This HowTo was written for users who don't know how to install NVidia and/or VMWare modules with the 2.6 Linux kernel [forum]

If you're currently running the 2.4 Linux kernel [forum] and are interested in upgrading to the new 2.6 Linux kernel then you might want to read KernelTrap's 'How To Upgrade To The 2.6 Kernel' [story].
When I wrote this guide I was using the 2.6.0-test11-wli-2 kernel [story] [howto].

This HOWTO comes with no guarantees, use at your own risk.

Note: I'm not fond of binary-only drivers myself, but some Linux users are forced to use binary drivers (myself included). This HowTo is here for users that are forced to use NVidia or VMWare, so please _don't_ start a flamewar about this.

Note: This HowTo was made with 4496 driver version, there is 4620 beta drivers aviable, they can be
found here

Important note!: "Review the NVIDIA Software License and documentation. You will need
to
accept this license prior to downloading any files." you can find the license here and the ReadMe for 4496 here




1. Make backups of important data!

Backup all your X configuration files and other important data


2. Download the drivers and the patches.

Download the package from NVidia
website and the patches from minion.de

# wget http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-4496/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1...
...
# wget http://minion.de/files/NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.6.diff
...
# wget http://minion.de/files/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg%23.tar.gz

3. Unpack the driver package.

Now, you can unpack the driver package, you probably need to do a chmod change first:

# chmod 755 NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run
# ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run --extract-only

4. Apply patches.

Now you need to apply patches:

# cd NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2/usr/src/nv/
# cat ../../../../NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4496-2.6.diff | patch -p1

5. Select Makefile.

Now, you have two choises, you can select the NVidia Makefile or the kbuild Makefile. I selected the
kbuild Makefile:

# ln -s Makefile.kbuild Makefile

6. Install new nvidia-installer.

Now you need to untar NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg#.tar.gz in NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2/ :

# cd ../../../
# tar xzvf ../NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg#.tar.gz

7. It's still not too late..

It's still not too late to backup all your important data.



8. Install the driver.

Now you must become root to install the drivers.

You have two ways of installing the drivers:
With the nvidia installer

# su root
...
# ./nvidia-installer

with 'make install':

# make install

Note: You need to close your X session if you are upgrading from older NVidia drivers.


I will not describe the installation process because it's pretty easy.

If you have never installed the driver before you can read installation help from the readme.




VMWare virtual machine:

Note: I don't know if this is the correct way. This works atleast with VMware Workstation 4.0.0
build-4460. You can check your version with:

# vmware -v

Another note: This HowTo assumes that you have VMWare Workstation already installed, I don't know
how it works if you don't have it installed before the kernel upgrade from 2.4 to 2.6.



1. Backup any important data.

Backup your important data.



2. Download the patch

You should check the patch site for new
releases.

The releases are named vmware-any-any-update*.tar.gz.
Now you can download the patch:

# wget http://ftp.cvut.cz/vmware/vmware-any-any-update43.tar.gz
...

3. Unpack the package.

Now you need to unpack the tar archive:

# tar xzvf vmware-any-any-update43.tar.gz
# cd vmware-any-any-update43

4. Run the installation script.

Now you need to become root and run runme.pl:

# ./runme.pl

I will not describe the installation process this time either.

Note: If the installation fails for some reason, try to read the readme. The readme wont provide much
information about the errors, but the files of the site. If you have issues with some features with VMWare then you should read the documents at VMWare official homepage


Final note: Remember that I can't promise that this will work perfectly for you, and I can't provide any kind of warranty. Use this document at your own risk. All I can say is that it worked for me.

• vmware.com