Since writing about the problems with the nVidia drivers and the 2.6.11 kernel I decided to repackage a custom installer that WILL compile against the latest linux kernel.

NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1-heno-custom.run (4751.7K) - The latest nVidia drivers now work

YMMV, but it worked for me without a hitch. For those that care to know, the following patches were applied to this build:

• Patch to fix 2D performance problems with PCI cards on Linux 2.6 systems. It restores performance to Linux 2.4 levels.
• Patch to fix the 'NVRM: failed to allocate page table' error and related problems (e.g. with Cedega).
• Patch to fix a system lockup problem with some Linux 2.6.10 pre-release kernels. It is no longer required with Linux 2.6.10 and newer kernels, but still recommended.
• Patch to fix a bug in the driver’s Linux kernel PCI subsystem interface on Linux 2.6.10 and newer kernels, which may lead to a crash when the X server is started.
• Patch to fix intermittent problems on SWIOTLB enabled Linux/x86-64 em64t systems with more than 4GB of physical RAM.
• Patch to add support for 4-level page tables. It is needed to build the driver against the Linux 2.6.11 kernel.
• Patch to eliminate a dependency on the inter_module_* mechanism in the driver’s Linux 2.6 AGPGART interface. It is also needed to build the driver against the Linux 2.6.11 kernel.

The original patch file is also available if you wish to apply it yourself:

NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-6629-02.28.2005.diff (42.1K)

UPDATE:
nVidia have updated their drivers to version 1.0-7167, which compiles correctly with the 2.6.11 kernel. The patched driver above is still available for download, although it is recommended you use the official drivers from the nVidia website.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 5th, 2005 at 12:17 pm 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.