Ok I decided to give something other than Mandrake a try. I got a hold of Slackware 9.0(I think) and got it installed and all. I''m trying to install the Nvidia drivers for may vid card but it says It need the kernel header files. I''m not sure where to point it. I''m taking hints if anyone has got one. I''m not sure this whole thing was a good idea. I have had trouble compiling things from the source in Mandrake and people have said its less of an issue with some other distros. As it stands now just getting the thing setup like I want it is proving more difficult than I''d like. Most everythings are alright but if its more difficult to do things that were quite simple before this might not make much sense. The worst thing that I ever had to do was hunt down a few extra dependencys. Dispite it name I never found dependency hell to be all that bad. More like dependency heck. For Mandrake and RH RPMs you can often find what you need quick and easy in an extra RPM or 2. I must also figure out how to get my mouse wheel working again. I guess I wasn''t paying enough attention when I picked my mouse type. Can''t live without it.

Well I'll give it all a try. I'm gona give it a few days and see if everything works out. If not then I'll just go back to Mandrake. I'm trying to get winex to work but I'm not having the best luck. If that does not work we have a deal breaker. I'll let it stay if these few problems cleared up. My main system is still running Mandrake I think I'll keep it that way.

Shouldn't the header files be on the disks somewhere?

[edited by - Goober King on August 10, 2003 6:55:45 AM]

The kernel headers are not enough to compile the nvidia kernel interface. You'll also need the full kernel source which is not included on the cd. You'll have to download it from one of the mirror-ftp's. (the kernel source should be in the slackware-9.0/slackware/k/ directory on the ftp, _not_ in the slackware-9.0/slackware/source/k/)
The kernel headers are on the installation cd. Generally, the new nvidia drivers work just fine on slackware 9.0.



[edited by - SwSh on August 10, 2003 8:37:50 AM]

I''ll warn you now with Slack 9, unless things have changed since I tried it (which would change in -current, not 9.0 anyway), if you ever try to install new software, get prepared for headaches. Patrick Volkerding, being the all-knowing guy he is, decided it was best to pull a bunch of previously standard libraries that used to ship with older versions.

It''s a shame, really...

The Artist Formerly Known as CmndrM

http://chaos.webhop.org

I''ve run into some more probems that were never probelms before. I''m thinking this whole thing is a headache I dont realy need. Mandrake does a fine job of getting everything setup just how I want it from the start with much less trouble. I heard a few people say it made somethings easier. If I have to go to all this trouble to get there, I only break even on frustration.

Maybe this was the wrong way to go. Outside of getting sharper Linux teeth I don''t see the point. I would like sharper teeth but I feel I''m not realy smart enough to be running Linux a good deal of the time. I also don''t see why it should be that hard. I know some people think all the hard work is fun, but I not realy one of those people. I like my little easy dont realy have to understand too much linux life. I have better things to do that waste my days off trying to force somthing work. I have my own stuff to work on. Too bad. I could have used the cash on a cheap game or some food or something.

Austin....I used to live in Austin, TX.

quote:Original post by thedustbustr
For your driver problem - all you have to do is go to ftp.kernel.org and download the kernel sources for the kernel you are running. It would probably be a good idea to recompile with the latest stable kernel anyway, but you have to know a whole lot about your hardware to get past some of the kernel config questions (probably would frustrate you).

Also, make sure you have a symlink '/usr/src/linux' that points to wherever you put the linux source. Nvidia bitches when /uer/src/linux doesn't exist (or match your current kernel).

I think my plan will be. Put in Mandrake CD. Click OK a few times. Run Nvidia driver installer. Change X86Config file to use new driver. Have 3D. I'm going to asume that if its not on the CDs Then the source is not something I just going to want to download 56K style. Even if thats not the case having two different versions of every program(one Mandrake and one Slackware) hasn't made much sense. and call me lazy but I realy dont feel like I should need to manualy mount my CD drives. I was curious about other distros. I'm over it. Something less extream might have been a better choice in hindsight.

Thanks to everyone for the input.

[edited by - Goober King on August 10, 2003 9:56:55 PM]