NVIDIA driver on TCE Corepure64 9.x

[caracalla]

Hi guys,

I need some directions on how to compile proprietary Nvidia driver on Tiny Core Linux 64-bit.

When I execute the installer with ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.67.run I get "./nvidia-installer: not found" error. I get the same error even if I first extract the installer package with an -x option and then manually execute ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-390.67/nvidia-installer.

There was a similar issue reported a while ago (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=16988.0), but back then fellow member coreplayer2 prepared an extension without explaining in detail what he did to successfully compile the driver.

Searching further I also stumbled upon a thread on a different forum (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/installing-nvidia-driver-i-get-nvidia-installer-can%27t-find-863897/) where they concluded that this is an issue if you are trying to compile Nvidia driver on a system which is not "pure" 64-bit, which means that running kernel is 64-bit while some applications could also be 32-bit.

I am really sceptical about this explanation and I believe that TCE available from the repository is entirely 64-bit.

If you have any ideas what I am missing please let me know.

[caracalla]

Searching further I found two additional sites that are explaining that this issue is related to non "pure" 64-bit system

http://vasnake.blogspot.com/2011/06/blog-post_09.html
https://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?185954-nVidia-driver-help-needed&p=994686#post994686

Some distributions have the option of installing a 64-bit kernel for use with all 32-bit userspace programs.
This configuration is not supported by the NVIDIA Linux Graphics Driver.
If you try to install the 64-bit driver package on such a system, you will receive an error like the following:
./nvidia-installer: No such file or directory

nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread?s=ce7172da527094e880b7e22020852671&t=72490#2

Maybe there is something to it and this is the case with 64-bit Tiny Core Linux?

[Juanito]

As the name suggests, CorePure64 is purely 64-bit.

Your "not found" error could be because you are missing the bash, perl or python extensions or because a symlink /lib64 -> /lib is required.

[caracalla]

I can't believe it, all I had to do is to add a symlink /lib64 -> /lib.

Juanito, you rule!   

[Alligadi]

Is there a tcz planned for Nvidia cards? I am glad that basic OpenGL works with Xorg-7.7-3d, but Shader Model 2.0 seems to be too much currently.

Hm hardware has developed, why do we still rely on the graphic vendors bullshit for applications, is my i7 processor really not fast enough to emulate a graphic card and basic shader model 2 capability from 2002, how can "GLX is not supported" be justified if all that I want to run is a simple program with some computationally cheap shaders on my i7? And do we really need a graphic card to make Xorg play videos and the window managers and apps GUI responsive on a i7 processor, or are they just bloated and programmed completely inefficient, mostly based on long outdated technology like X11 protocol? Do we need a complicated DX12 graphic driver just to get a projector attached to HDMI up and running, displaying the desktop (it fails in 80% of the cases I tried Linux distributions, only Windows supports general HDMI output it seems, no matter if graphic driver is installed or not)? Or do we really need a DX12-supporting graphics driver just to get a laptop monitor to output the desktop in a resolution that is not distorted?
All that seems to be too much for GNU/Linux@2018, can't we abandon GPU's for most desktop purposes and leave the gamer stuff for Windows users?
If graphic cards have completeley failed the open source community, why do we still suffer from the bad design decisions that developed around them, and no one went for alternatives for applications that do not demand full GPU-power, meaning everything that is not a 3D game?

Best regards,
Alligadi

[coreplayer2]

Currently I've not been able to successfully build the latest Nvidia driver for corepure64.  Additionally, older driver versions have to be built on machines with a supported Nvidia Card installed.

So at present I have only prepared the Nvidia v390.77 driver extension for TinyCore-9.0 x86  which works flawlessly with my Nvidia 1060 powered Notebook.  Actually I've been holding off submitting it untill I figured out what's wrong with the Nvidia compiler for v390.77 x86_64 driver, unless someone asks for it

So the important question is: For which Nvidia card are you requiring a driver for?

[Alligadi]

The 5500M GT. the newest driver I found supporting it is 390.87, but I am happy with any driver that supports it and can at least use shader model 2.
Thank you for your help!

Best regards,
Alligadi

[coreplayer2]

The 5500M GT. the newest driver I found supporting it is 390.87, but I am happy with any driver that supports it and can at least use shader model 2.

I think you might need to recheck that model number because AFAIK Nvidia have never made a Geforce 5500   ??  If they did it's no longer supported even with their oldest Legacy drivers.. 

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/137276/en-us
Long time ago they made a Quadro M5500  which for some bizarre reason is still supported  in the latest drivers, but there are no Geforce cards older than the 200 series supported by the current drivers


Just saying..

[Alligadi]

Oh damn, I meant Gefore GT 555M.
Output from lspci:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF106M [GeForce GT 555M] (rev a1)

Sorry for my fish memory.

Best regards,
Alligadi

[Alligadi]

coreplayer2:
What did you do to make the Nvidia driver even compile?
The linux-4.14.3_api_headers.tcz
and
linux-kernel-sources-env.tcz
don't seem to be sufficient to compile 390.87 as the paths and headers seem to be different than what the driver expects,
also symbolic linking didn't fix it for me. If it would compile I could easily prepare a tcz on my own.
I can post a detailed error message in some days in case you are interested.

Best regards,
Alligadi

[Rich]

Hi Alligadi

... I can post a detailed error message in some days in case you are interested.

I think that would be preferable to people guessing why it won't compile.

[coreplayer2]

I suspect you'e used the config files from tinycore instead of corepure64.

However I've succeeded in compiling Nvidia Drivers version 410.73  for x86_64 and will submit asap

[Alligadi]

I guess this driver won't work for me:
410.73 doesn't list GeForce GT 555M, while 390.87 does.
Can you please share compilation instructions?

Best regards,
Alligadi

[coreplayer2]

Ok while I'm on a roll....

Submitted nvidia-390.87-4.14.10-tinycore64.tcz for the corepure64 repo and sent you a link aswell..

I assumed you didn't want the Cuda and document files?

follow the instructions in the info file, good luck

Oh BTW, I also included my build script

[Alligadi]

Thank you for your effort!
I followed the instructions but so far wasn't able to get it working (startx doesn't succeed after sudo nvidia-xconfig).
Will try more in the end of this week and will post more info soon.

Best regards,
Alligadi