nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

[ubersoft]

When I had only the 2.6.15-23-386 kernel installed, I downloaded and installed the "restricted" nvidia driver for my laptop in order to take advantage of the improve graphics performance. While doing this I also installed the linux-386 package, which is supposed to install the linux-restricted-modules packages which the nvidia driver needs.

This worked just fine. However, when the 2.6.15-25-386 kernel was made available in adept, installing it caused Kubuntu to hang during bootup. I've managed to figure out that the reason for this is that there are currently NO restricted modules available for the 2.6.15.25-386 kernel for Kubuntu, at least not in the standard, universe, and multiverse areas.

I currently have grub set to default to loading the 2.6.15-23-386 kernel by default, since the driver works just fine with it.

Anyway, I noticed a few other posts mentioning this problem but no mention of the cause, and I thought that information would be helpful.

[PDR60]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

Certainly your laptop isn't running a 386 processor. Why not match the kernel version to the cpu. If its an Athlon load the -k7 kernel. If its an Intel cpu load the -686 kernel. They both have matching restricted packages and you'll get a performance boost.

PDR60

[Fenyx]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

The linux-restricted-modules for kernel 2.6.15-25 is available in the restricted component of the security-updates repositories. Make sure that you have these lines and that they are enabled:

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted

(maybe you can leave the deb-src disabled, unless you are downloading the source...)

[ubersoft]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

Certainly your laptop isn't running a 386 processor. Why not match the kernel version to the cpu. If its an Athlon load the -k7 kernel. If its an Intel cpu load the -686 kernel. They both have matching restricted packages and you'll get a performance boost.

PDR60

Ah. So those are the 32 bit kernels for those machines? Sweet. I didn't realize that.

[ubersoft]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

The linux-restricted-modules for kernel 2.6.15-25 is available in the restricted component of the security-updates repositories. Make sure that you have these lines and that they are enabled:

Heh. I'm a very silly man. Both of those entries had "main" but not "restricted." Thanks for the information...

[ubersoft]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

Annnd... that fixed everything. Thanks for your help.

[Fenyx]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

glad it worked for you. I had no luck in using the upgraded kernel.
(still stuck using the 2.6.15-23-k7 kernel).

[ubersoft]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

These are all the entries in my sources.list file... maybe it'll help:

deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/amarok-141 dapper main
deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/koffice-151 dapper main
deb http://kubuntu.org/packages/kde-353 dapper main
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-updates main restricted
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper universe multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ dapper-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security main restricted
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper-security universe multiverse


With this list I was able to download everything I needed for the 2.6.15-25-k7 kernel. I also needed to update the nvidia driver afterwards.

[suplero]

Re: nvidia driver locks up with 2.6.15-25-386 kernel

How can the user adjust this during the initial install?

A typical user would follow this path:

download from the site: most likely choosing the x86 cd image
start up from the cd - choose the start or install option
gets up to the live environment
clicks on the install icon

goes through the 6 install screens
reboots

Nowhere in this process is there an option for selecting which kernel to use, or even letting the user know which kernel is being installed.

In my case, the system is running so slowly, I can't even do anything once booted up. [amd64, 1gb memory, 1gb swap, kde uses 80% of the memory once a terminal is brought up]

Is there another way to install that is more specific?