A raw fedora supporting sgfxi is now live, but it will need all the above questions, package names, paths, etc, answered before it can be considered a reasonable test.

To test: sgfxi
then: sgfxi -s
-s for akmod-nvidia type install.

Note that the package names might be off, I didn't check them in the actual fedora repo, and your names seem to be wrong, ie, ending in 586 instead of amd64/686, so confirm that before trying the -s option.

The regular install may or may not work if nouveau was present, for fun you can try it, it will tell you that you should reboot if it removed/blacklisted nouveau I think.

Will take several tries to get it right, but the rough prototype is now ready for debugging.
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There are 3 ways kernels and modules are named in Fedora 12:
kmod-nvidia-2.6.31.6-166.fc12.i686.PAE-190.42-1.fc12.8.i686 for the default PAE kernel in 32 bit
kmod-nvidia-2.6.31.6-166.fc12.i686-190.42-1.fc12.8.i686 for the 32 bit non PAE
and
kmod-nvidia-2.6.31.6-166.fc12.x86_64-190.42-1.fc12.8.i686 for 64 bit

kernels:
kernel-PAE-2.6.31.9-174.fc12.i686 for PAE 32 bit
kernel-2.6.31.9-174.fc12.i686 32 bit non PAE
kernel-2.6.31.9-174.fc12.x86_64 64 bit

kernel-devel - This package provides kernel headers and makefiles sufficient to build modules against the kernel package.
Loading this package is sufficient (using yum) to bring in headers and makefiles for 32 bit and 64 bit kernels
kernel-PAE-devel is needed for 32 bit PAE kernels.

One problem I ran into was when Fedora 12 was released. The kernel that came with the install did not have a corresponding kernel-devel package because they failed to take it and the kernel they released out of the testing repo. So, I wound up installing the kernel-devel package for a previous kernel. They got me on that one. Took a while before I released the difference in versions.

Still checking on other things....bbl... I'm trying to set up clean installs of both 32 and 64 bit Fedora 12 for testing. I'm looking for respins so I don't have big updates after installing.
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I'm going to set a global test for devel package for all non-free driver installs with fedora, it makes no sense that it needs them for the distro packages but NOT for the nvidia run installer, which explicitly requires headers.
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so far, by the way, I give debian/apt a clear winner as best handling of kernel-header package naming, ie, no dugh, make it the same as the linux-image name, which is the same as uname -r, clear, easy to test for, and easy to explain.

However, I give the fedora akmod method, if it works, a massive best handling compared to the mess that is dkms, which is barely half thought out yet.

Looking at this, it's so obvious that of course there should be be kernel modules and then a-kernel modules, that contain all the dkms setup stuff, and when you remove those, the dkms stuff also gets cleanly removed. Debian really puked on that one, dkms is a big mess imo, totally non-intuitive.

It's interesting to see how the distros do things better or worse, but sometimes the difference is so obvious one really has to wonder why the poorly done method isnt' dumped in favor of the clear one.

By the way, when you use the akmod install, is there a directory: /var/lib/dkms/nvidia or not? I am removing this one forcefully at this point, but I'll need to know whether or not to stop doing that. But if akmod erase command works as it should, that stuff should be removed, at least I hope that's how it works.
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also, how do I check if those are enabled or not? Commands, files to search, etc.
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I'm not clear here, are the packages i686 or i586? and I see in these the kernel $(uname -r ) string in the package name.

Are the packages you listed earlier in fact metapackages? I want to avoid metapackages whenever possible if there are kernel labeled packages that I can install directly to the kernel that matches them.

I'm going to give debian this one too for clarity and and logical consistency I think.

Also, am I misunderstanding rpm -qa, I need the list of INSTALLED packages, this looks like the list of all packages in repo. <edit, no, I double checked, found a few apt/rpm compare tables, -qa is it.

Also, rpm/yum has no update command, but after the first time, you can use -C I believe to make it not check? that is probably a flag I need to set after the first use of yum.
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As for the last post, these results seem to show installed packages.

root@Fedora11xps13 GoinEasy9]# yum list installed | grep nvidia
akmod-nvidia.i686 190.53-1.fc11 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.13.fc11.i686.PAE.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.16.fc11.i686.PAE.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i686.PAE.i686
kmod-nvidia-PAE.i686 190.53-1.fc11.4 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-settings.i586 1.0-3.2.fc11 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
nvidia-xconfig.i586 1.0-1.fc11 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia.i586 190.53-1.fc11 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs.i586 190.53-1.fc11 @rpmfusion-nonfree-updates

