STEPS TO GENERATE SYMPTOM 1) download source: ftp1.detonator.nvidia.com/pub/drivers/english/XFree86_40/0.9-5/NVIDIA_kernel-0.9-5.tar.gz 2) download patch: http://www.linuxgames.com/misc/patch-2.4.0-PR 3)untar the source tarball: tar xvzf NVIDIA_kernel-0.9-5.tar.gz cd NVIDIA_kernel 4) apply the patch: patch -p1 <~/patch-2.4.0-PR 5) make the module: make ERROR REPORTED: text data bss dec hex filename 391021 26944 40 418005 660d5 NVdriver depmod: *** Unresolved symbols in /lib/modules/2.4.0-0.43.12/video/NVdriver /lib/modules/2.4.0-0.43.12/video/NVdriver: unresolved symbol irq_stat /lib/modules/2.4.0-0.43.12/video/NVdriver: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.0-0.43.12/video/NVdriver failed /lib/modules/2.4.0-0.43.12/video/NVdriver: insmod NVdriver failed make: *** [package-install] Error 255 COMMENTS: This error does not occur when using pristine kernel sources: http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/linux-2.4.0.tar.gz instead of kernel rpms: http://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/redhat/rawhide/i386/RedHat/RPMS/kernel*-2.4.0-0.43.12.i686.rpm
See my solution on but 24094....
Patches for anything at all, are intended to apply to a given source base, and this includes any Nvidia patches, or patches from other sources for anything. When the base source code changes, in this case the kernel, if the parts of code change that a given patch is patching, then that patch may not apply cleanly anymore. This looks like what you're seeing here. This is not a bug in the kernel. When the kernel changes, whoever makes patches for the kernel, needs to update their patches so they apply to the newer kernel, in this case, Nvidia would be the ones who have to fix this problem.
*** Bug 24094 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***