nvidia driver breaks with pretty much every F8 update

[Peter McNeil]

For some reason the update to a new kernel seems to randomly point to a 
kernel to boot by default which would be OK but the livna nvidia setup 
breaks the older kernels nvidia module, so you need to make sure you 
boot on the latest kernel by default (by editing /etc/grub.conf to point 
to the latest kernel).

The "solution" is to install the nvidia module manually from the nvidia 
site download, which is not really a simple option.



David Kramer wrote:
> I simply don't understand why this is the case, but every time I 
> upgrade the .  After some updates, the symlinks point to the wrong 
> version, etc.  But I will only address my current situation.  This is 
> on a Dell D820.
>
> Currently running the newly-installed 2.6.24.3-34 kernel.
>
> This is the stdout/stderr when I startx:
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> X Window System Version 1.3.0
> Release Date: 19 April 2007
> X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 1.3
> Build Operating System: Fedora 8 Red Hat, Inc.
> Current Operating System: Linux lexa.thekramers.net 2.6.24.3-34.fc8 #1 
> SMP Wed Mar 12 18:17:20 EDT 2008 i686
> Build Date: 14 March 2008
> Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.3.0.0-44.fc8
>     Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
>     to make sure that you have the latest version.
> Module Loader present
> Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
>     (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
>     (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
> (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Mon Mar 24 20:00:40 2008
> (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
> (II) Module already built-in
> FATAL: Error inserting nvidia_169_12 
> (/lib/modules/2.6.24.3-34.fc8/updates/drivers/video/nvidia/nvidia-169_12.ko): 
> Invalid module format
> (EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to load the NVIDIA kernel module!
> (EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***
> (EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> Notice the "Invalid module format"?
>
> This is what I have installed:
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> > rpm -qa | egrep -i '(nvidia|kernel|yum)' | sort
> kernel-2.6.24.3-12.fc8
> kernel-2.6.24.3-34.fc8
> kernel-devel-2.6.24.3-12.fc8
> kernel-devel-2.6.24.3-34.fc8
> kernel-headers-2.6.24.3-34.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.09-169.09-95.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.09-kmdl-2.6.24.3-12.fc8-169.09-95.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.09-kmdl-2.6.24.3-34.fc8-169.09-95.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.09-libs-169.09-95.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.12-169.12-96.fc8
> nvidia-graphics-169.12-25
> nvidia-graphics169.12-kmdl-2.6.24.3-34.fc8-169.12-96.fc8
> nvidia-graphics169.12-libs-169.12-96.fc8
> nvidia-graphics-devices-1.0-6.fc8
> nvidia-graphics-helpers-0.0.26-27.fc8
> yum-3.2.8-2.fc8
> yum-changelog-1.1.11-1.fc8
> yumex-2.0.4-1.fc8
> yum-fedorakmod-1.1.11-1.fc8
> yum-kernel-module-1.1.11-1.fc8
> yum-metadata-parser-1.1.2-1.fc8
> yum-plugin-kmdl-0.7-9.fc8
> yum-priorities-1.1.11-1.fc8
> yum-skip-broken-1.1.11-1.fc8
> yum-updatesd-0.9-1.fc8
> yum-utils-1.1.11-1.fc8
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> Thanks for any advice you can offer.
>