Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:09:11 -0700 From: Garrett Cooper <yanefbsd@gmail.com> To: Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: linux 3d applications keep crashing Message-ID: <7d6fde3d0903151609v6d9b4d7eq1559d844b7673e3b@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <18877.1409.511002.357436@jerusalem.litteratus.org> References: <38992BCD-BFD6-47F7-B707-54415801CCEB@gmail.com> <18877.1409.511002.357436@jerusalem.litteratus.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 6:41 AM, Robert Huff <roberthuff@rcn.com> wrote: > > Garrett Cooper writes: > >> =A0 =A0 =A0 So instead of lurking and complaining, why not contribute to >> =A0the cause? > > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0While I sympathize on the complaining ... the response is > problematic. > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0I see two ways to contribute to the main problem, which is= lack > of usable code. =A0(For the moment let's discount "testing" and > "documentation".) > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0One could help with one of the open source drivers. =A0Wor= thy > project, but a lot of work involving a skill-set beyond even many > coders experienced in other fields. =A0(I'm assuming none of these > drivers are on the cusp of a magic moment where lot of good things > suddenly happen and it's a coast downhill from there.) > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0The alternative - which sounds seductive but may have its = own > issues - would be to fill the Nvidia requests and let them write and > maintain the code. =A0Again, worthy project (which might have > collateral benefits). =A0Again, a lot of work. =A0And an even more > esoteric skill-set. > =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0If you have some other way a person with limited technical > skills can contribute - tell! =A0I'm getting closer to buying a new > system, and I'd love to have a modern graphics card running at full > capacity. =A0And, as long as it didn't explode in their faces, I think > many others might be willing to help as well. Well, some ways which someone can help are: - Interface with nVidia to say `hey, your driver's broken and you have a bunch of users out here that you're leaving cold in the wind that use your product!'. I've already tried that on the forums by didn't receive that much support... <http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=3D87932>. If we don't note a problem, I'm pretty sure that because we are a third-tier platform they'll assume that it's business as usual with us, e.g. we don't need support. Saying something like `your driver doesn't support 64-bit' or `you guys suck' without providing hard data, probably won't help our cause as it's all been said before. That's why I specifically asked for a more up-to-date driver without GIANT locking and built against a more recent release like 6.x (yes, it's still being built against 5.x and I have NFI why...). These intermediate steps would relieve the burden required by folks who choose to run the blob drivers as more people could use their stuff. - Provide resources (hardware, money) to developers like Robert and Roman to help make development easier and speed up the entire process. - Test out alpha and beta patches. Sure, we may not like the instability, but as long as we can provide feedback to the developers on whether or not the patches work, that should be sufficient. This should be OK though if you run CURRENT because it is bleeding edge anyhow... - Review and possibly test our the pmap-like interface patch that was provided to the list a while ago, because that helps nail down one requirement that the nVidia folks needed. My 2 cents, -Garrett
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?7d6fde3d0903151609v6d9b4d7eq1559d844b7673e3b>