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FWIW, 64-bit Fedora doesn't require a kernel recompile to use the nVidia closed-source drivers, but you do need the driver patch from minion.de. You'll also need to add "alias char-major-195 nvidia" to /etc/modprobe.conf, or modprobe nvidia manually. Don't forget to make the usual changes to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Anyhow, I've been running 64-bit UT2004 under FC2 Test 3 for a while now and it works great, after getting the beta version mentioned here (hopefully there will be an official UT2004 upgrade soon?).

It's great to see x86_64 Linux on equal footing with 32-bit x86 Linux. If you've been waiting for an excuse to switch over to AMD64, now's the time.

I was able to use the nVidia drivers under 32-bit Fedora by compiling a plain 2.6.6rc2 kernel (using /usr/src/lin*/configs/kernel*.config copied to .config as a starting point) and using the minion.de patches (hmm, might not have been necessary for 32-bit...). For 64-bit FC2T3, no kernel recompilation is required but the minion.de patch definitely is. UT2004 ran under both (UT needs patching to keep it from segfaulting at random but that's a separate issue that I haven't tackled yet). More here.

FC2 Test 2 had problems, but Test 3 appears to be pretty solid.

I'd like to see nVidia release updated drivers regardless. They'll have to soon, what with the GeForce 6800 series launch.

A bit late to point it out now, but for 2.5/2.6, there were patches available (and, later, pre-patched installers) from minion.de.

This is old news for those of us that use the great services provided over at minion. This guy has been providing patches for quite sometime and the work great! Hats off to the open source contributors.

Until now they had to use a third party patch, found here

I moved my scanner to my linux server and installed "sane". I installed "sane-twain" (free/OSS software) on my XP box, and it then accessed the scanner on the linux box quite happily. Some of the icons weren't as pretty as the windows driver, but all the same stuff was there.

Later I installed a dual-boot setup on my workstation. I used XP less and less because it was so SLOW and getting slower - I don't install much new software once i get set up either - and yes, I ran AdAware and anti-virus software.

Eventually, I only ever fired up windows to run Quickbooks. Now that I have Crossover Office installed, I don't even do that (crossover runs the native windows quickbooks just fine).

A few weeks ago I used Partition Magic to downsize my XP partition (which I had done once before) to make more room for linux. My XP partition was 15GB with about 3GB spare, while Linux was 8GB with no spare.

(un)fortunately, Partition magic trashed my XP partition..... so what did I do? stress? no... I just said "well, I don't use it, so why recover/re-install it? Partition Magic then proceeded to do a wonderful job deleting the XP partition and moving/resizing the Linux Ext3 partition. I now have a lovely 23GB linux partition with loads of free space. GNU parted provides similar capabilities on linux, though I have yet to check it out in person.

The best thing, is that I have a WinRadio card. Winradio stopped developing their linux drivers shortly after releasing a working open-source driver a few years back. Someone started a sourceforge page and updated the original driver. They haven't done any work on it for almost a year, but i was still able to download it and with about a day's work yesterday, I have my winradio card working on kernel 2.6. (yes, I have contacted the sourceforge page owner about sending the updates so everyone can use it).

Someone is going to say "but i can't write software so what good does that do me". My answer is that I don't write 99% of the software on my linux box. I just contribute where i can because i want to - it doesn't matter if I draw a few graphics, write code, make a web page, or do nothing at all, I can still use the work of people like myself.

The best part is that I don't have to start from scratch - I don't have to start writing the driver all over again just because Winradio don't want to update the drivers for my old card, and won't give me the source code. (although to their credit winradio do provide a windows driver for XP, even for this, their oldest card) Another example is the NVidia drivers - the official ones don't support Kernel 2.6 yet, but due to the open source component (the core of the driver and GL code is closed source), I can get a 2.6 driver from a third party, who, just like myself, did it for himself and released the result to the public.

Right now I have ALL my hardware working quickly and well, even though some of it is 5 or 6 years old, and ALL of it is 3+ years old, and I'm running the latest version of the OS.

I just can't get that anywhere else.

You're about to say "but I can't get drivers for the latest gadget". Well if the vendors followed the Winradio and NVidia examples, by releasing a linux driver, you wouldn't have that problem.

Their current installer will try to use a pre-compiled binary driver, or of one isn't in the file you download, it will look on their site for one. Failing that (or if you choose to roll your own anyway) you can compile the included source.

