having problems with the NVidia Driver Package #6629 using Fedora Core 3... failure to initialize NVidia Kernel...
...this appears to be a pretty common problem and other faqs/forums have yet to find a solution...
the xorg.conf.log states these errors...
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA(0): *** Aborting ***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration
i assure you the conf is okay... this installation works perfectly with Red Hat 9...
Did RedHat 9 use XFree86? While FC3 makes use of Xorg?
Your screen section appears to be your problem. Re-run xorgcfg or xorgconfig or xorgsetup and try setting up your screen section again.
I had the same problem in FC2. I fixed it by downloading the nvidia kernel module, using the wonderful apt-get.
Do you have the rivafb module loaded?
I have the same problem but it also says something like "you are running X, unload x and try again" and then my question... How tha' h*** do i unload X and what is is?
The X Server is the system on UNIX that provides your gore GUI (graphical) functionality. On FC3you will be using an X server called xorg.
To stop X, first log out of your KDE/GNOME session.
Next press Ctrl+Alt+F6, you wll get to a login. Enter root as the username, and your password. When you login type 'telinit 3', this will stop X for you.
You don't know how much you just may have helped me. Thanx.
You can just do ctrl-alt-backspace from gnome and it will kill the Xserver.
* Log in as root.
* Type:
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
If you have not already done so, remove "rhgb quiet" from the kernel line in grub.conf. Click the "save" button and then exit gedit. This will disable the "Red Hat Graphical Boot" at boot time which would otherwise interfere with the nVidia installation described below.
* Open Firefox \(the "mouse and world" icon on the bottom left\). Go to http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux\_display\_ia32_1.0-6629.html and download NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run. \(Select "save to disk".\) This should save the file to the /root directory.
* Open the terminal and type:
gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
In the "module" section comment out \(put a "\#" in front of\) load "dri" so that it reads \# load "dri". In the "device" section change "nv" to "nvidia".
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
# Load "dri"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "Videocard vendor"
BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX (generic)"
EndSection
Click the "save" icon and exit gedit.
* With the root terminal still open type:
gedit /etc/rc.local
At the end of the file add the line:
/sbin/modprobe nvidia
Add a carriage return as well if necessary to insure that there is a blank line at the bottom of the file. Click on the "save" icon and exit gedit. Close the terminal.
* Click "Actions" > "Log Out" > "Restart the computer" and click "ok". When Fedora reboots it will try to load the nVidia driver \(which has been downloaded but not yet installed\). You will see the command line login prompt 3 or 4 times as it continues to try to load the driver and then you will see a text mode screen with the message "...cannot start the x server...". Answer "no" \(right arrow and enter\) to the question "would you like to view the x server output?". Answer "no" to the question "would you like me to run the x configuration program?". Answer "ok" to "...disable the x server for now...". You will then be presented with a text mode command line login prompt. Log in as root, type "ls" and hit enter. You should see the nVidia driver file that you downloaded previously. Type:
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-6629-pkg1.run
Hit enter. You will be presented with a text mode nVidia screen. Left arrow to "accept" and hit enter. Answer "yes" to "download...". Answer "ok" to "no matching kernel...". Answer "ok" to "warning - your kernel was...". Disregard the "rivafb" warning. It won't affect your installation. nVidia will build and install a kernel module for the nVidia driver. When the "...complete" screen appears hit enter on "ok", then type "reboot" and hit enter. You should see the nVidia splash screen when Fedora reboots indicating that the installation was successful. Now if you wish to get rhgb \(Red Hat Graphical Boot\) working again open a terminal and type:
su -
Hit enter, type your root password and hit enter. Type:
cp -a /dev/nvidia* /etc/udev/devices
Hit enter. Type:
chown root.root /etc/udev/devices/nvidia*
Hit enter. Type:
gedit gedit /etc/rc.local
Remove the "/sbin/modprobe nvidia" line from rc.local, click on the "save" icon, and exit gedit. Type:
gedit /boot/grub/grub.conf
Add "rhgb quiet" back into the kernel line in grub.conf, click on the "save" icon, and exit gedit. Reboot. \(If you upgrade your kernel be sure to remove "rhgb quiet" from grub.conf before you reboot into the new kernel. Then you can re-install the nVidia driver per these instructions again for the new kernel.\)OK, sixstrings is right, his/hers solution will work.
However, the editing of grub.conf & rc.local is unecessary, IMO.
This is how I do it .......
First & most obvious, download the nvidia drivers.
Next we want to kill X
If you DON'T use the graphical login then it's easy, just logout of your X session. Done!
If you DO use the graphical login in manager, logout of your X session, and then use CTRL+ALT+F12 to give you access to the consoles. You'll then have to use ALT+F1 to bring up a console.
Right, login is as root.
Kill the X server with this command
init 3
Now you can install the nvidia drivers.
Once the driver installation is complete, edit your xorg.conf file in the same way sixstrings suggests in the previous post.
ie.
But you should know that. You did read the README? Right?!
At this point, if you start X again it will work.
If you restart your machine then it will not.
Why not?
Because the nvidia module is not loaded upon start up.
Again, like sixstrings suggests, copy all instances of nvidia* that you find in /dev to /etc/udev/devices, and issue this command
chown root.root /etc/udev/devices/nvidia*
Now the nvidia modules will be loaded the next time you restart your machine.
And that's it! 
Want to know more about udev? Check out these links:
http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/udev/
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev.html
Does anyone know if nvidia is going to fix this issure?
I posted the editing of the grub.conf due to a known error, that is possible, when performing the install. After that, there is not much use for it. Just thought I would cover all bases.
I was having this problem installing FC3 on my laptop, I had already installed the drivers, I just couldn't get them to load before login, I went to a command prompt and tried to copy the files as described above... but it failed, because the files didn't exists.
Then I read a bit on that first page link above, and read that udev maintains a list of active devices, so... since I had just freshly rebooted, the files didn't exist.
If anyone else has this error, just do a modprobe nvidia to create the devices, then copy them as described