[mythtv-users] Can't load latest Nvidia driver under fresh install FC12

[Greg Woods]

On Sat, 2009-12-05 at 21:36 -0500, Claude Gélinas wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> on a fresh install of FC12 I've downloaded the latest nvidia driver 190.42 and 
> try to install it with the .run file 
> 
> I always end up with ERROR: Unable to load the kernel module 'nvidia.ko'.

This is a royal pain. 

The problem is that the nouveau driver is loaded already, so it has
already claimed the graphics device. Attempt to unload the nouveau
module and it fails because the module is busy. Catch-22.

What worked for me was to boot without X (runlevel 3) and with the
"nomodeset" kernel boot parameter. Even then the damn nouveau module
still loads, but at least then it can be unloaded (with "modprobe -r
nouveau"), at which point the Nvidia driver can be installed. After that
I usually leave the nomodeset parameter in grub.conf permanently. This
disables automatic EDID probing of your monitor/TV, which is not needed
if you are using an xorg.conf file generated by the Nvidia driver
install.

--Greg