Thay do this to protect their code, while making the driver easy to port to new kernels.

I'm running binary portion written by NVidia, and the source portion ported to 2.6 by someone else. NVidia Linux Drivers Ported to 2.6

Yep. Go to this site and download the diff for your version of the driver.

You'll need to run the NVIDIA installer with the --extract-only argument to untar it, then cd usr/src/nv and patch -p1 the diff file and then cp Makefile.nvidia Makefile. Then just run make install in the top-level directory of the nvidia installer and it'll build and install a 2.6.1-compatible module.

You need to do a bit of work to get it working with 2.6 - you need to use the minion.de patches...

Go figure.

They work great now though. no problems whatsoever -- they are stable, fast, and kick all the ass you want.

For those who want a patch...

http://minion.de/nvidia.html was updated a matter of moments ago.

Go grab the latest patch now!

There are prepatched 2.6.0 installers here.

Minion is working fast towards a resolution, but it still looks like the drivers are below existing 4496 performance levels.

I know alot of this was mentioned last night when the story of the kernel release came out, but I thought I'd mention it anyways.

There are two new interfaces to configuring the kernel. xconfig (based on QT) and gconfig, as well as the old menuconfig. I only tried xconfig and menuconfig, but they both worked fine and more quickly than their predecessors.

When compiling your kernel, drop the make dep and make clean and just #make bzImage modules modules_install. It might just be my imagination, but it seems like it took half the time to compile 2.6.0 and modules as it did for 2.4.23-pre6 which I was using.

If you get an error message like QM_MODULES: Function not implemented you haven't gotten the module-init-tools for 2.6.0 installed.

Nvidia users need to patch the nvidia-kernel sources with the appropriate diff from http://www.minion.de and apply before installing your new nvidia.o. My install went like this (Gentoo 1.4):
1. Get the nvidia-kernel package
#emerge -f nvidia-kernel
(if it's not already is /usr/portage/distfile)
2. Extract nvidia-kernel
#sh NVIDIA-Linux-...-pk0 --extract-only
3. Patch driver
#cd usr/src/nv
#patch -p1 NVIDIA_Kernel-1.0.4496-2.6.diff
#ln -s Makefile.kbuild Makefile
#make install

Hope this helps someone out there, I spent an hour or two googling to figure this out, so I hope I can save someone the trouble :)

-make xconfig looks really professional now
-make / make modules / make modules_install has all been tidied up by the looks of it -- no more endless printout of GCC syntax. had me worried for a second that nothing was compiling but overall looks pretty slick
-alsa comes installed as default, but the configuration seems a little screwy (on debian at least) -- /etc/modules.conf contains only OSS aliases, no alsa config files at all. so no sound at the moment...
-usb mouse doesn't seem to work here when compiled in the kernel, but works fine as a module -- same problem i've had with 2.4.18-23
-the nvidia 2.6.0 patch available at minion.de works great, so i have a functional X11 server with nvidia modules

The only thing I can find to fault is that somehow the X11 server on the backup 2.4.23 kernel crashes on bootup due to some problem parsing the XF86Config-4 file. I'm not sure if this is a side-effect of the 2.6.0 install or something else (maybe some apt-get update X11 changes i missed?), and i've had the occasional problem before with older kernels becoming only partly functional after newer kernels are installed.

All around though, nice job! Compiling the kernel is getting easier and nicer to look at. And it seems the problems with mouse lagging during 100% CPU usage are gone, at least as far as I've tried it this evening.

Thanks to Linus and all that contributed..

nvidia users might want to download the proper patches before trying out 2.6. the patches can be foundhere

the start of something?

I'm not a coder. (...) I get no benefits from having the code available.

Actually, I think you would get benefits from having the source code.

For example, it doesn't seem like nVidia is in a hurry to release drivers for new kernel versions, and just renaming their current driver doesn't work in Linux 2.6. The day you want to move to 2.6 (and you may have reasons; for example if it brings support for a new device you buy), you'll find that you can't just go to the manufacturer's site and download a binary.

(Note: it is possible to use the current nVidia drivers with 2.6, but with some patching.)

$ grep nvidia /proc/modules
nvidia 1532588 10 - Live 0xf8b30000
$ uname -a
Linux sparky 2.6.0-test11 #6 Fri Nov 28 17:59:07 CET 2003 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux

Check out www.minion.de

I realize this isn't the most trustworthy of sources, but I stumbled across a link to a random tarballed nvnet driver that compiles and seems to work on 2.6.0-test11. Dunno about sound, but there are also patches for Nvidia video drivers.

