Installing nForce unified driver on Linux doesn't work.

[CougTek]

I downloaded the nforce driver for Linux, placed it on a FAT32 partition and then installed Fedora on the same drive (Fedora = freeware Red Hat). Once instalation finished, Linux clueless as usual about the integrated LAN on mainboard. Me thought "ah HA!, now have mighty driver!" I mount the FAT32 partition (easy). Was loggued as root BTW, or mounting the artion wouldn't have been possible anyway.

So, reading nVidia's instructions, I tried first to install the src.rpm version (I downloaded both the tarball and the source rpm package). nVidia says :

rpm --rebuild nforcedrivername.src.rpm

Little problem here since --rebuild isn't a known option. I did rpm --help and --rebuild doesn't exist. There's --rebuilddb (rebuild database), but that's something else. Anyway, I tried it and it didn't do much.

So now with the tarball. I added the three lines nVidia mentioned into the modules.conf located in /etc/ like nVidia wanted. Then nVidia says :

tar -xvzf nforce.tgz

Kinda lame since it also doesn't work. I get error messages like what I cannot change the ownership of the file or something like that.

So I still don't have Net access on my Linux installation and I'm starting to be just a little annoyed by the pathetic interaction between Linux and nVidia.

Anyone here has succesfully installed the nForce unified driver under Linux? What's the magic trick?

 

[Mercutio]

Use "rpmbuild --rebuild" instead.

I stand by my assessment that the only thing that makes nforce2 worthwhile is soundstorm.

 

[CougTek]

This is so great. The Fedora first installation disk, while refusing to eject due to an unexpected bug during re-installation (First install did no longer detect my mouse for absolutely no reason), called my hammer and resulted in the death of my sole burner.

Guess it means the end of my Linux distro experimentations.

 

[Mercutio]

You do know that you normally have to unmount the CD-ROM drive to eject a CD, right?

Would it be easier if I just shipped you a preconfigured hard disk?

 

[Handruin]

This is so great. The Fedora first installation disk, while refusing to eject due to an unexpected bug during re-installation (First install did no longer detect my mouse for absolutely no reason), called my hammer and resulted in the death of my sole burner.

Guess it means the end of my Linux distro experimentations.

Got any pics of the death of that burner?

 

[CougTek]

You do know that you normally have to unmount the CD-ROM drive to eject a CD, right?

Yes, that I know. But the issue occured during the OS installation and Anaconda asked me to change the CD, so it should have umount the disc alone. It didn't. So I became a bit tensed and my primary corthex decided that it had enough of it and that it would be a good idea to force-open the tray by pulling it against the computer's will. The fact that the disc was still spinning didn't matter at that moment.

After a few torture screams from several small mecanical parts inside the burner, I got my disc...along with the whole tray. Then I thought "What the heck? I've wanted to do it for the past half hour..." And I swinged the hammer into it.

It was legitimate defense. The burner obviously provoked me. Keeping all this anger inside myself without exteriorising it would probably have caused me to develop a cancer.

Would it be easier if I just shipped you a preconfigured hard disk?

Doubtful, since you typically don't use similar hardware as I do (I have no KT600 motherboard here) so the OS would probably be quite reluctant to operate well once I would place it inside one of my systems. Oh and if the drive would have Linux installed on it, the warranty lenght, wether it would be 90 days or 5 years, wouldn't be an issue : it would need RMA well before expiration.

Got any pics of the death of that burner?

Its death? No. I could take pictures of it a bit later, but I have no movie of the fatal incident. I wasn't in a state to think about thoses things. In fact, I wasn't in a state when "thinking" was something I had had in mind.

I'm pretty confident that I would have been able to install the driver if the whole fucked up with my mouse didn't occur. rpmbuild was a nice idea Merc. Thanks for your help.

P.S. Fedora Core test 3 has been released this afternoon.

 

[Mercutio]

My only nforce2 machine is in an equipment rack from whence it shall not be moved, but if you've got an i875, KT266a, 333, 400 or 600, SiS 735 or 748, I can probably manage something.

