« How-to Install VMware Player / Workstation on 2.6.25 Kernel

How-to Install Nvidia Driver on 2.6.25-2 Debian Kernel (with Xen)

Another big surprise rolled out from the Debian Unstable repository when today I updated my kernel from 2.6.25-1 to 2.6.25-2 - the maintainers have enabled Xen in the non-Xen kernel (linux-image-2.6.25-2-686). The result from this is that Nvidia drivers don’t compile throwing error about Xen enabled kernel.

The solution (if you don’t want to recompile your own kernel) :

As usual backup before executing any of these :)

  1. cd /lib/modules/2.6.25-2-686 (or wherever are your modules)
  2. grep CONFIG_XEN . -Rl | xargs -i sed -i -e ’s/CONFIG_XEN/CONFIG_LUPO/g’ {}
  3. export IGNORE_XEN_PRESENCE=1
  4. sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.08-pkg1.run (or you can use patched 169.12 - http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=110088 )

Source: linux-image-2.6.25-2-686: nVidia driver fails to compile due to active Xen support

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 11:05 am and is filed under Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

14 Responses to “How-to Install Nvidia Driver on 2.6.25-2 Debian Kernel (with Xen)”

  1. David Martínez Says:
    May 25th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    Worked for me with AMD-K7, 686 kernel and Beta driver. Many thanks !!

  2. Delirios de un Informático Says:
    May 25th, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    Controladores NVIDIA en el kernel 2.6.25 de Debian…

    Desde el lanzamiento de la versión 2.6.25-2 del kernel en Debian, se ha activado Xen por defecto, lo que trae consigo problemas para cierto software propietario como los controladores de NVIDIA o VMWare Player.
    Tras trastear un buen rato y probar v….

  3. ____Jul____ Says:
    May 27th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

    Thank you, Peter You are my frickin’ hero :) Although it’s really a dirty hack at least it does what it should do :)

    Oh shall I say worked on Debian Sid with 2.6.25-2-686

  4. Ariel Says:
    May 28th, 2008 at 2:41 am

    You don’t need to do this anymore, as of update 169.12-2 released May 12, 2008.

  5. Peter Says:
    May 28th, 2008 at 11:09 pm

    Not installable at this time. Also I prefer latest beta

  6. Gary Says:
    May 29th, 2008 at 1:37 am

    Worked for me using linux-image-2.6.25-2-686-bigmem on a core duo. Card is a 9600GT and I used NVIDIA-Linux-x86-173.08-pkg1.run

    Thanks for the info.

  7. sgfxi Says:
    June 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 am

    I implemented this in our debian sid/testing nvidia/fglrx installer script, sgfxi, for the lazy among you.

    Must be run from /usr/local/bin
    cd /usr/local/bin;wget -Nc http://techpatterns.com/sgfxi; chmod +x sgfxi

    sgfxi installs all current nvidia drivers, patches them, detects your card version to install correct driver version, or lets you override it to install some other driver, applies patches if needed, see: sgfxi -h for currently supported drivers.

    It also updates itself automatically every time you run it after you install it.

    sgfxi home page: http://techpatterns.com/forums/about933.html

    To install latest current, just do: sgfxi -c

    Currently the patch is in testing mode, that’s what the -T is for, normally it would all be automatic.

    This is the graphics installer for sidux/smxi

  8. sgfxi Says:
    June 3rd, 2008 at 4:33 am

    oh, and it undoes the patch right after the nvidia driver install is done, so your /lib/modules stuff is set back to normal after the nvidia driver is installed.

  9. sgfxi Says:
    June 3rd, 2008 at 4:34 am

    ah, sorry, needs: sgfxi -T -c
    to install current latest driver, with composite.

    The -T will probably be not required in a few days after I do some more testing on this.

  10. Cun Zhang Says:
    June 3rd, 2008 at 11:54 am

    Thank you for your article!
    I have install nvidia driver.
    I use Nvidia Geforce MX 4000, install NVIDIA-Linux-x86-96.43.05-pkg1.run, patch a diff file from nvnews.com
    and set IGNORE_XEN_PRESENCE=1. Then it is installed successful.

  11. sgfxi Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

    Everything is debugged now and working fine, no further need for -T option in sgfxi for this issue, just start it with regular arguments now. Thanks for this fix, the method was nicely done, I hadn’t seen that use of grep -Rl before, very useful.

    sgfxi is currently now supporting all current kernels and drivers again, including ati stuff, which won’t be of interest to people in this thread.

  12. Peter Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

    @sgfxi

    Thanks mate. Why don’t you start a thread on nvnews.net to popularize a bit.

    I will comment there too.

  13. promolic1 Says:
    June 14th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    Hi!!! Where can I find the diff file that you are talking Cun Zhang???
    I have the same problem, and a MX 4000

    Sorry if my English is bad

  14. Peter Says:
    June 14th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

    @promolic1
    I presume it is the patch from this page http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=110088

    @Cun Zhang nvnews.net mate :)

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