Alright, if i can get this worked out, linux will get my entire 120 gb of disk space. Right now it only has 30gb and its on a dual boot with windows. I just need to get this one thing fixed.
Thats right, my nvidia drivers that everyone seems to have problems with.
Well, i have read over 30 pages of text on this subject, and think i did everything right according to the manual on nvidias site, the tutorial in the newbie section, and the mandrake 9.1 one here.
My problem is, when i start the installation i get an error message saying it has trouble with the kernel and then it prompts to download a different one.
I always have to go into vi and fix xf86config-4 back to its original state.
I know nvidia is a real problem and people ask for help on it all of the time, but i havent seen anything explaining any kernel problems that i am aware of.
If anyone can help, it would be much appreciated and i could then be winders free forever. Wahoo!!

Ok, this is going to be a long reply.

I can't really see your problem with nvidia - you are not too specific, you know - but nevertheless
I'm gessing. I suppose you are using a stock distribution kernel, which you should not do in the
first place, and the nvidia installer is having difficulties getting the correct modules for it. My
suggestion is as follows:

go and get a vanilla kernel from ftp.kernel.org by issuing the following command

become root
cd /usr/src
lftpget ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kerne...2.4.21.tar.bz2

you can substitute lftpget with ncftpget or wget and if you like you can try the 2.4.22er kernel,
but I have not tested that with the nvidia installer so no gurantess.

unpack the kernel source with

bzip2 -dc linux-2.4.21.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -

change the ownership to root

chown root:root linux-2.4.21 -R

make a symbolic link from the kernel source dir linux-2.4.21 to linux (its not at all necessary
for normal operations but the nvidia installer needs it)

ln -s linux-2.4.21 linux

cd linux

make menuconfig

this fires off the configuration process in which you have to choose which kernel modules you want
in your kernel. I advice you take your time and read as much of the help pages along the way as
you can. The process of configuring your own kernel is a great way of learning your PC better and,
of course, learning the way Linux ticks.

A quick advice (something I stumbled over) If you have a USB mouse you should add USB-support
hardcoded into the kernel rather than as a module - safe you a lot of hassle. The same goes for IDE
support and SCSI - if you have SCSI. Also you should make sure to choose generic SCSI support as
a module if you have a CD burner as they are mostly driven as a SCSI device under Linux.
And a big advice: DO NOT BE AFRAID, it's much easier than it looks!

After configuring your kernel bake it:

make dep && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install

If everything goes well you can copy your new kernel in place, configure your bootloader and reboot
it. If something went wrong it is propably because of misconfigured kernel options. In this case be calm,
go back to step one make menuconfig and look through everything again.

After the kernel is compiled and the modules are installed (see above), copy it to your boot directory
and make it knwon to your boot loader. I suppose Mandrake is using grub as most decent and recent
Linux distributions are using it nowadays.

vi or joe or whatever editor you use into the config file of grub

vi /boot/grub/grub.conf

copy the part where your distribution kernel is and put it below that. It will propably look like

title Mandrake Linux (2.4.20-20.8)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-20.8 ro root=/dev/hda6
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-20.8.img

You should NOT copy the initrd part, except if you choose to build an initial ramdisk which I not suggest.
After copying (with yy in vi) and inserting (with p in vi) you have to adjust the lines as follows:

title MyOwn Linux (2.4.21)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.21 ro root=/dev/hda6
this has to be subsituted with your root-device

cp System.map /boot/System.map-2.4.21
cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.21
cp include/linux/kernel.h /boot/kernel.h-2.4.21
cp .config /boot/config-2.4.21

now you can reboot and choose your newly installed kernel. After booting with the kernel go to where
you placed the nvidia installer and run it. Have fun ;-)

Bye the way, if this is completely useless for you for whatever reason, take my apologise and be
assured, this is the way I got the nvidia driver working on my Debian SID machine, AND on my
RedHat 8 System.

greetings,

chris

WOW, alot to read, i will definetly get to work on this. Sorry for not being too specific. I guess i dont have much of an understanding of what actually is the problem, and the error message i got was just that there was a problem with the kernel, that was all i could understand from it.
Anyways, will definetly try everything out, thanks alot.