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nVidia Posts First Linux Graphics Drivers for Opteron 296

Posted by chrisd from the in-other-news dept.
Brian Stretch writes "nVidia posted the first publically available Linux graphics drivers for the Athlon 64 (aka Hammer series) on their website today. There are updates for the lesser x86 and IA64 architectures as well. Now, if only the Athlon 64 and Opteron boards and CPUs themselves were publically available, or is AMD's developer program sending out more of these things than I know? (If so, gimme!) I guess I'll have to tough it out with my mere dual Athlon 2400+ workstation for now (heh heh heh)."
In related news, an anonymous reader writes "The new AMD Opteron servers designed by Newisys are using embedded Linux for system management. This allows remote management via web browser or ssh to examine processor state, switch power on/off, regulate processor power states and fan speeds, update BIOS firmware, etc. See the docs for more info!"
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nVidia Posts First Linux Graphics Drivers for Opteron More

nVidia Posts First Linux Graphics Drivers for Opteron

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  • Are there any of these available(especially OSS) for the more common motherboards? I've never heard any.

    Granted, I'd hate to be a beta tester. :)

  • The first? Really? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ed Avis ( 5917 ) <ed@membled.com> on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:37PM (#4872375) Homepage
    Are these really the first Linux graphics drivers for Hammer? Surely XFree86 and other graphics systems like the kernel framebuffer are already being ported?

    It sounds like this is just the first Hammer release of Nvidia's proprietary, binary-only drivers for cards they won't release specs to. Useful, but hardly any more significant than some other random piece of proprietary software being ported.
    • Nvidia - Random Video Card Driver?!

      That's like saying that Microsoft is porting some random operating system to the Hammer architecture.
    • The first "officially" released drivers by nVidia may pragmaticlly seem insignificant, but in the big picture this is a big success for the linux community as a whole

    • well, (Score:2, Informative)

      by pb ( 1020 )
      From the article:

      Release Highlights:

      * First publicly available Athlon 64 graphics driver

      However, if you want to possibly commit libel while accusing someone else of it, go right ahead, I won't stop you.

      And I think there's some value in being first to do something, regardless of the licensing status or any other factors.
      "Yeah, whatever, first space satellite... but they were COMMIE BASTARDS!" <-- sour grapes
      • That's what I'm querying. Is it the first publicly available Hammer graphics driver? There are no XFree86 ports or anything like that at present?

        (If there is currently no port of XFree86, it'd be interesting to know how Nvidia's drivers work.)

        • Re:well, (Score:2)

          by pb ( 1020 )
          It might also be a matter of interpretation -- in a document like "Release Highlights", there is an implicit context involved. So this might be the first publicly available graphics driver for that card on the Hammer.

          So, no, the vga16 drivers wouldn't count in that case. :)

          Besides, who needs X for graphics drivers? I'm sure NVIDIA could write drivers for the framebuffer...

          But my main point is that your post wasn't phrased in the form of a query, but rather an accusation--be careful before you start tossing those around too freely (unless you're posting on /. of course...).

      • Re:well, (Score:4, Informative)

        by LinuxGeek8 ( 184023 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:10PM (#4872708) Homepage
        From the specfile of Mandrake's rpm for XFree86:
        http://cvs.mandrakesoft.com/cgi-bin/cvsw eb.cgi/SPE CS/XFree86/XFree86.spec

        %ifarch x86_64
        #define XF86CardDrivers mga fbdev vga ati savage nv glint vesa \
        DevelDrivers XF86OSCardDrivers XF86ExtraCardDrivers
        %endif

        And part of the changelog:
        * Mon Nov 04 2002 Gwenole Beauchesne 4.2.1-6mdk
        - Build more drivers for x86-64

        So I guess those drivers have been built for at least a month now in Mandrake's XFree86 rpm on x86-64.

    • Re:The first? Really? (Score:5, Informative)

      by isaac ( 2852 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:11PM (#4872717)
      Are these really the first Linux graphics drivers for Hammer? Surely XFree86 and other graphics systems like the kernel framebuffer are already being ported?

      They are not the first. I saw at least one Opteron-based 1U system running XFree in the AMD booth at SC2002, just a few weeks ago. No idea what the video/driver subsystems were like (maybe fbdev?).

      Wouldn't be surprised if this was the first x86-64 driver to support hardware accelleration though.