The evil binary-only nVidia kernel module works OK with 2.6.0-test9 when you apply the patches found at www.minion.de/nvidia.html to an official nVidia tarball and then build the nVidia module. I've been using it for the last 4 days, no problems running OpenGL-intensive stuff like mupen64.

What about the hcf modem 'drivers'?

Good question. I found the minion.de patches by Googling for "nvidia 2.6 linux", so try the same thing, substituting the name of the LoseModem module for "nvidia". There's supposed to be a beta source tarball for Lucent LoseModems for the 2.6 kernel, but it's 404ing at the moment. Quick Googling shows that Lucent will release an updated package when Redhat ships a 2.6 kernel (sigh). Guess my laptop's staying at kernel 2.4 for now.

No. This was fixed in 2.4.19 (well, /really/ fixed in .20 since .19 really just disabled it completely) and in 2.5. See this page.

NVIDIA drivers on Linux 2.6

Brought to you by Christian Zander, ex-NVIDIA intern.

Binary only under a proprietary license. They're decent, though. On par with the Windows counterparts, and latest hardware tends to be supported. No (official) 2.6 support yet, though. There's a patch, but I haven't had much luck with it.

• In case you don't know, nVidia provides official (but woefully non-GPL) drivers. They also have a message board which I found to be quite informative at times.
• Compile your kernel with MTRR support. It will speed things up a great deal.
• Compile your kernel without AGPGART support. The nVidia driver(s) are faster.
• If you want to try the nVidia driver with a 2.5 kernel, you'll need a patch.
• If you have an nForce chipset, make sure to add "mem=nopentium" to your kernel boot parameters, or else your system will be incredibly unstable. Better yet, ditch your nForce chipset (I did) since the Linux support totally blows, at least for now. Give your old nForce chipset to your wife, girlfriend, mother, Windows box, or whatever.

try here

Take a look at minion.de. They have patches for getting NVIDIA's driver going.

Those of you who want to use the closed NVidia drivers with 2.5 can find the necessary patches here

2.5.71 also introduced a new native mode driver for synaptics touchpads. You'll need to download the X11 driver and I saw it mentioned that the cvs version of GPM has support if you use that as well.

Try running Linux 2.5 on an nForce. What, no network driver? Well, who needs one of those these days, right? Or even try running *BSD!

I own an nvidia graphics card and am happy with it because some lunatics ported the nvidia driver to the 2.5 kernels. But the nforce users are pretty much lost.

Intel chipsets tend to be well supported as well, but let me mention these: "Winmodem" and "Centrino Wiress LAN". Good luck running OpenBSD on one of those. Apart from that, Intel chipsets are expensive and historically never performed well, especially on notebooks.

If I had to buy a new computer tomorrow, I would only even consider VIA and SiS. Both chipset companies are usually well supported by Linux and BSD, and their hardware is supported as soon as it is on the market. With Intel, you usually have to wait a few years until the hardware is obsolete and then Intel will release some driver under some non-GPL license (see the e100 driver for Linux, which was only recently released as GPL).

VIA and SiS may not be the highest performance chipsets around, but they work well, have absolutely no stability issues (except maybe under Windows) and are well supported. And "well supported" outweighs anything else anyway. I'm too old to run around in circles around nvidia or Intel, begging for even a binary only driver to get my machine to work at all.

That said, it's not the easiest thing to do, but it's also not the hardest. Building the kernel is very easy: download the latest source, extract it into /usr/src/ and ...

make menuconfig

(Going through all the different options takes a while. Don't forget that almost all of them are extensively documented, and generally tell you when you're likely to need them. You might want to select "Prompt for development and/or incomplete code/drivers" in the "Code maturity level options" section (the first one!), if you want the latest stuff)

(also, don't forget simple things like enabling PPP - may sound obvious, but it's easy to forget the first time and then you'll wonder why you can't connect to the internet! Save your config to another location at the end, that way you'll be able to easily build new kernels without going through the whole shebang again ...)

make

cp arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/kernel25bz

(or whatever else you want to call your new kernel)

make modules && make modules install

Now edit /etc/lilo.conf to add your new kernel and run /sbin/lilo to incorporate these changes, then reboot. This is the hard part!! But if things don't work, you've still got your old kernel there to go back to.

