Linux Driver Disk Readme
For SLES9_SP1
Version 1.11 [Jun. 30th,2006]
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INTRODUCTION
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This archive provides drivers for PATA, SATA and LAN controller of NVIDIA nForce 550/570/590
and NVIDIA nForce professional 3600/3400/3050.
Some older distributions do not contain NVIDIA SATA support. If a SATA disk
is needed for installation (for example, if the OS is to reside on a SATA disk),
the drivers need to be loaded during the OS installation process via the
provided driver disks. Refer to section 1 for how to create a driver diskette.
Section 2 provides instructions for installing SATA and LAN drivers onto an existing Linux
installation.
Section 3 provides instructions on how to compile a new kernel with an updated PATA driver.
This will increase performance for PATA devices if your kernel is not already aware of
nForce device IDs by allowing DMA capability.
note: Please append 'barrier=off' parameter on the first installing screen if installation halt
after formatting the hard disk.
1) INSTALL Linux to a SATA drive
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Prepare a SATA driver diskette and load the driver during OS installation
1.1) Copy the folders located at ./floppy-files/32(64)bit to a formatted diskette.
1.2) Disable SATA raid in BIOS and start the linux Installation with SLES9 SP1 disc.
1.3) Insert your SATA driver diskette into floppy drive when the first installation
screen appear.
1.4) Continue with the installation as normal.
2) Install the SATA and LAN driver package on existing system
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2.1) If you install the RHEL4 Update1 before,you just need to run below command:
in 32bit OS: rpm -ivh nv-sles9.1-2.6.5-7.139.i686.rpm
in 64bit OS: rpm -ivh nv-sles9.2-2.6.5-7.139.x86_64.rpm
please append '--replacefiles' or '--force' parameter if it report file confliction.
note:
installation of rpm package will create a new initrd image file,the original file will be
backuped with '-nv' extension,for example: initrd-2.6.5-7.139-default.img-nv,you can specify
the old initrd image file on grub options if you encounter the problem with the new one.
3) UPGRADE the PATA driver
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Build a new kernel with the source code of drivers
3.1) Make sure to install the kernel source & kernel build tools package when install the SLES9
SP1 OS.
3.2) Copy ./source/amd74xx.c to /usr/src/linux/drivers/ide/pci
Copy ./source/sata_nv.c to /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi
Copy ./source/libata-scsi.c to /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi
Copy ./source/forcedeth.c to /user/src/linux/drivers/net
Remember to backup the original files
3.3) cd /usr/src/linux
3.4) make mrproper
3.5) cd /usr/src/linux-obj/i386(x86_64)/default(smp,bigsmp)
3.6) make;make modules_install;make install
3.7) reboot system. After you boot into Linux again, the full feature nVidia PATA driver is migrated.
4) Appendix
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List the driver modules for your information:
sata_nv.ko: nVidia SATA controller driver,locate at /lib/modules/2.6.5-7.139-default/kernel/drivers/scsi/
forcedeth.ko: nVidia LAN controller driver,locate at /lib/modules/2.6.5-7.139-default/kernel/drivers/net/
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.