      -Isaac

      • Re:The first? Really? (Score:4, Informative)

        by bm_luethke ( 253362 ) <luethkeb.comcast@net> on Thursday December 12, 2002 @02:37PM (#4873647)
        They said the first public release of thier drivers. Past instances of SC have generally shown future work (as in beta stuff), not current tech. I'm willing to bet that there are other graphics drivers from other vendors that are still internal.

        Plus if you don't know what video/driver subsystem how do you know it was not nvidia (and hence, still the first)?

    • Re:The first? Really? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:22PM (#4872815)
      binary-only drivers for cards they won't release specs to

      Whinge.

      They can't. There is IP involved they don't own, both from S3 and SGI.

      Not that this hasn't been said everytime some jackass whined about the same thing. And not that it'll help morons like you who don't have a clue how business works understand this little concept.
      • There is IP involved they don't own, both from S3 and SGI.

        And your proof to back up this statement would be what?

        Dinivin

      • I don't care how many times this is mentioned. Every time something comes up about the nVidia cards, I hope we get a whole flood of people posting about this problem. I don't really care what excuse they have for not having Open Source drivers. I only care that they aren't.

        It makes my kernel unsafe and insecure whenever I load the non-Open Source drivers into it. I end up suspecting them first in every case of strange system behavior because I know they haven't undergone peer review. I am extremely distrustful of them, and if I had any other choice that was within 75% of the performance and used Open Source drivers, I'd jump to it in an instant, even if it was %20 more in price.

        • Wow, 20% more in price?

          And 20% more than 0 is how much, exactly?

          If you don't like it, then quit whining and buy a different card. Matrox has open source drivers. Yeah, they suck. But they're open source, and that appears to be the driving factor in the whining.

          One day the open-source-uber-alles zealots will get a clue and realize that the business world does have things like trade secrets and intellectual property that can't just be released. The driver code is part of nVidia's core business, and asking them to open it wide open is equivalent to asking them to just hand money to their competitors.

          • I'm talking total hardware and software price. It really doesn't make any sense to talk about anything else since the hardware is useless without the software, and the software is useless without the hardware.

            If you read my post, you'd realize why I don't get a Matrox card. As you said, their performance is sadly lacking. I clearly laid out the parameters under which I would consider a different card.

            Ahh, yes, the business world... Can't find a way to make money without installing secret, possibly trojaned software on my computer. I feel so sorry for them. Next I suppose you'll tell me they need government handouts to survive. If you want to follow along to the endpoint of that stupid road, install Kazaa, Audio Galaxy, Morpheus and Windows XP on your computer.

            If you want to be there, quit using your Linux box and Open Source all together. Clearly, scam artists making money is more important to you than your freedom.

            Businesses exist to serve me, and my interests. That's why they get my money. They have no intrinsic right to exist or make money. If I were complaining about the quality of their harware (which I'm not, because it's excellent), or that their drivers constantly crashed (which, though I'm very suspicious of them, I don't think they do), you'd have no vitriol to spew. Their drivers not being Open Source is just another missing feature, and one I place an explicit value on.

      • That may or may not be true, but it doesn't mean that he's obliged to give a shit, you troll. Who're the idiots that modded this up?!?
    • OK, I should have said "nVidia posted their first publically available Linux graphics drivers for the Athlon 64". My bad. I should also have highlighted the fact that while Linux Athlon 64 drivers are posted, Windows Athlon 64 drivers aren't, though I'm sure the people who actually have x86-64 hardware are able to get them. It's still nice to see Linux get official driver support first for a change.

      It is also abundantly clear that my smartaleck sense of humor doesn't translate well to Slashdot. Geeze...

  • bitter? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by son_of_asdf ( 598521 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:37PM (#4872376)
    Come on y'all--there's been more dicussion about this guy's rig than about the drivers. I'm sorry if you're bitter that your box is less than state of the art, but dems da breaks, kids. In the meantime, kudos to NVidia for getting these out before anyone needed them.

  • nVidia does First Post? (Score:3, Funny)

    by fobbman ( 131816 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:38PM (#4872387) Homepage
    What's next? ATI doing Natalie Portman/hot grits drivers?

  • Jesus (Score:4, Funny)

    by cca93014 ( 466820 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:45PM (#4872458) Homepage
    I guess I'll have to tough it out with my mere dual Athlon 2400+ workstation for now

    oh do shut up

    • The sad part is, by buying a dual-cpu system, he slowed himself down about 30% on anything that doesn't run on 2 processors. The athlons are really, really bad running a single thread on dual-cpus.
      • The athlons are really, really bad running a single thread on dual-cpus.

