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NVIDIA Drivers for 2.6 Kernel
fmileto writes "Kerneltrap.org is reporting that Nvidia has released drivers for the 2.6 series kernel. The driver and install directions can be found on Nvidia's website."
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> For those who've sold their GPL soul
;))
My soul is proprietary, thank-you-very-much. (Under an exclusive license, at that.
These sigs are more interesting tha
Release Highlights
* Support for Linux 2.6 kernels.
* Fixed AGP failures on some VIA motherboards.
* Fixed a problem that prevented X from running on Samsung X10 laptops.
I've been running the 2.6-series kernel since test6 (IIRC), and all the time using the Nvidia GFX drivers for my Ti4600. This story suggests that Nvidia users have had to wait for a new 2.6-compatible release of the drivers, which clearly isn't the case.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
is here, courtesy of Andy Mecham, NVIDIA's Linux driver guru.
---
nV News
They won't - there is too much good stuff in there for people to steal. I haven't had trouble with them yet, so if they work who cares.
This is making my transition to 2.6 on my laptop look much more likely. I was wondering when NVidia would get around to doing such a thing. The fact that it has been relatively prompt seems to suggest that they are still somewhat interested in the Linux market.
The next question is when will they release drivers for Keith Packard's/Freedektop.org's Xserver, because to be honest, I'm very interested in seeing what that can do...
Jedidiah
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/1.0-53 36/README
/usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/).
From the README:
If you do not have a working XF86Config file, there are several ways
to start: there is a sample config file that comes with XFree86,
and there is a sample config file included with the NVIDIA driver
package (it gets installed in
You could also use a program like 'xf86config'; some distributions
provide their own tool for generating an XF86Config file. For more
on XF86Config file syntax, please refer to the man page.
If you already have an XF86Config file working with a different driver
(such as the 'nv' or 'vesa' driver), then all you need to do is find
the relevant Device section and replace the line:
Driver "nv"
(or Driver "vesa")
with
Driver "nvidia"
In the Module section, make sure you have:
Load "glx"
You should also remove the following lines:
Load "dri"
Load "GLcore"
if they exist. There are also numerous options that can be added to
the XF86Config file to fine-tune the NVIDIA XFree86 driver. Please see
Appendix D for a complete list of these options.
The last (2.4) drivers that worked for me were 1.0.4496; the recent ones are a disaster, so hopefully they've taken the time to iron out the bugs and this isn't just the latest version of the driver with the (already existing) 2.6 patch bolted on.
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
that is more, or less stable and WORKS.
im quite happy with that.
I understand the IP issues involved probably prohibit a source release.
I would just.. let this one go and thank them for at least supporting the linux driver.
Now people can watch porn using cutting edge technology once again!
The nvidia kernel driver has been easy to get working with 2.6 since the 2.5.x days. Problem is, they still haven't fixed the nasty mangled console bug that has been in the last three versions. It is always great to exit X windows and have to reboot before I can go back into X windows or else it will lock up my box. But...even if I exit X windows my console is so mangled I can barely use it any how...this sure has promoted my use of X and only X :)
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
For those who've sold their GPL soul to use the binary drivers from NVIDIA (like me) you can get them now.
While I support the GPL and don't particularly like binary-only drivers, I reckon this little phrase has no place in this announcement. To NVidia's credit, they seem to be somewhat serious about supporting Linux in a somewhat timely manner. This sort of allusion won't be a great incentive for other hardware vendors to support Linux at all, they'll just think "whatever we do to be nice to them, those Linux folks will always have something to complain about".
When Linux has 80% marketshare and is a true force to be reckoned with, then perhaps the community will be able to afford sarcasm and get away with it, but in the meantime, there must be other, more constructive ways to entice vendors to embrace open-source.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Until now they had to use a third party patch, found here
Atleast that is what they want people to think...
For the video drivers that might be true. Although I doubt there is really anything really new in there... a lot of manufacturers overestimate their own brilliance.
But for there chipset drivers (e.g. nForce) they are just plain assholes.
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
Damn motherboard blew (volt-regulator poped... literally) and its been 3 weeks so far w/ no new one comming in!
;-)
BTW, does anyone know how to Overclock a GeForce 5600 in Linux? Haven't found anything yet...
Why do I get the impression that your motherboard problem wasn't entirely unprovoked?
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
GNU/Linux PowerPC users -- such as in Power Macs -- are still out of luck.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
You had 3D acceleration?
Fer sure, and its definitely been working (smooth 3D viewing of 100,000 polygon meshes). Either that, or the Underpant Gnomes installed a 10GHz processor in my machine while I was asleep...