[root@Fedora11xps13 GoinEasy9]# rpm -qa | grep nvidia
nvidia-xconfig-1.0-1.fc11.i586
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.16.fc11.i686.PAE-190.53-1.fc11.3.i686
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-libs-190.53-1.fc11.i586
kmod-nvidia-PAE-190.53-1.fc11.4.i686
akmod-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.13.fc11.i686.PAE-190.53-1.fc11.2.i686
kmod-nvidia-2.6.30.10-105.2.23.fc11.i686.PAE-190.53-1.fc11.4.i686
nvidia-settings-1.0-3.2.fc11.i586
xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i586

I hate the fact that rpm has no equal to apt-cache policy, at least I can't find it.

The i586/i686 extensions I've obviously misinterpreted. I always thought that they were version specific, since F11 used i586 when released and F12 used i686 and explained that i686 was used because it no longer supported some i386 hardware. I'm still learning this stuff, and I shouldn't have made that generalization.

As far as checking to see if rpmfusion repos are enabled. there is the command "yum repolist enabled", but I never used that, I used inxi. As with Debian and basic apt commands, I've only used the basic yum and rpm commands.

Your question:

There is nothing in /var/lib/ that points to anything nvidia, kmod, or akmod.
I do believe it's in /usr/src/akmods/ which holds not only the nvidia source but the source for the wl module I use for wireless. I haven't used the kmod-nvidia drivers since I first starting using Fedora, since the akmods automatically build the modules when new kernels come in, so, I don't know if using the kmods use different directories when not using akmod. When I get the test box set up I'll try loading the kmod-nvidia file first without using akmod-nvidia and look for any differences.
The file nvidia-kmod-190.53-1.fc11.src.rpm is present in /usr/src/akmods/ along with a link called nvidia-kmod.latest which seems to point to nvidia-kmod-190.53-1.fc11.src.rpm file in the same /usr/src/akmods/ folder. That seems redundant, but I'm sure there is a purpose pointing to the latest driver.

I've also just finished downloading respins of the 32 and 64 bit Fedora 12, and I've found an alpha of Fedora 13 which is downloading now. I'm going to install them all to a test machine, but, because I've got to spend the whole day tomorrow in the pharmacy, I won't be able to get to testing till Wednesday.

Any more questions, I'll try to hook up wireless from the store tomorrow and check in. More snow is coming, can't wait for the commute tomorrow.
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/usr/src/akmods/ is good news, that helps keep the debian gunk separate from the fedora stuff.

I'll need the actual 686/amd64 package names to set that correctly for sgfxi -s (distro driver installer), right now it's using i586 extensions, which of course won't work in 64 bit.

And I'll need to know if there is

How about the command, say: yum info akmod-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i686

That might be parseable, after all, I don't get the exact data from apt-cache policy package either, it requires further processing to get the installation candidate from it.

also the repo directory for 64 bit shows this: download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/12/x86_64/



mostly x86_64 but some i686
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I see, you are running 64 bit I think?

So I think this is what is needed:



As I see, download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/updates/12/i386/ the i386 repo is all i686, none of the doubled stuff, so I'm assuming that fedora 64 builds some type of 64/32 thing for nvidia, whereas 32 is normal.
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FYI - I'm running strictly 32 bit, except for one 64bit F11 install. The test box I'll set up with both 32 and 64 bit F12. The alpha F13 d/l failed, I'll try it with a netinstall, which may or may not work. Rawhide at this point is more like Debian experimental than Sid.

[GoinEasy9@Fedora11xps13 ~]$ yum info akmod-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i686
Loaded plugins: presto, protectbase, refresh-packagekit
adobe-linux-i386 | 951 B 00:00
livna | 2.4 kB 00:00
rpmfusion-free | 3.3 kB 00:00
rpmfusion-free-updates | 3.8 kB 00:00
rpmfusion-nonfree-updates | 3.8 kB 00:00
updates/metalink | 17 kB 00:00
2 packages excluded due to repository protections
Installed Packages
Name : akmod-nvidia
Arch : i686
Version : 190.53
Release : 1.fc11
Size : 5.7 M
Repo : installed
From repo : rpmfusion-nonfree-updates
Summary : Akmod package for nvidia kernel module(s)
URL : www.nvidia.com/
License : Redistributable, no modification permitted
Description: This package provides the akmod package for the nvidia kernel
: modules.

How about this?
[root@Fedora11xps13 GoinEasy9]# rpm -q akmod-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i686
akmod-nvidia-190.53-1.fc11.i686

I'll look closer at the repos tomorrow.
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