        Can you provide some documentation for that claim? Every benchmark I've seen shows them running at normal single CPU speed on non-SMP-capable apps.

  • Why tell us.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Deltan ( 217782 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:46PM (#4872473)
    I guess I'll have to tough it out with my mere dual Athlon 2400+ workstation for now (heh heh heh).

    I don't think anyone here cares how big your e-penis is, and no... I won't stroke it.

  • Drivers (Score:4, Interesting)

    by harks ( 534599 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:47PM (#4872490)
    Not to be a zealot, this is an honest question: Why dont they open-source their linux drivers? They are giving them away for free anyway, and i would think it could only increase the attraction to their products for some ppl. I can't think of any reason why not to.

    • Re:Drivers (Score:2, Insightful)

      by digerata ( 516939 )
      Can't think any reason not to?

      Can you come up with any reason why they should? They certainly won't make any money from it. If anything, their competitors will gain value by seeing exactly how their hardware layer works.

      What benefit would it give you? Oh, now you can see how someone writes video drivers? Well, nVidia is in the market to educate people. They're in the market to make video cards.

      • Open-sourcing the drivers may have benefitted nVidia by making their drivers more stable. This would in turn have influenced my decision to never buy another nVidia card. I just can't handle it when my system (TNT 1 and later TNT 2) locks hard while surfing the net. So I bought a Radeon, and while I can't say there haven't been problems, at least those problems haven't been hard lock-ups, and not while just doing 2D and at least they are fixed now. For the last year or so my Radeon has ROCKED. Hasn't locked while surfing the net EVER (big achievement by nVidia's standards).
        I put my brother's Geforce 2 MX card in to play Unreal 2003 and after I finished I surfed the net for 5 minutes. Guess what? Hard lockup! Just not good enough. I don't care if they play Unreal at 3000 fps, it just won't do if they're not stable. And they are not stable.
        Then there are issues about which systems are supported. What happens when I want to try out the Hurd, or BSD or ....
        My next card will be another Radeon.

    • Re:Drivers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by joshki ( 152061 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:34PM (#4872946)
      This comment is posted every single time anyone mentions anything about Nvidia, and it's starting to get old. Nvidia can't open-source the drivers, due to licensing issues. Also, why do you honestly care? Nvidia is supporting the linux (and now the FreeBSD) crowd just as well as they are the windows crowd -- personally, as long as they keep releasing drivers, I don't care whether they open-source or not.
      Insightful, indeed.
      • It would be good, though, if they'd release as much of the source as they could. Particularly if they could make it so all of their memory access is visible. Just have some comments that say, "secret algorithm here", with documentation on what the effects of that section are. Since the bulk of the code is almost certainly not other people's IP, people would be able to debug many more problems than they can now. I suspect "OpenGL stops initializing properly" isn't part of a trade secret algorithm.

    • Re:Drivers (Score:4, Informative)

      by (startx) ( 37027 ) <slashdot@nOSpAm.unspunproductions.com> on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:34PM (#4872947) Journal
      this question is asked (and answered) in just about every nvidia related article that comes up on /., so I'll summarize. There are bits and pieces of their drivers which they do not own the rights to (ex. S3TC compression). Also, most of the bang for their video cards comes from the drivers, and they don't want to just give that away. Did you ever notice every time someone shows a benchmark with an ATI card faster than a nvidia card, nvidia releases new drivers with "25%" permformance increases!?!? The whole damn card must be software, since this new driver was larger than the rest of my kernel!
      • The whole damn card must be software, since this new driver was larger than the rest of my kernel!

        That's probably because of the NV30 emulation. It's gonna take a poopload of software to emulate a whole video card.

    • Because they're probably protecting trade secrets (Score:5, Interesting)

      by GroundBounce ( 20126 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:42PM (#4873025)
      I don't work for Nvidia, but if they're like most high end competitive products, there are probably trade secrets involved in their designs. Trade secrets are generally things that might not be patentable, but nonetheless are critical to the technical lead your product might have. The fact that they may not be patentable is why companies try to keep them secret for as long as possible.

      In the case of NVidia, it's entirely possible that their driver code would necessarily reveal some of their hardware's trade secrets.

