Use nv, not nvidia drivers -> Save the headache
Submitted by srlinuxx on Sat, 11/01/2008 - 20:54.
As the majority of BSD/Linux users, I use X.org for my X Window System. I decided to try the nvidia driver on my Arch Linux desktop. Arch has a good wiki to get nvidia with 3D rendering to work. I got it to work and was quite happy, for about a month at least. So what happened?
The nvidia drivers, like it’s propriety counterpart, ati, have a tendency to break. For some computer users, it breaks a lot. With Gentoo, I never install the latest nvidia drivers. It breaks X forcing me to either revert to an older driver or switch to nv or vesa. With Arch, an update to the Gnome desktop broke X with the cause attributed to my nvidia driver. In Ubuntu, yes Ubuntu systems do break, an update to the kernel caused X to break as well. In PC-BSD, I was forced to rebuild X.Org. In all cases, I was either using the nvidia or ati propriety drivers.
When X broke earlier this week on my Arch system, I first had to find out what was the culprit.
re: nvidia driver
Great idea.
Take your $400+ graphic ACCELERATOR card and run it with a plain jane video driver that turns your high end graphic card into a snail-esque run-of-the-mill 8meg onboard graphics emulator.
That's a great solution to those pesky configuration headaches.
Typical Linux fix ? Necessary evil not to re-engineer ? simplify
For many years, Linux drivers were hindsight engineering. Simplify and combine features of many drivers. Its called smarts. Driver components are reusable files for any or all video cards or devices.
I finally told Microsoft to do driver components in Vista, 2001. When I visited Waltham in 2006, Microsoft corrected Vista driver component selection by using XP driver(like) wizards. They still need more work to understand PNPos, card features(table) and driver component suitability. Vista will improve more, just by running some instructions of any peripheral cards, before selecting components into a fixed driver. But USB peripherals may have saved Vista on netbooks for now.
So AMD is near death when they acquired ATI. Video accelerators are not long instructions. but data compression. 3D/2D are but temporary affections. So, AMD will die just like nvidia, now in Taiwan. Many of us hated nvidia features of video presentation which avoids truth or high fidelity. Adding shaded alternate lines is one of them, suddenly or accidentally. Speed of video presentation is in fewer codes, not frills.
But, eventually Linux will have better drivers, or saved by USB firmware which requires no drivers, just posix packets with data and instructions?
I am curious as to the off
I am curious as to the off manner of punctuation you use.
what is it with the misplaced and misused question marks?
It makes your posts disconcerting to read at the least and hard to take serious at the worst.
Is it something your word processor is doing automatically? or is it intentional?
Big Bear
its the web fashion and style I created years ago ? keyword text
To not offend people, use keywords(driver components or small reusable files to make up a large driver file) and question mark for your approval?
(Keywords) you can search the Googles, Yahoos, and MSNs; then wikis?
Question marks means do you agree? Not my convictions?
I survived all these years using Alan Greenspan's Fed speaks technique. It is still fashionable and distinctive in style(Feds speak) to teach keywords that open source community does not venture into? In other words, 'Long winded discussions' packed and condensed into keywords that people should use more often?
Have fun. You haven't heard nothing yet?
Two New 'Software' Freedoms
I propose two new software freedoms:
-2: The Freedom to run any hardware, for any purpose
-1: The Freedom to run proprietary software, to run any hardware.
These are two unspoken assumptions that I've never heard expressed before.
I don't understand why people like Keven Miller won't allow me to have the freedom to install proprietary software on my Linux system. I use both Linux and Windows. I enjoy running the latest and greatest games with the fastest video and sound cards.
I love how NVIDIA robustly supports Unix platforms, unlike Creative, whose sound cards are crippled under Linux. I require that my computer works with the hardware I bought for it.
I'm sick and tired of misguided free software enthusiasts applying free software principals to hardware. Yes, I think that as an individual tinkerer I should have the freedom to study and hack hardware that he owns, but hardware is not software. Hardware is a tangible thing. The structure of our laws protect tangible things more fiercely than ephemeral things, like software and ideas.
One of the original purpose of Free Software was to liberate hardware from the limitations of its software by protecting the freedom of the user. However, Stallman's philosophy of "doing without [the hardware and] supporting a project to develop a free replacement" ignores the fact this limits the users freedom. It presupposes that the user can go without the hardware. It assumes that the user has the ability to support a free alternative with time, money or programing skills. And it assumes that that the user values liberated software more than using the hardware itself.
Hardware is worthless if it does not work. If I bought a watch that did not keep accurate time, I would return it. If I bought a video card that a vendor supports in Linux, I should be able to use that driver, and my distribution should help me obtain this proprietary driver without violating the GPL.
This is my computer, and it is my choice.
http://psr.tumblr.com/post/57576525/two-new-software-freedoms