Compiling Nvidia's proprietary drivers
These notes are for BDI-4.38 and later installs.
Both gcc-2.95 and linux-headers-2.6.12.6-rtai need to be installed before the Nvidia drivers can be compiled. Either use apt-get with the CD, or install them from the online repository. There is no need to install the linux-source package unless a new kernel is being compiled (in which case, these notes should be skipped).
At the time of writing, NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0310 is the current download for the Nvidia network and sound drivers. The video drivers use the same options, the only difference is you have to log out of KDE and log back in as 'root' in a text console - The XF86Config-4 will also need editing as per Nvidia's installation notes.
Download the latest driver from Nvidia's web site, and in a root terminal, run the following command (it is all one line):
CC=gcc-2.95 sh NFORCE-Linux-x86-1.0-0310-pkg1.run --kernel-source-path=/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.12.6-rtai --kernel-output-path=/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.12.6-rtai
The drivers should successfully compile and be automatically installed in the correct location in the /lib/modules/2.6.12.6-rtai tree. To speed up the loading of the network driver, add nvnet to the /etc/modules file (this contains a list of modules automatically loaded on booting). An alternative driver is forcedeth which is part of the standard kernel package - You might want to give this one a try before installing the Nvidia proprietary driver.