      The irony here is that most Slashdotters probably don't have anything big against the need for hardware companies to keep trade secrets in general, but when this necessitates closed-sourcing some of their driver code, everybody screams foul.

      I'm all in favor of OSS, and I use OSS for everything I do unless there's no option, but put yourself in their shoes for a moment - if you happened to make the world's fastest consumer video card at some point in time, would you be in a hurry to release details that would likely help your competitors to catch up faster?

      You might ask "then how come company X can release open source drivers or specs and NVidia can't?", and this would be a valid question. I don't know the answer, but there are several possibilites. One is that the specs they release to the OSS community don't really have *all* of the details (which would mean their proprietary drivers would always be a little bit faster). Another possibility is that their design is such that the driver code or programming specs don't reveal as many trade secrets.

  • translation of comments. (Score:5, Funny)

    by LordYUK ( 552359 ) <jeffwright821@NOSPAm.gmail.com> on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:48PM (#4872505)
    "tough it out with my mere dual AMD 2400 (heh heh heh)"...

    I havent gotten laid since October of '67. (sob sob sob)

  • PowerPC Drivers? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Vardamir ( 266484 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:48PM (#4872509)
    There are Linux drivers for 3 different platforms intel based platforms now. There are OS X drivers for PowerPC. Why can't Nvidia merge some of that code to give us Linux/PPC Nvidia drivers. A lack of a good graphics system for Linux/PPC is the major factor holding it back. Hopefully these things will change once IBM's GPuL hits the shelves.

  • Do you think he's compensating for something? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I guess the rest of us will have to make due with the mere thousands of dollars we saved (heh heh heh...)

  • For those who care to know (Score:3, Funny)

    by aliens ( 90441 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @12:58PM (#4872591) Homepage Journal
    With the new drivers I didn't see any performance gains with Quake3 timedemos or Ut2k3, with a ti4200.

  • Obligatory comment (Score:4, Funny)

    by miltimj ( 605927 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:00PM (#4872611)
    I guess I'll have to tough it out with my mere dual Athlon 2400+ workstation for now (heh heh heh).

    [sigh] You're bragging about a single dual Athlon machine when I've got a beowulf cluster of those??..

  • Clarifying Opteron vs. Athlon 64 (Score:4, Informative)

    by EchoMirage ( 29419 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:01PM (#4872618)
    To clarify AMD's processor naming scheme for those who haven't been keeping up with the Joneses, the Athlon 64 [amd.com] is AMD's 64-bit desktop and mobile CPU, while the Opteron [amd.com] is AMD's 64-bit server and workstation CPU. Both utilize the x86-64 architecture, which is essentially an extension of the existing x86 instruction set for 64 bits.

    A few key differences between the two are that the Opteron will be multiprocessor-enabled and have three HyperTransport pipes (each providing a theoretical 6.4GB/s of throughput) versus one in the Athlon 64. The Opteron will also have more on-die L2 cache (1MB and 2MB are being talked about right now), and will draw quite a bit more power (90W+ vs. ~65W for the Athlon 64).
    • A few key differences between the two are that the Opteron will be multiprocessor-enabled and have three HyperTransport pipes (each providing a theoretical 6.4GB/s of throughput) versus one in the Athlon 64.

      The last time I looked at any Hammer-related information on AMD's web site, it said that hypertransport would be used for interprocessor communication, but they would only operate at 6.4GB/sec on quad-cpu setups. Dual-cpu hypertransport pipes would operate at 3.2GB/sec, but considering the hammers will have onboard PC2100 memory controllers only a maximum of 2.1GB/sec of that could be eaten up by memory transfers (mulitprocessor athlon systems use a NUMA) so 3.2GB/sec is a reasonable number. I think the hypertransport pipe connecting the cpu to the chip that's something like a stripped-down north bridge may be even slower (1.6GB/sec?) but I'm not sure about that.

  • Slashdot Socilogy (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BSDevil ( 301159 )
    Since almost no comments here are about the actual post, I've got a cultural question...

    Where/How did the "In Soviet Russia..." posts come from? I remember where things like 1.2.3.Profit and the now-passe Mastercard and All Your Base jokes started, but what brought on this spur of neo-Marxist-Lenninist thought?

  • Opterons (Score:3, Informative)

    by Cutter Navar ( 633560 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:14PM (#4872738)
    There are nearly 10,000 Opteron systems in use by various groups from companies to testing groups. The driver posting is more than likely meant to ease support for these users.

