scrarfussi

Did you install kernel sources one of the requirements of nvidia driver is kernel-source this has to be the same version as your kernel . Did you read the requirements at nvidia page link posted earlier you need gcc make and kernel-sources .
At this point i personally would do a fresh install i know figuring out the problem is the fun part but a clean install would really help then install all necessary packages before attempting to install the nvidia driver's you do not need to change your graphics card it will work.

gogalthorp

gcc is not installed by default neither is kernel-source. Go to Yast-Software-software management and install both packages. note there are a lot of gcc packages you only need gcc unless you want to write programs in something other then c or c++

a gforce 2 is an old card the newest NVIDIA driver may not support it. Go to the NVIDIA site and be sure you get a driver that supports that card.


to reset to the default generic driver as root (2D not 3D)

sax2 -r -m 0=vesa (0 is a digit, not a letter!)

or as root edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and be sure that the driver is "vesa" not nvidia or nv. This should get your GUI working

Note that NVIDIA generally has the best Linux support

t.web

Thanks greatly for all the above posts, I will try them all as soon as I'm next able to next week spentt. (Sadly I'm stuck supporting Windows to much at work).
I'm pretty sure I have the correct driver for 32 bit systems, I can only hope.
With KDE running in safe mode I was pretty happy searching and downloading software to get gcc and make so may try this for the Kernel source as reffered to.
Re installing suse from scratch hasn't been completely ruled out but I am on my second fresh install with same issue so would like to exhaust other avenues first (and as you said it's all about fixin it if ya can)

t.web

Forgot to ask scrarfussi, in the same way that I seached for 'gcc' to download would I do a search on 'Kernel source' or are we talking about an nvidia/suse specific name?

scrarfussi

hi there fortunately i have encountered a problem similar well not really similar but close to yours any way this is what i discovered first opensuse 11 installs kernel-pae by default which as i found out the hard does not seem to have a matching kernel source so had to install the default kernel kernel default then install the kernel-source o gcc and make have to be installed first because they are required to compile the kernel-source anyway after doing all this i tried to install the driver manually but to no avail i kept getting a build error so what i did was i did a fresh install deleted the kernel-pae installed kernel-default and gcc make and kernel-sources these are all available on your dvd then added the nvidia repositry got the nvidia driver and alas all went well and for the fun of it i ran sax2 -m -r 0=nvidia and now everything works fine hope this works for you

Any way as per your question the default name is kernel-source just type kernel in yast and see which you have installed then install the kernel-source i would advise you not to check while you are online cause you will get a long list rather use the dvd good luck

t.web

Hi think this maybe a silly question but when deleting the kernel-pae where am I best doing it from? I mean in terms of it's location and whether it's possible to use a utility or better from the command line. I also wondered if the effect of playing with anything related to the kernel in this way has to the system over all, just out of interest. (I've not yet had chance to try your fix at home but will update once I do), Thanks.