[PlanetCCRMA] NVIDIA and RT Kernel (Fedora 20)

[Jeremy M Booth]

If it helps to keep track of things to reinstall that's fine but
technically you shouldn't have to do that.  All the akmod is,
is the proprietary nvidia driver repackaged, so unless your machine
is over a decade old it shouldn't take more than 3 or 4 minutes.  Some
akmods compile right after you install them so I guess just pay
attention to what's going on before you reboot as well. Also every time
you install a new kernel it will have to recompile itself, which it does
automatically. You need the kernel devel packages first, because the
akmod needs them to compile. Otherwise I'm not sure whether it warns
you about the dependencies or not.  I don't see why any spin would
hurt so long as it's still fedora.  So if you're installing from scratch
this is what I'd do:

first to make downloads more efficient:

yum install yum-plugin-fastestmirror
yum update

1. make sure you have basic software development packages
installed so you can compile stuff 
2.  install the kernel-devel packages for stock kernel 
3. uninstall any other type of nvidia driver and/or noveau 
4. install nvidia akmod while running stock kernel
5. reboot and make sure akmod working first with stock kernel
6. once it does then install the CCRMA stuff/realtime kernel but make
sure you also install the kernel-rt-devel* BEFORE you reboot

Possible troubleshooting:  
The akmod installation scripts should disable noveau so if you run into
problems, like a blank screen on startup, go to a virtual terminal by
hitting CTRL+ALT+F2, login and do a "lsmod |grep noveau" (without the
quotes) and see if there's a module called noveau and if there is you
have to get rid of it.  If that command shows nothing than do a "lsmod | grep nvidia" 
and if that doesn't it means the nvidia module either didn't compile
or is not loading.  

This setup definitely works though as I've been using the
fedora/ccrma/akmod combination for several releases now, but like you
said the information on the web is very spotty feel free to report back
with any problems.

On Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:41:51 -0700
Steve Duell <steveduell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank, Jeremy!  I'll reinstall F20 from scratch and follow your steps.
> Just a few more questions:
> 
> 
> Should I install the akmod or the kernel-rt-devel package first?  Or
> does it matter?  I gather that as long as they're both present at
> reboot, everything should come out fine.
> 
> You mention a delay on first boot after installing the akmod.  Can you
> estimate about how long it should take?  It's possible that the first
> time I tried this, I just gave up too soon.
> 
> Also, is there any harm in using the CCRMA kernel with the Fedora Jam
> spin?  After weeks of trying to get various distros to play nice with
> my hardware, I'm to the point where I'd gladly accept one with most
> of the workhorse audio utilities pre-packaged for my convenience.
> 
> Thanks again for the prompt reply.
> 
> -Steve
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 21, 2014 at 11:21 AM, Jeremy M Booth <bq20 at comcast.net>
> wrote:
> 
> > Also make sure you have the kernel-rt-devel* package installed for
> > the akmods to compile.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 20 Apr 2014 21:29:43 -0700
> > Steve Duell <steveduell at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Hey Folks,
> > >
> > > I'm new to linux, and have gone through several distributions over
> > > the last few weeks, looking for the right one.  I've tried and am
> > > very happy with Fedora 19 & 20 (both Xfce and LXDE editions).
> > > I've had no problems installing the RT kernel, but running the
> > > nouveau driver for graphics doesn't work well with my NVIDIA
> > > Geforce 8 chip. Once enough windows are open, or enough images
> > > load on a webpage, the display gets corrupted and I can't
> > > continue to use the computer without a reboot.
> > >
> > > I tried installing the proprietary drivers, which work fine on a
> > > stock kernel, but the CCRMA RT kernel will not boot after the
> > > nvidia drivers are installed.
> > >
> > > I've googled the issue pretty deeply, and I see lots of
> > > conflicting information about the exact steps to get the nvidia
> > > driver working with F20.  I'm hoping that one of the power-users
> > > on this list has already surmounted this issue and can walk a
> > > newbie through it, step-by-step.
> > >
> > > I'm perfectly happy to start all over with a clean install of
> > > fedora (any version) if it will make life easier for me or you.
> > >
> > > Thanks a ton,
> > >
> > > Steve
> >
> >