  • Be sure to read these links if you have problems. (Score:4, Funny)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:21PM (#4872811) Homepage Journal
    Be sure to read this [linuxgames.com] and link [nvnews.net] for issues like slow 2D problem, slow X startup, etc.

  • (heh heh heh) New Slashdot Poll? (Score:5, Funny)

    by hndrcks ( 39873 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:25PM (#4872851) Homepage
    Best Surrogate Penis:

    1. Car
    2. Money
    3. Computer / Peripheral
    4. Boat / Plane / Other toy
    5. Cowboy Neal's Slide Rule

  • I'm running the new drivers as of now without a single problem noticed yet (AMD here as well). However I've noticed on some forums that others have noticed a significant slow down in performance. If this happens to you, I would suggest compiling the kernel with *module* support for AGPART and then in XF86Config set option "NVAGP" "1" to use nvidia's AGP drivers. This is what I have been doing for quite some time. I am not sure if it's a remedy for those noticing the slow down...but it's something to check out.

  • performance (Score:3, Informative)

    by BenjyD ( 316700 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @01:58PM (#4873194)
    All the linux drivers are updated. I've seen lots of complaints about people having trouble upgrading, but I just upgraded(IA32 version) with no trouble.

    Unreal tournament2003 is actually playable on my box now (gefore2 MX), whereas before it was too slow even in 640x480, 16bit mode.
  • Athlon XP 2400+ CPUs: $180 each
    Unlocking kit: $20
    Thermalright SLK800 heatsink/fan kits: $50 each
    ASUS A7M266-D mainboard: $200

    Trolls incapable of assembling their own PCs reduced to making lame dick jokes: priceless

  • Start-Up Newisys Is Betting
    On Servers With AMD Chips

    By GARY MCWILLIAMS
    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

    In such a dismal market for business computers, how can a new company win backers with yet another machine?

    Apparently with an unusual strategy: Newisys Inc. (www.newisys.com [newisys.com]) is a two-year-old start-up that is offering a specialized design for making powerful computers, built around a new generation of computer chips.

    The Austin, Texas, venture has assembled a crew of well-respected computer engineers and raised some $55 million from powerful investors. Its supporters include venture capitalists and chip maker Advanced Micro Devices [slashdot.org] Inc., whose coming 64-bit microprocessor is at the heart of Newisys' system.

    Phil Hester, the company's chief executive, says his firm will offer its designs to big computer companies that use outside suppliers on novel technologies and save their own designers for mainstream projects. So far, Newisys has placed prototypes at five computer makers.

    In large part, Newisys is exploiting a split in the approaches taken by Intel [slashdot.org] Corp. and AMD in designing their 64-bit chips. In its coming Opteron chip, AMD adds 64-bit extensions to the existing PC-chip instructions rather than creating a new set of instructions, as Intel's Itanium does.

    As a result, computers using the Opteron will run older 32-bit applications alongside new software designed for the 64-bit chip without any change or performance penalties, says Mr. Hester. Intel's new-instruction approach adds hurdles to running older software on Itanium machines, he insists. An Intel spokesman says it doesn't expect many customers to run both 32-bit and 64-bit applications on the same machine.

    Analysts say if Newisys can persuade a major computer company to resell its design, it will have achieved what has long eluded AMD -- a powerful server incorporating AMD chips for corporate markets. AMD has racked up big losses this year on a bad bet on a PC rebound, and its chips have lost ground to Intel. The Opteron chip officially debuts in April.

    Newisys' founders boast impressive resumes, including key roles in the design of International Business Machines [slashdot.org] Corp.'s RS/6000 workstations and Netfinity server-computers. Mr. Hester left IBM, where he was chief technology officer in the PC unit, after concluding he could never get approval to build a server using AMD's new chip.

    In 2000, Newisys raised $28 million from venture-capital companies Austin Ventures and New Enterprise Associates, as well as from AMD . In October, it raised a further $25 million from the same backers and mutual-fund titan Fidelity Investments, a unit of FMR Corp.

    Randall Groves, Dell Computer [slashdot.org] Corp.'s vice president of enterprise business, says Dell might take a look if the Opteron proves to outperform Intel's chips. Dell has resold others' server-computers in the past and could again.