It's also worth noting a few extra things you'll need, such as the latest Module Init tools, and you may also need to edit your /etc/fstab if you're using devfs and include a line such as

none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0

And you'll need to find a patch if you're using Nvidia's drivers.

... But that's about all the problems I've personally found so far ... :)

One can download the nvidia driver from ftp://download.nvidia.com (the website only seems to link an "installer" version, which was irritating)

Now I'm happily runny mozilla-xft without those buggy artifacts the nv driver has-- and GL is always nice...

Try here. The patches were updated within a day of the official driver release. They were in Gentoo's ebuilds before I woke yesterday. The initial problems with DevFS kernels was resolved by this morning. God I love Linux...

You are in Luck !

Clicketh for the NVidia drivers for Linux 2.5

I found this site a little while ago. I don't run 2.5 myself but I have used the patch that fixes the OOPS from version 3123 of the NVIDIA drivers.

> You do mean "formerly an intern at Nvidia",
> right???

yup, sorry.

> I haven't worked for nvidia but where I DO work,
> interns don't exactly make company policy...

I don't want to argue but according to your resume:
Oct 2001 - Aug 2002
Intern, NVIDIA Corporation (www.nvidia.com)

Worked on different parts of the NVIDIA Linux (ia32/ia64) and on the FreeBSD driver as a member of the NVIDIA Linux/FreeBSD development team. This included work on the core resource manager (kernel-space), the open-source Linux/FreeBSD "glue" and kernel-userspace interface layers, the XFree86 module and GLX.

In the end I don't care, but I would be thankful if you could tell me how I could interpret that part of your resume differently than "has worked at X".
Thanks in advance

Actually the guy working on linux-2.5 support (and also being an intern at nVidia) seems to think that sharing the innards of nVidia's kernel-driver is OK :D

See for yourself

Ok, ok it's just a screenshot, but including source-code I couldn't find in the !downloadable! drivers.

from the guy who does the 2.5 patches:
http://www.minion.de/files/head_two.png
I just hope NVIDIA doesn't mind him posting screenshots with that code. Those files are not available in NVIDIA's tarballs.

Just thought you might find this interesting...

Several people seem concerned about nVidia's drivers and the forthcoming 2.6 kernel. I can't say much for tomorrow, but today, I have the latest (4191) nVidia drivers working just fine with the most recent development kernel.

To make it all work, the drivers need a minor makefile patch and updated modutils, but otherwise work just fine. You can obtain the required files from:

Unofficial nVidia driver patch
Updated modutils

Those did the tirkc for me. Your mileage may vary.

NVidia still hasn't realeased a set of drivers that work with the 2.5.x development kernel which, unfortunately, I must use day-to-day -- albeit on a non-production machine.

NVIDIA has better things to than chasing a constantly changing interface (Kernel 2.5.x). The patches available at http://www.minion.de/ were updated for practially every kernel release between 2.5.44 and 2.5.50. Surely you don't expect NVidia to roll new drivers every 2 days, right?

With that said, I can finally enjoy Twinview with dual X screens in the 41.91 release. Their new 2D architecture still needs lots of work though...looking forward to the next release.

-adnans

Visit www.minion.de for some patches that will let you use the drivers under 2.5.x (worked great for me under 2.5.50). The author of the patches worked at nVidia as an intern doing work on the Linux/FreeBSD drivers.

Look at the experience of windoze users -- NVidia drivers generally have the reputation that they are easier to install and work better than ATI's. NVidia has always been relatively careful to deliver drivers that work correctly on all of their cards (the Unified Driver Architecture). NVidia doesn't really want their competition to have source to their drivers partly for the same reason as any other producer of commercial software -- those drivers are a software product that they're selling with the hardware!

You can say that this sucks and I'll sort of agree -- I'd really like to see some good specs from all of the graphics card companies to make free-as-in-speech drivers possible. But as long as they're giving away good drivers, even closed-source, my complaining will be no more than a whisper.

Well, one exception: they need to work (if you use NVidia drivers, upgrade to the latest 4xxx release -- there is a serious bug in previous versions that will crash your kernel!) The kernel developers have had some issues with having to tell whether bugs are in the kernel or in proprietary drivers -- but this particular, very nasty bug was in the open source glue section of the nvidia driver, since it was making heavy use of kernel APIs!