Slashdot Mirror
Open Source 3D Nvidia Driver Is Ready For Fedora 13
An anonymous reader writes "Red Hat has already been using the Nouveau X.Org driver in Fedora for providing display and 2D support, but with their next release (Fedora 13) they will be making open-source 3D acceleration readily available to those using Nvidia graphics cards. Red Hat has packaged the Nouveau 3D driver in Fedora 13 and what makes it interesting — besides being an open source 3D driver that was written by the community by reverse engineering Nvidia's closed-source driver — is that it's one of the first drivers to use the Gallium3D driver interface. Phoronix has tested out this Gallium3D driver for Nvidia GPUs in a Fedora 13 daily build and found it to run with a variety of OpenGL games, with benchmarks being included that compare it to Nvidia's official driver. The performance is far from being on the same stage as Nvidia's official Unix driver."
Step 1: Figure things out.
Step 2: Make them work (correctly)
Step 3: Make them work (fast)
its all a part of the process and step 2 is a HUGE achievement especially when most of the information about the chips was reverse engineered.
Copy the Ethernet driver code, and use it as a base.
Seriously, that's what the folks told me before I wrote a device driver for an ATM network adapter.
Don't even look at the Token Ring driver code, I was told.
I could imagine the same holds for writing graphics card device drivers.
That glass of Sake, and a talk from your manager about the Divine Wind will be all that you need to set off about your task.
Oh, and the headband with the red dot.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I am one of those people and I'm very pleased with nouveau. I don't run games on linux very much (outside of teg and dosbox) but I would like KMS and a bling desktop. I get both of these on my 8800gt with a free driver which is now just a kernel option away! Nouveau FTW!
Because they'd love to be able to work on improving the existing wheel instead, but, unfortunately, they can't.
Do some people really use markedly inferior software simply because it is open source, even if a better competitor is available at no cost?
Nvidia's driver may not necessarily be "better," depending on how you define it. Nvidia's driver is clearly better in terms of 3D acceleration, but Nouveau wins in many other areas (largely as an extension of it's F/OSS'ness). There's much less legal worry when distributing it, it doesn't have to be recompiled against the kernel updates, it supports KMS (which is more important than 3D acceleration with many, such as myself), it can be fix/changed/updated without dependence on Nvidia, it's also more likely to have continued support on older hardware - the list gets pretty long. Maybe these things don't matter to you as much as 3D acceleration, but for many they do.
I use linux because it works perfectly well for me.
F/OSS isn't just blind idealism - there's practical benefits which result. I expect at least part of the reason why Linux "works perfectly well" for you is a result of the fact it's F/OSS. This carries over to the video drivers, too.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
Then they are welcome to continue using whatever they want. But fuck anyone who thinks they have the right to determine if someone's work is a waste of time or not.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
So I don't have to waste my time going and hunting down nvidia drivers when I install a new machine....that alone is a good enough reason.
Got Code?
Excuse me for not being an expert on drivers for hardware I don't own,
You're excused.
but does this mean the new driver is better than the official driver, or not nearly as good?
It's not new, it's been around for a while. But it's not nearly as good in most respects; no VDPAU, poor performance.
If it is not "on the same stage," meaning not nearly as good, why is Red Hat using it,
Because it is freely redistributable.
and why is this news?
Because it just happened.
Do some people really use markedly inferior software simply because it is open source, even if a better competitor is available at no cost?
No, some people use markedly inferior software simply because it is Free Software, which is totally and completely different (The OSI's attempts to convince you to the contrary notwithstanding.)
This seems silly to me.
Nobody cares.
I use linux because it works perfectly well for me.
Me too. But nobody cares why either of us use Linux. Well, that's not true. I've put some people on to it. Nobody cares why you use Linux.
If it were a pile of crap in comparison to Windows, I'd use Windows
In many respects, it is, for example if you are a gamer.
even though I have a casual dislike for Microsoft.
So you're wearing slacks?
(please no Macintosh osx comments here, I don't care)
Nobody cares if you care, didn't we cover that?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"