mandriva performance problems

[nmset]

You are running 2.6.31.6-desktop-1mnb and the sources installed are kernel-source-latest-2.6.31.6-1mnb2 and kernel-source-2.6.31.6-1mnb-1-1mnb2. It seems you don't have kernel-source-2.6.31.6-1mnb.

You should install from MCC the kernel corresponding to one of the sources installed and try build the driver again.

Else, you may install dkms-nvidia-current and let DKMS build the module during the installation. You will need the right sources for the running kernel though.

You should really give dkms-nvidia-current a try as it installs all dependencies automatically.

[Turphy]

I'm sure I've got all the packages I need, I checked mcc for them and I have kernel-desktop-latest and kernel-desktop-devel-latest. Ive installed dkms-nvidia-current and yet the installer is still saying:
If you are using a Linux 2.6 kernel, please make sure
you have configured kernel sources matching your kernel
installed on your system. If you specified a separate
output directory using either the "KBUILD_OUTPUT" or
the "O" KBUILD parameter, make sure to specify this
directory with the SYSOUT environment variable or with
the equivalent nvidia-installer command line option.

Depending on where and how the kernel sources (or the
kernel headers) were installed, you may need to specify
their location with the SYSSRC environment variable or
the equivalent nvidia-installer command line option.
How do i do this?

Mike - I've tried the commands:
[root@localhost chris]# lsmod |grep -i nvidia
[root@localhost chris]# modprobe nvidia
FATAL: Module nvidia not found.
Doesn't sound good.
xorg.conf is attached as a text file. Thanks again.

[nmset]

dkms-nvidia-current : usually it installs all dependencies and builds the nvidia.ko module. But you must be using Mandriva Powerpack, proprietary drivers are not shipped with Mandriva Free or Mandriva One. You don't need the driver from nvidia.com through DKMS.

If you really want to build the nvidia module, you are left with no choice but a heavy one : build a new kernel from source, boot on the new kernel and run the nvidia installer. That's much to do.

[Turphy]

Well, I'm gonna have to do that as I want to watch online videos and I'm using the free mandriva. Know any good, easy, step by step guides to doing this?

[reed9]

You should be able to add all the non-free sections from Easy URPMI

[Turphy]

Tried that, made no difference. I'm trying to build the kernel from source now using this guide: How to: Compile Linux kernel 2.6
so far ive downloaded and extracted the latest stable kernel (2.6.32.6) and now I'm trying to configure it, i'll be back with a progress report

[nmset]

How to: Compile Linux kernel 2.6

Stop at step 5 as per this howto.

You are running make in [..]/src. Enter the directory underneath where you unpacked the linux sources.

Install first lib64qt3-devel, it will be easier to configure the kernel (though it is a daunting task, but you'll leave all as defaults except one)

urpmi lib64qt3-devel
cd ../linux-<version>
make xconfig

On the left panel, go to Kernel hacking and in the right top panel, unselect Compile the kernel with debug info. This is important to prevent huge binaries to be built and you whole kernel build can exceed 2 GB.

Save and close.

make
make modules_install
make install

That should do it.

(I too started doing these incredible things 10 years back !)

[Turphy]

ah! too late... I already got the qt3 files off the software installer, did make xconfig and just left the defaults. On to "make" now. Can I undo this? I've got enough room for 2gigs but if it's gonna slow my system down I'd rather change it.

[nmset]

Ctrl+C to stop make. Then you'd better issue make clean to remove those huge files. make xconfig, do the single modification and the rest is the same. I don't know if it would slow down the machine, I noticed you have 1 GB RAM, that's quite short (nowadays), perhaps with respect to this, it would slow down because of lack of RAM.

[Turphy]

Well I did all the commands up to "make install", then tried to install Nvidia only to get the same bloomin message about configuring kernel sources! doh! Should I complete all the steps from instructions, I tried but I think it's written for ubuntu users; when I wrote
# vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
I just got a blank screen. What to do?