From owner-freebsd-hackers Mon Jul 31 0: 6:18 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from evil.2y.net (ztown2-3-155.adsl.one.net [216.23.16.155]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CBCE637BA91 for ; Mon, 31 Jul 2000 00:05:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cokane@evil.2y.net) Received: (from cokane@localhost) by evil.2y.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) id DAA28262; Mon, 31 Jul 2000 03:11:09 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from cokane) Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2000 03:11:08 -0400 From: Coleman Kane To: Trent Nelson Cc: Garrett Rooney , Peter Wemm , nimrodm@email.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Linux NVIDIA drivers vs. default XFree86 drivers (WAS: RE: Video card support) Message-ID: <20000731031108.A28185@cokane.yi.org> References: <3983CB07.9436BB0C@echidna.stu.cowan.edu.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0.1i In-Reply-To: <3983CB07.9436BB0C@echidna.stu.cowan.edu.au>; from tpnelson@echidna.stu.cowan.edu.au on Sun, Jul 30, 2000 at 02:30:16AM -0400 X-Vim: vim:tw=70:ts=4:sw=4 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Trent Nelson had the audacity to say: > Garrett Rooney wrote: > > > > On Sun, 30 Jul 2000, Trent Nelson wrote: > > > > > So, given a working FreeBSD-specific kernel device driver - can the > > > Linux OpenGL driver/libraries provided be handled via linux.ko? > > > > i believe the general answer is a definative maybe. but honestly, do you > > really care enough to try? > > 'Maybe' is good enough for me. > I would guess that if they have managed to abstract their NT source to the point where a simple wrapper can turn it into a linux kmod, then it is quite possible that it may be able to be ported to FreeBSD. The only other thing is whether their X Server could be ported in such a way (is it a binary only X-Server as well? or do they use the r128 driver supplied?). I suppose that one could always run XFree86 in linux emulation...if possible. > > that's less than the > > programmer time to make the NVidia drivers work is worth, and you can > > actually be sure you'll have some kind of success, where the NVidia stuff > > is really up in the air. > > NVIDIA's stand on Open Source can only get better. Unless they're > *really* stupid. > Well, so far they haven't shown this. Since their itroduction of open source drivers they have retracted the openness of their drivers to the point that they are simply a binary with the necessary source to link them to a module. > > -garrett > > Trent. > FWIW: I have a roommate who has been having severe stability issues with NVidia's binary drivers under Debian GNU/Linux 2.1. He has decided to switch back to the XFree86 supplied drivers that have lower performance to stop X from crashing so much. You can't even debug them because the symbols have been stripped out. Too bad. -- Coleman Kane President, UC Free O.S. Users Group - http://pohl.ececs.uc.edu To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message