Ok, I just installed Mandrake 9.2 PowerPack on my computer, I have a PNY Geforce 3 TI 200 AGP video card. During the intstallation it detected my video card as being a NVidia Geforce3 (generation) video card, and because the PowerPack has NVidia drivers, I assumed I was good to go. Rebooted, the graphical boot process looks great, but as soon as it attempts to run X Window System the screen goes blank. The monitor does not appear to lose the signal from the video card, but it just stays blank for all of eternity. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix it? I thought about downloading the driver from the NVidia website and installing it, however, I did download it but it is 6.5 MB and too large to fit on a floppy. Booting using the rescue disc and mounting the Linux partition is fine, but booting using the rescue disc has no support for NTFS so I am unable to mount the windows partition to just copy across/install from there. I guess if it is necessary for me to to use NVidia's drivers, I suppose I can waste a CD and burn it on there. But if anyone has any suggestion on fixing it with the current Mandrake-NVidia driver that would be very helpful and much appreciated.

You suppose you can waste a cd?

Since the cd costs a whole 1/5 of 1 cent to replace... waste it already... its not like the things are hard to come by...

And if you dissagree with the fact they are worth 1/5 of 1 cent.. your paying to much, because they sell 50 packs for 99 cents...

Yeah, actually I just burned the file to a CD-RW, so I was not actually wasting a CD. Anyhow, I booted into rescue console, mounted my hard drive, figured out how to mount the CD-ROM, and attempted to run the driver file, however, I appear to not have /proc mounted, and not sure how to mount it. Therefore, I get an error. I also get an error about no kernel interface and therefore it needs to compile that, and does not find the kernel source, however, it might be able to find the kernel interface if /proc were mounted. So, once I figure that out, I think that will be my first line of attack, then if I still get the error about the kernel source, I can install that.

Ok, so I figured out how to mount proc
mount proc /proc -t proc
which got me past that error, but I DO need to install the kernel source code. Will let you know what occurs after that.

Ok, so I installed the kernel source, ran the driver installation file again, this time it did compile a module (nvidia.o) but then it says it failed to install because it was compiled with the wrong kernel source. Except that it was not. So, now what? Anyone have ANY bright ideas?

Ok, so I found on a couple of other forums that I need to change the Driver from "nv" to "nvidia". So I booted, however, I got tired of the rescue console so I booted up using my MandrakeMove. I went in and looked at the X86Config, but it was already set to "nvidia" so I looked how it was configured on the MandrakeMove, because obviously it was working. MandrakeMove had it configured as "nv" so I changed mine to that. Then rebooted, and whallah, now I have X running. Next problem, sound . Linux is so fun, you have to fix all of the broken problems before everything works . Why did I switch over from Windows?

Don't wish to rain on your parade but by doing this you just disabled your Nvidia driver From what your saying I would try the following.

From a working version of your install using the NV driver, open a console and type

uname -r

This will tell you what version kernel you are running. From that install the identical source files from either your CD's (if you are using Mandrake 9.1 or earlier) or off the internet (9.2 or higher). Once you have them identical go back to your Konsole and re-install your freshly downloaded Nvidia driver (5366 ? I think). Then edit your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file to say nvidia again instead of nv and reboot ( or if you wish ctrl +alt+F1 login as root and then issue the following two commands init 3 (wait) init 5 (wait) That will restart your X Server. All being well you should be back at your GUI with your driver installed and running.

Should you have any problems with this go back and edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file back to nv so that x will come back up, you can use your pc and post back here or to the Mandrake newsgroups.

Don't give up, while its a bit of a pain at first as you get used to it after a short while you'll find it gets easier and you can do pretty much whatever you want. It is worth the effort even though sometimes it does drive you

uname -r returns 2.4.22-10mdk as that is the default kernel that comes with Mandrake 9.2. The sources that I installed were the kernel-source-2.4.22-10mdk.i586.rpm.

Ok, well I did go to F1, init-ed down to runlevel 3, in order to kill X, installed the new driver, for some reason now that I was actually fully booted rather than in the rescue console it installed just fine without any problem. Did not seem to even need the kernel source because it did no compile anything. It said it installed successfully so I init-ed back to runlevel 5, went in and edited my XF86Conf-4 file according the documentation such as adding Load "glx" and changing Driver to "nvidia". Went back to F1 init-ed back to runlevel 3, and then back up to runlevel 5, but now then it flashed, and flashed, and dumped back to command-line. So I copied my old XF86Conf-4 back over, and rebooted and am now back in X without the nvidia driver.
I looked at the log file and here is where the error seems to occur:
(**) NVIDIA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) NVIDIA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) NVIDIA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) NVIDIA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
(--) NVIDIA(0): Linear framebuffer at 0xD8000000
(--) NVIDIA(0): MMIO registers at 0xDE000000
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(II) UnloadModule: "nvidia"
(II) UnloadModule: "vgahw"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libvgahw.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

What is wrong? What should I do now?

To be honest I'm not sure now what the problem is as that should have worked. Can I suggest that you get hold of an earlier driver, say 4496, and try installing that. As that is completely different it should recompile the kernel module creating a new one. If you get that to work then you could try upgrading to the newer version later.

Saying all that if you don't intend using your install for 3d openGL games then you don't need this driver anyway.

Let us know how you get on, and don't forget the alt.os.linux mandrake newsgroup. Its a really good source of 'better' help than me

I am experiencing a very similar problem with an (PNY) nVidia GeForce 5200 card. It started happening right after I "upgraded" Mandrake 9.2 to 9.2.1 (from MandrakeClub).

When I boot, my monitor blinks a few times (towards the end of booting) then goes directly to terminal mode. If I type "kde" I get the message you got but with:

"Error: API mismatch: the NVIDIA Kernal module is version 1.0.5328, but this X module is version 1.0.4496"

I cannot run any GUI's, not KDE, not Kedit, nothing.

If you figure out your problem please post it back here. I will do the same.

Ross

Just change the GUI start in the lilo comfig area of MCC. Don't use one of the alternate ways to start since each one disables different things while running. Thats why your having so many problems.

Ross,

It sounds like your upgrade from the MDK club has managed to get your Nvidia driver and the Kernel module mis matched. Re-install your video driver (either one) and you should be fine.

Neil

Neil,

Thanks for the input. I tried urmpi nvidia-kernel, it installed but I stil had the same problem. I did manage to "fix" the problem though - I reinstalled the official release of 9.2.

Cheers,

Ross

Installing the nvidia-kernel would not have fixed it. You would have needed to download the driver from nvidia and recompile. As long as you have fixed it though thats the main thing.

Enjoy