CentOS

Hi,

I'm new to Linux and a friend has installed CentOS 5.5 on an 1TB external storage drive that I am using to boot my laptop from. I've recently learned about the yum command and have updated all my packages to the latest packages-- and now it seems CentOS has been updated to version 5.7. At least partially (I think).

When installing the NVIDIA driver for my video card, a QUADRO NVS 160M, the installation process is failing and indicates that:
i]"Unable to find the kernel source tree for the currently running kernel. Please make sure you have installed the kernel source files for your kernel and that they are properly configured; on Red Hat Linux systems, for example, be sur e you have the 'kernel-source' or 'kernel-devel' RPM installed. If you know the correct kernel source files are installed, you may specify the kernel source pa th with the '--kernel-source-path' command line option."[/i]

I have ran the following command when logged in as root:
yum install kernel-devel gcc kernel-headers
and this completed with no errors.

But somehow my kernel remains at 2.6.18-238.el5PAE when I suspect it is supposed to be 2.6.18-274, and this in turn, is what is causing my video driver install to fail.

Does this make sense?

Any help is appreciated!

Here is my "getinfo.sh driver" output:

== BEGIN uname -rmi ==
2.6.18-238.el5PAE i686 i386
== END uname -rmi ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa \*-release\* ==
centos-release-5-7.el5.centos
centos-release-notes-5.7-0
centos-release-cr-5-7.el5.centos
== END rpm -qa \*-release\* ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/redhat-release ==
CentOS release 5.7 (Final)
== END cat /etc/redhat-release ==

== BEGIN getenforce ==
Disabled
== END getenforce ==

== BEGIN free -m ==
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4042 641 3401 0 39 436
-/+ buffers/cache: 166 3876
Swap: 6275 0 6275
== END free -m ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==
kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-238.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.3.1.el5
== END rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==

Welcome to the CentOS fora. Congratulations on having done the recommended reading before posting, but please do not omit the [i]code[/i] tags. It doesn't really matter for this particular case, but often the output has a lot more formatting for other options. :-)

You need to [code]yum install kernel-PAE-devel[/code] and reboot to the latest kernel-PAE.

It would have better served you if your friend had started with a current/supported release - CentOS 5.7, or 6.2.

You may want to check that kernel-PAE is the default:[code]
# /etc/sysconfig/kernel
# UPDATEDEFAULT specifies if new-kernel-pkg should make
# new kernels the default
UPDATEDEFAULT=yes

# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel[b][color=CC0000]-PAE[/color][/b][/code]

You might want to investigate using the ELRepo nvidia drivers as they do not require a recompilation for each new kernel. Install them once and (hopefully) forget them.

Good advice! Guess I'm not awake yet on a Sunday morning. :-)

Thanks for the help!

OK, so I've performed the followed command when logged in as root:
[code]
yum install kernel-PAE-devel
[/code]
And the package installed, then I rebooted.

But I'm afraid that I'm still in the same spot.
[code]
uname -r
2.6.18-238.el5PAE
[/code]

Also, the "/etc/sysconfig/kernel" file does not exist on my system!
Also, the response from rerunning the install command above is that the package has already been installed.

Here's the new "./getinfo.sh driver" results (the relevant parts of it):
[code]
Information for driver problems.
[code]
== BEGIN uname -rmi ==
2.6.18-238.el5PAE i686 i386
== END uname -rmi ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa \*-release\* ==
centos-release-5-7.el5.centos
centos-release-notes-5.7-0
centos-release-cr-5-7.el5.centos
== END rpm -qa \*-release\* ==

== BEGIN cat /etc/redhat-release ==
CentOS release 5.7 (Final)
== END cat /etc/redhat-release ==

== BEGIN getenforce ==
Disabled
== END getenforce ==

== BEGIN free -m ==
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 4042 505 3536 0 32 338
-/+ buffers/cache: 135 3907
Swap: 6275 0 6275
== END free -m ==

== BEGIN rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==
kernel-devel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-headers-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-238.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.3.1.el5
kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
== END rpm -qa kernel\* | sort ==
[/code]

Thanks for any more assistance!

The last command shows you do have the latest kernel-PAE and kernel-PAE-devel:

[code]
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
kernel-PAE-devel-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5
[/code]

So, the question is why the system did not reboot to 2.6.18-274.12.1. Can you show us the output returned by:

cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

Here is the contents of grub.conf:

[code]
# GRUB - created 10/07/2011
#
default=2
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-274.12.1.el5PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5PAE ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-274.12.1.el5PAE.img

title CentOS (2.6.18-274.3.1.el5PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-274.3.1.el5PAE ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-274.3.1.el5PAE.img

title CentOS 5 (2.6.18-238.el5PAE)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-238.el5PAE ro root=/dev/sda1 rhgb quiet
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18-238.el5PAE.img
#title Other
# rootnoverify (hd0,4)
# chainloader +1

[/code]

So I take it that the default line should read
[code]
default=0
[/code]
since that seems to be the latest kernel?

You might want to hit a key when you see the grub splash screen and select that kernel manually and then change the default= line to 0 once you know it works.

[quote]
guzmanla wrote:
...
Also, the "/etc/sysconfig/kernel" file does not exist on my system!
...[/quote]
Very odd, but that would explain the lack of update to the grub.conf default line. It should look like my example in post #2 - minus color effects.