Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 08:11:04 -0800 From: Micah <micahjon@ywave.com> To: Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm@toybox.placo.com> Cc: Hans Nieser <hans@nieser.net>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Does FreeBSD 6.0 fully support PCI-Express? Message-ID: <4385E618.9090007@ywave.com> In-Reply-To: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNOENMFCAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> References: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNOENMFCAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > Micah, > > Would you please list a cite that the nv driver is open > source? > > There is also another site here: > > http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-5762319.html > > > although I will admit this is 5 months old - please cite > a more recent article where nvidia has reversed their policy? > > As Mike Harris eloquently said a couple years ago: > > Nvidia doesn't release their technical specifications for their > hardware to *anyone*, not even under NDA (non-disclosure > agreements). One might be tempted to think "well you have the > source code though right?", however the source code isn't enough. > None of the video hardware registers are documented, instead they > are programmed as a series of random "magic" numbers, so you have > absolutely no idea what the purpose of a given register is, that > is getting written seemingly random information into it in the > driver. The driver is for all intents and purposes obfuscated > unless you have the hardware documentation which turns numbers > like 0x3432 into a useful name like NVIDIA_SUCH_AND_SUCH_REGISTER > with documentation of WTH that register actually does. > > That's the long story, the short story is, that even though the > "nv" driver is open source, it is more or less supplied as-is and > the only way it gets updated is if Nvidia updates it, because > nobody outside Nvidia has the foggiest clue how their hardware > works. > > So if a card isn't supported, that's unfortunate. If 2D doesn't > work, that's also unfortunate. By reporting bugs that occur in > the "nv" driver to http://bugs.xfree86.org, the bug report will > get assigned to Mark Vojkovich, who is the official driver > maintainer, working at Nvidia, who has access to pretty much > every Nvidia card ever made, and the technical specifications to > go along with them. If he can't fix the bug, then more or less, > nobody can. Not without getting hired by Nvidia to work on the > 'nv' driver. ;o) > > Micah, if this has changed, please cite where. I myself also happen to > have a system with an onboard nvidia card so I really am interested, > not just trying to flame-bait. I think I understand your claim. Source code with an open source license is not Open Source unless it is actively maintained by someone and has freely available specs. Under that criteria, I guess NV isn't open source. Later, Micah
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