Installing Nvidia Drivers for 8600gt in Mepis 64-bit

Hello, all.

I made a post in comp.os.linux.help asking for help and then read in that
same newsgroup "This group (`comp.os.linux.help') is not widely used,
having been replaced by comp.os.linux.misc in December 1994."

So I am here replicating most of that post. Do not mean to cross-post.
Just trying to get it to a better place.


This group ("comp.os.linux.help") is not widely used, having
been replaced by comp.os.linux.misc in December 1994.



I need some help getting the official NVIDIA driver installed
for my GeForce 8600gt.

I have tried what feels like everything. Instructions of every sort
and kind. Command Line Only, GUI tools only, combos of both, tools with
the distro, the Nvidia way, the debain way, scripts from users from all
over, everything. Followed instructions to the letter from a fresh
install, toyed with instructions myself to see if any of a million
variations would work. Edited Xorg.conf myself sometimes, had it done
by the computer sometimes. Nothing helped.

Now I am at the point where there are two specific roadblocks to my next
two tactics. If anyone could help me overcome them it would be most
appreciated.

Here are some details about the system I am using:
(Memory measurements are binary.)

-Asus M2N-E Motherboard
-1 x 2 Gigabyte DDR2 667 RAM module
-1 x 320 Gigabyte SATA hard Drive with root (60 GB, reiserfs), home (259
GB, reiserfs) and swap (1 GB, linux swap) partitions.
-1 x 250 Gigabyte SATA hard Drive with a 60 GB partition and a 190 GB
partition. This drive has been untouched except for partitioning and will
be used for Windows latter. (Hopefully not used much.)
-1 IDE DVD-ROM drive.
-AMD Athlon 64 x 2 dual core 64-bit CPU
-BFG Tech GeForce 8600gt GPU card

I installed Mepis 7.0 64-bit.


With Mepis you are likely to suggest I use the X-Windows Assistant
or Synaptic. Neither worked. The X-Windows assistant came close one time:
The machine would boot up, but the display was very messed up. 3 or 4
colours only, screen would redraw around a small square area that followed
the pointer, and the same part of the screen would sometimes have
different stuff on it then it did a moment before if you moved the pointer
back onto it.


One of my current tactics is to try Envy. My research shows that some
people did get the Debian version to work with Mepis 7.0. the roadblock is
that Envy will not install unless Python 2.5 is on the system. I installed
Python 2.5. Still did not work. I followed the instructions for using the
command line to chnage the default version. pycentral commands and so on.
Different ways of doing it were tried, but every time it came back that
the default was still 2.4. Even tried editing a python related text file
that has all that info. (Forget the name right now sorry.)

Any advice how to get this solved so I can give Envy a go would be
helpfull.


There was a set of instructions involving the console and the official
Nvidia installer. It sounds like it might work for me in the end, but the
process is interrupted. When I get to the part where the installer says it
is building the kernel module it hangs at 100%. I let it go for 22 minutes
once. Still hung. I tried letting it go for over 10 minutes then hitting
control-c. It droped to console, but no driver joy. Went through the
xorf.conf file and did what I thought might help (but I do not fully
understand the xorg.conf file and how it works).

The GCC compiler installed on my system is the same as the one used to
build the kernel. Kernel stuff like the headers, source code, etc, etc was
on the machine when I tried the Nvidia installer.

Any advice on how to get past that hurdle is also appreciated.


Thanks for any help you can provide. Of course I would be glad to
provide any further info about my system or actions already taken if
need be.
.

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