[SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

trusktr · 2010-02-18 23:11:50

I followed the beginner's installation guide and everything worked fine all the way up untill updating the kernel module dependencies using the "depmod -a" command..

First I created the "xorg.conf" file with the "nvidia-xconfig" command and it said:

Make sure all instances of DRI are commented out:
# Load "dri"

However, there are no instances of "dri" in my xorg.conf file, so i skipped this step and moved on.

Next it said:

Double check your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to make sure your default depth, horizontal sync, vertical refresh, and resolutions are acceptable.

But I don't know what they should be set to, so I skipped this and moved on again.

This is where everything fails:

The next step is to use the following command to update the kernel module dependencies for the nVidia drivers.

depmod -a

But when i do that, it fails.

Anyone know possibly why or has had this issue?

Last edited by trusktr (2010-02-19 07:22:32)

trusktr · 2010-02-18 23:12:45

UPDATE: After a reboot and trying "depmod -a" again, it does something for a few seconds, then returns back to the prompt without and error message, so i think it worked!

Is there any way to check to see if it updated the kernel module dependencies?

Zack89 · 2010-02-19 03:32:41

It worked. depmod -a does not return any information to terminal. All it does is rebuild your kernel module dependencies for your current kernel. A word of warning however, pay attention to your updates when you run pacman -Syu or pacman -Su, if the kernel is updated your gonna need to run depmod -a again or else X will fail to run because it cant find the nvidia module. I usually get around this by adding kernel26 to the IgnorePkg line in pacman.conf. Kernel updates imo are the primary breakers of systems so i choose not to do them, dont see the point.

trusktr · 2010-02-19 05:05:40

Cool, thatnks for that good info!

PirateJonno · 2010-02-20 01:01:02

Zack89 wrote:

It worked. depmod -a does not return any information to terminal. All it does is rebuild your kernel module dependencies for your current kernel. A word of warning however, pay attention to your updates when you run pacman -Syu or pacman -Su, if the kernel is updated your gonna need to run depmod -a again or else X will fail to run because it cant find the nvidia module. I usually get around this by adding kernel26 to the IgnorePkg line in pacman.conf. Kernel updates imo are the primary breakers of systems so i choose not to do them, dont see the point.

Um, you don't need to run depmod -a after a kernel update, the nvidia package does it for you. Also, while I agree that kernel updates are probably the primary breakers of systems, if you make sure nvidia is upgraded at the same time there shouldn't be a problem (I've never had one in 2 years of using arch, although I have experienced kernel regressions in other areas).

trusktr · 2010-02-21 00:29:48

speaking of kernel updates, do i have to do one after i've installed several drivers for various devices? Like compile them into the kernel or anything?

PirateJonno · 2010-02-21 00:47:15

um, I don't think you can just 'do' a kernel update, you have to wait for a new one to come out first
and no, if you installed the drivers with pacman you shouldn't need to compile them into the kernel. you might need to run depmod -a for other drivers though, I don't know

trusktr · 2010-02-21 01:43:14

Hmmmm, yeah, that is a good question: When to run depmod -a?

Misfit138 · 2010-02-21 02:32:49

PirateJonno wrote:

um, I don't think you can just 'do' a kernel update, you have to wait for a new one to come out first

You can run any kernel version you wish on Arch, if you compile yourself, of course.

trustktr wrote:

Hmmmm, yeah, that is a good question: When to run depmod -a?

When you first install the proprietary drivers. That's it, unless you will be maintaining a custom kernel system or something. In fact, the proprietary drivers might even run the depmod script themselves, I don't know, since it is a black box binary. Makes sense, but someone else would need to answer that.

EDIT: Also wanted to add that many shell commands throw no output whatsoever upon successful completion. Therefore, the absence of error output can be interpreted as no error. Just FYI.

Last edited by Misfit138 (2010-02-21 02:58:04)

trusktr · 2010-02-21 03:25:46

hehe cool. Thanks

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-18 23:11:50

[SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#2 2010-02-18 23:12:45

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#3 2010-02-19 03:32:41

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#4 2010-02-19 05:05:40

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#5 2010-02-20 01:01:02

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#6 2010-02-21 00:29:48

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#7 2010-02-21 00:47:15

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#8 2010-02-21 01:43:14

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#9 2010-02-21 02:32:49

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

#10 2010-02-21 03:25:46

Re: [SOLVED] Error with Nvidia Drivers (following the Beginner's Guide)

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