    Marty Seyer, AMD's vice president of server business, insists Newisys isn't the only designer interested in making servers with Opteron. But the only other server maker that has publicly embraced the chip is Cray [slashdot.org] Inc., which plans to build a supercomputer for the Department of Energy.

    Skeptics say designing and making computers for others has been a mixed bag. Amdahl Corp., Convergent Technologies Inc. and Stratus Computer Inc. each had early successes making computers for others, but struggled when their big customers reversed course.

    Mr. Hester says Newisys hopes to avoid such landmines by handing off manufacturing, limiting the impact of any contract cancellation. It is also developing features, such as remote management, that are more typical of mainframes than low-priced PC servers.

    Newisys also hopes to generate word-of-mouth demand among corporate buyers by placing 500 to 1,000 pilot machines at companies such as Fidelity and Goodyear Tire & Rubber [slashdot.org] Co.

    Basil Horangic, a partner at Austin Ventures, says industry consolidation is creating new demand for computer designers. "There have to be a lot of niches in a market that's worth $40 billion," he says.

    The little start-up has found a receptive audience among software giants. Newisys has lined up IBM, Microsoft [slashdot.org] Corp. and Oracle [slashdot.org] Corp. to develop versions of their operating or database programs for Newisys designs.

    Boris Bialek, strategic technologies manager at IBM's database-software group, says Big Blue hopes to be first to deliver a database running on the Newisys computers. It plans to show its software running on a Newisys prototype at an industry trade show next month. "We like the team a lot," he says. "They deliver on time, which is amazing for a start-up."

    Write to Gary McWilliams at gary.mcwilliams@wsj.com [writeto]

    Updated December 12, 2002 12:36 a.m. EST

  • I don't know if it's a problem, but the checksum listed on the web page [nvidia.com], for the Red Hat 8.0 UP Athlon architecture, is 6e132142569c2d9839b926ab6e20d999 while the checksum of the downloaded driver is b9100e1e5108e9cbc3b97ea40f3b24ec.

    I installed it, and it seems to work, but it's odd that there is a difference in the checksums. More paranoid people might wish to beware.

    thad

  • Slow as crap 2d.... (Score:3, Informative)

    by GweeDo ( 127172 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @03:09PM (#4874013) Homepage
    Well, I got these bad boy's compiled and installed and my 2d managed to become as slow as Windows 95 on my 486 sx33...the repaints when changing virtual windows would take nearly 2 seconds...some of the icons weren't getting draw exactly write...it was a nightmare. I promptly reinstalled the older drivers...1.0.3123 or something...and all was well. After doing some reading at www.nvidia.com and www.linuxgames.com it turns out that Nvidia decided to remove XAA from this release which turned the 2d speed to turd. They say their are using their own acceleration now...but it sure does seem to need some work! You can't even turn it on or anything, hopefully they come up with a good resolution to this....

    • Re:Slow as crap 2d.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by deaddeng ( 63515 ) on Thursday December 12, 2002 @06:58PM (#4876294) Homepage
      by default, the renderer acceleration is not turned on. Turn it on by adding the following to your /etc/X11/XF86config-4: Option "renderAccel"

      Like this:

      Section "Device"
      # no known options
      Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"
      Driver "nvidia"
      VendorName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"
      BoardName "NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS (generic)"
      Option "NvAgp" "3"
      Option "renderAccel"

      BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
      EndSection
      • That is not the full problem.

        Some people say it is the AGP, but it is not. I can use agpart or the nvidia supplied agp, it makes no difference. Both are good.

        Some people say it is that renderAccel is not activated. And that does make a huge difference, but even with acceleration, the new drivers are still seriously slower.

        Some people are retarted and say that you need to reboot for the "AGP to be reprogramed". As dumb as I am I tried that too. But that makes no difference.

        It is true that XAA is not being used.
        And it is true that even with RenderAccel on, my GeForce 2 is slower than my S3 (no acceleration).

        I don't see what else it could be other than the 40% increase in the module size from 1M to 1.4M
  • I did the usual un-tar and make-and I got an error. Is was pissed because I was still in X. Never happened before. Granted it does make sense to get out of X before installing but why bother when you already have a terminal open? Oh well just a niffty thing.
  • - Fixed bug in Pixel/Vertex shader.

    Whatever this bug was, it would previously crash Celestia.

    The Earth looks great now from 20000Km with the earth ocean texture [homelinux.net].

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