 

[The JoJo]

Doubtful, since you typically don't use similar hardware as I do (I have no KT600 motherboard here)

Linux handles these kinds of situations quite well in my experience. I just swapped my motherboard from a a7v400 to an a7v600. I know all people don't like kudzu, but it quite smoothly removed the previous configuration items, and installed the new ones. The jump wasn't that big as it was an athlon->athlon motherboard swap, but still...
Almost forgot, I installed a new gfx card and nic at the same time, all nice and dandy. (And I just myself a Zyxel 5 port gigabit switch, and today I should get some more cables so that I'll have gige network at home (3 computers). I will still use the fast ethernet switch/firewall as a secondary network used for internet (all computers will have 2 nics). Testing time today

 

[Buck]

Just for fun JoJo, switch motherboards again to a nForce chipset and lets see how the OS handles that.

 

[CougTek]

Yeah, but ask your girlfriend to hide the hammer before you make the switch.

 

[The JoJo]

Right after I've gotten your generous donations to my bank account, so I can afford to order a new mb

I'll believe you, as I understand you really need to add those nvidia drivers for the whole enchilada in linux..(?)

 

[Mercutio]

Do they have enchiladas in Finland?

 

[Buck]

Haven't you heard of the famous Turku Enchilada?

 

[CougTek]

Oh great. One of our customers (actually, our main customer) has decided to move to a Linux server. And of course, I'll have to provide the maintenance for it. Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to smash my sole and only burner afterall. Maybe.

Anyone here knows where I could find a very tall bridge?

BTW Merc, I have no problem when installing Linux distros on systems using a VIA-based motherboard. It's just the thing with the nFarce driver installation that annoys me. Post installation duties also make me lose my temper at times. Mainly things like updating applications. The common theme here by the software makers seems to be to provide inacurate and/or incomplete installation details.

I'll have to configure a Linux server (Apache and MySQL) thursday. The dream. I plan to use Red Hat 9.0 and then upgrade the applications that need to be. Why use an outdated distro instead of Fedora Test3? Because I noticed many software providers offer rpms specifically for Red Hat/Mandrake/SuSe (but more often Red Hat). So it should make installation and upgrade simpler (crossing fingers).

I plan to install Apache 2.0.47 and MySQL 4.0.15a (MySQL 4.x is a demand of the db admin, which isn't myself). I'll try to find recent Linux books tomorrow at the library. That and a virgin to sacrifice.

 

[Mercutio]

That's pretty much how I do things. Sort of. Usually there's a lot of people complaining with major_package_X isn't working with RedHat.

A lot of time, I work with the tar.gz's rather than RPMs. The instructions tend to work better and are more adaptable; there's not much of a chance that you'll be left with a 10MB binary that you can't do anything with.

All that said, I'm putting together a gentoo PC to play with in the near future.

 

[CougTek]

BTW, instead of a hard drive with Linux pre-installed, could you ship me a burner?

Just joking.

 

[Mercutio]

32x LiteOn OK?

 

[blakerwry]

coug, updating via apt-get and a GUI front end like kpackage is absolute heaven.

just point-> click -> done

Of course you ened a working debian/knoppix/mepis computer to do so. Maybe you could give it a spin once you get a burner....

btw, I think I'm sold on using mepis.

 

[CougTek]

rpmbuild was a nice idea Merc.

A very nice idea indeed. I'm typing from Fedora Test 3 on the system with the nForce2 chipset right now. Most of the things work, although I've stumbled on an annoying bug since I used Up2date (RedHat updating application).

Although Test3 is only about a week old, Up2date found at least 30 updated packages. I, of course, installed them all. Of these package was a newer kernel (2.4.22-xx97 instead of the original 2.4.22-xx88 that came with the installation ISO). I already installed the Nvidia nForce unified driver before updating the system, which was necessary since updating needs network access. However, after I reboot under the new kernel, my LAN no longer works and I can't uninstall it (rpm -e in the appropriate directory doesn't work). So I don't have net access under the new kernel and I have to use the original kernel to gain network access.

I've tried to install using the tarball instead, but to no avail. rpm -i doesn't work (tells me the rpm is already installed), rpm -U tells me the same thing too. I tried to come back to the original kernel and uninstall the driver from there, but it also tells me that the package isn't installed when I rpm -e and that it's installed when I rpm -i or -U. Guess the problem will be fixed only when Nvidia will release a new set of drivers so that I can update the rpm with a different version.

In the mean time, kernel 2.4.22-xx88 works ok, so I'll continue using it as-is.

Thanks everyone for your help.