[AuckLUG] Opensuse 10.2 NVIDIA driver problem with Geforce 7900 GS card

[Subs]

Hi,

I've searched exhaustively through other threads but to no avail. I've got a 
new AMD system with the following configuration

AMD ATHLON 4200+Dual Core AM2
Asus nForce AM2 ATX Motherboard
Silicon Power 2GB DDR2 800 Ram
Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA2 16MB HDD
Liteon 18X Dual DVDRW 8X D-Layer18A1P DVD Writer
Foxconn TSAA909 Case
7900GS 256MB Video Card
OpenSuse 10.2 (32 bit)

I tried installing the nvidia drivers using "The Easy Way" following the 
instructions on the following opensuse 10.2 wiki 
http://en.opensuse.org/NVIDIA

Then I installed opensuse's xgl settings available here 
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/opensuse-xgl-settings?content=51201

To enable xgl I ran "gnome-xgl-switch --enable-xgl" (which should also work 
from KDE, which I am using).

Then I rebooted my machine; excited at the prospect of seeing this ***cube*** 
that everyone's on about...

Sadly, it never booted into a GUI, instead leaving me a command prompt to 
login to. When I hit Alt-F10 to get to the interesting error message it said 
the following

**************************
Mar 4 22:57:07 desktop kernel: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: The NVIDIA probe routine was not called 
for 1 device(s).
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: This can occur when a driver such as 
rivafb, nvidiafb or
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: rivatv was loaded and obtained ownership 
of the NVIDIA
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: device(s).
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: Try unloading the rivafb, nvidiafb or 
rivatv kernel module
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: (and/or reconfigure your kernel without 
rivafb/nvidiafb
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: support), then try loading the NVIDIA 
kernel module again.
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kernel: NVRM: No NVIDIA graphics adapter probed!
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kdm[3421]: X server died during startup
Mar 4 22:57:08 desktop kdm[3421]: X server for display :0 can't be started, 
session disabled
**************************

Here's some other things I've looked at. When I perform "lsmod |grep -i nv" I 
don't get any listing for anything to do with nvidia, only

**************************
sata_nv             15492   3
libata             119444   1 stat_nv
**************************

When I perform "lsmod |grep -i agp" I get

**************************
agpgart             35528 0
**************************

When I perform "rpm -qa|grep nvidia" I get

**************************
x11-video-nvidia-1.0.9631-0.1
nvidia-gfx-kmp-default-1.0.9631_2.6.18.2_34-0.1
**************************

Not sure what any of this means but does anyone have any ideas? I have read 
here that I would be better off to abandon "The Easy Way" and go back and do 
it "The Hard Way". Is this my only option left? If so, how do I get back to 
the stable system I had before I followed "The Easy Way".

There's a 2,000,000 Euro reward for any help :-)

Cheers,
Dec