put on the most basic system. I used apt-get to install > x, xfce, mozilla and a few other things.. I then decided to upgrade to sarge > and did a dist-upgrade. > > I now want to compile the nvidia drivers for my GeForce3 and have found it > slightly confusing from here. Here are some questions: > > - I installed gcc3.3 because this seemed to be appropriate for sarge from > discussions I found on the net but I wasn't sure how to tell. Isn't it safer > that I compile the driver with the same compiler that was used for X and the > kernel? How do I find this out? > > - When I used aptitude to get gcc, it also installed a set of kernel headers. > Why is this a dependency for the compiler? > > - Not surprisingly, the nvidia installer wants me to download the kernel > headers to match my system - why can't I find headers for the bf24 kernel that > I used initially - presumably becasue I moved up to sarge? > > - I assume it would be easier to just grab a new kernel, headers and everything > and rebuild the kernel and then the nvidia driver. Is this likely to be > problematic for other stuff on the system (e.g. X?) >
Here's a link to a great howto on building the nvidia drivers along with your kernel from source. http://home.comcast.net/~andrex/Debian-nVidia/index.html I've used this method many times on my "sarge" i386 system. I've never compiled X, or much at all besides nvidia & the kernel, for that matter. The only real problem I've had with this method is that the latest "sarge/testing" nvidia drivers (6106) have never worked for me, so I'm still using the 5336 version driver. > - Under aptitude there is a wide range of header packages available (not at my > machine now so I can't remember them, sorry) for a given kernel - what is the > difference between these? What is the minimum set to do what I want - some > customisation of the kernel and building of other modules like nvidia? > I've built and used the nvidia drivers with many custom 2.4 and 2.6 kernels, although I've never got it to work with a precompiled binary kernel. I've used the nvidia-provided installer, but as mentioned in the above-linked howto, if you have to install more than a couple times ;) you'll learn to appreciate the debian method, as I have. I can't speak much to your other questions, but have a look at the howto and let us know how it goes. FWIW: Athlon XP 2500+ MSI GF4 MX440 AGP4x 64MB Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 710s Debian testing custom 2.6.6 kernel nvidia-kernel-common 1.0.6106-1 nvidia-kernel-source 1.0.5336-6 gcc-3.3 1:3.3.4-3 X, Gnome DB > Any other advice, pointers etc gratefully received... > c -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
