[elrepo-devel] kmod-nvidia.el6 question

[Steve Cleveland]

When I initially tested the nvidia-x11-drv and kmod-nvidia package with 
rhel6, it was working great.  But now I've run into a bit of a strange 
issue.

My system build environment is based on the latest version of every 
package (using mrepo to download RHN updates and adding a repo option to 
ks.cfg to look at that repository during install).

So for kernel, it is installing the latest available kernel only 
(currently 2.6.32-71.14.1.el6.x86_64).

With that package in place, if I install nvidia-x11-drv and kmod-nvidia, 
I'm not able to load the nvidia module:

# modprobe nvidia
FATAL: Error inserting nvidia 
(/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.14.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/nvidia/nvidia.ko): 
No such device

But the file does exist:

# ll /lib/modules/2.6.32-71.14.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/nvidia/nvidia.ko
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 56 Feb  9 11:09 
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.14.1.el6.x86_64/weak-updates/nvidia/nvidia.ko -> 
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64/extra/nvidia/nvidia.ko

# ll /lib/modules/2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64/extra/nvidia/nvidia.ko
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 14845520 Jan 21 11:35 
/lib/modules/2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64/extra/nvidia/nvidia.ko

 From here, I can install the old kernel (2.6.32-71.el6.x86_64) and boot 
off of that.  The module loads fine.  But even with the old kernel in 
place, the newer kernel cannot load the module.  If I then remove the 
newer kernel, reinstall it, and then boot off of it, the module loads fine.

Is there a piece in the stock kernel that is needed by kmod-nvidia to 
work correctly?  I'm not terribly familiar with how weak kernel modules 
work.  I get the impression that during the update process, modules get 
linked or copied over to the newer kernels.  But by having the newer 
kernel be the first one loaded, does that break what the kmod module 
does?  Is there a solution to get this to work on whatever the most 
current kernel version is?

Thanks,
  - Steve