However, its worth noting that I'm using the drivers as packaged by Gentoo. This may include the patch which another reply to my OP mentions; I wasn't aware of this patch when I posted.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Ok I'll bite,
Maybe he wants to play the linux versions of Unreal Tournament 2003, or Medal of Honor, or Neverwinter Nights, or Quake3, or Return to Castle Wolfenstein, or Enemy Territory, or Savage , or Rune, or SpaceTripper, or Tribes 2 or Serious Sam, or Postal2, or America's Army or another of the various other games on Linux that requires 3D acceleration. Sure, a far cry from what's available on windows, but more games then I'll ever have time to play.
"If they have both, tell them we use Linux. And if they have that, tell them the computers are down." -Dave Chapelle
Whenever you start talking about hardware drivers, especially bleeding-edge hardware in a highly competitive market like video cards, you run into the following problems:
1) There is a natural desire to keep technical details (both in the hardware and in the driver implimentation) secret from one's competitors, so as to build a competitive advantage.
2) You may not own all the technology in the hardware or the drivers, and your licencing agreement with the 3rd-party technology providers may include terms of non-disclosure.
This tends to disincline one from open-sourcing the drivers.
The advantages of having them opened up everybody here is well aware of. But realizing those advantages takes time to sink in at the hardware company - especially when their Linux market is very small (so the perceived risks outweigh the rewards)
As time goes on, and especially as the Linux market grows (to the point where it is providing a signifigant fraction of a company's revenue) I believe the value of opening up the drivers will become more compelling to the driver authors (and more importantly, their management)
Baby steps. Rome wasn't built in a day.
In the meantime, there is value in supporting companies who provide closed-source drivers for products where there is no other alternative. Help them build the Linux experience - both on the technical and social aspects - that will eventually lead them along the path to opening their drivers up.
Would I prefer to see fully open-and-GPLed NVIDIA drivers? You bet your ass. But for whatever reason, they aren't ready to jump off that particular cliff, so I'll support them anyway in anticipation of the day when they DO open the drivers up.
We're fighting 20 years of a culture of secrecy and code-hording here. It'll take time to work through that.
DG
Want to learn about race cars? Read my Book
Yes, well, perhaps the title of the story should've been Official NVIDIA Drivers for 2.6 kernel since what we've been using for months has been an unsupported hack. For most of people, including me, it has been working just fine, though, as you suggested, but before this there has been no-one to blame if didn't work. Now it's supported by NVIDIA.
But does the IP belong to you, or to God? (or Allah or whatever. I assume that since you believe to have a soul, you also believe in some form of God) I think you got a time-limited lease on it. A run-time licence perhaps? And I don't want to get into the physics of it, being a derivative work of your parents and all...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Tried installing drivers for a dlink nic on 9.2 and got a message that the binary only drivers would "pollute" the operating system or some such. Refused to install them at all - there was no do it anyways option.
/sbin/lsmod command as a user to see for yourself.
First RPM doesn't give such error messages, nor does RPM prevent you from installing the RPM you desire (Remember: Unix assumes that root knows everything, and never limits root from doing anything either)
Secondly, you are possibly confusing the above error with something not done by mandrake, but the kernel. The kernel automatically complains about non GPL/BSD modules being loaded, however this DOES NOT prevent the modules from being loaded. Issue the
Lastly, as another poster already pointed. Mandrake sells a commercial version of their distro that automatically uses such binary only drivers. (Their 100% FLOSS distro does not ship with them but like *any* other distro, can use them.)
Sunny Dubey
This is good news. Now we just need to get lirc support and ivtv support without nasty hacks, and I'll be good to go.
The Linux drivers NVIDIA released are actually newer than the Windows 2000/XP ones! I call that pretty darn good support!
I'm all for Open Source, but there are probably far too few 3D/OpenGL engineers who have the time to work on and release quality Open Source 3D/OpenGL drivers. NVIDIA has practically their whole driver engineering team working for us. I consider the closed part just an extended piece of 'firmware' for the (closed source) video hardware. The 'loader' and glue code are open source.
It would take a couple of man years to produce quality drivers that even come close to what we have now, and by that time the current crop of 3D hardware cards will be thrice obsoleted (hi Matrox!)
Better to spend our resources improving other things (like GNOME, D-BUS, whatnot) than to duplicate driver magic, just for the sake of being open source.
Now, if you're a PowerPC user, I take everything I said back *grin*
-adnans
"In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd people." --Linus Torvalds