Linux Format forums

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

wyliecoyoteuk — Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:04 pm

Author: wyliecoyoteuk

Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:04 pm

Nvidia has such good Linux support that there are drivers for Suse 10 on their website!

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

nelz — Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:31 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:31 pm

There are open source drivers for nVidia cards, the nv driver included with XFree/XOrg. What do you mean by "your kernel will not be supported if you use Nvidia drivers", supported by whom? Your distro supplier? Most of them provide nVidia driver packages in their full distros.

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

linuxgirlie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:56 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:56 pm

This is from 2004 and havent check if its still going, but you might be interested: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/28/018227&tid=152&tid=104&tid=8&tid=137

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

linuxgirlie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:54 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:54 pm

I was just reading about one will get back with the address........

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

pau1ie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:47 pm

Author: pau1ie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:47 pm

Linuxgirlie: I think you're right - they dont release open source dirers themselves, but they release enough specs for people to do drivers even of 3d bits (Tuxracer works on it). If anyone knows a company that does open source drivers for their own graphics cards that would be even better.

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

linuxgirlie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:41 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:41 pm

I dont think intel do open source drivers, because your pc works with intergrated graphics doesnt make it OS it could just be that someone wrote a driver for it.....sorry if I got the wrong end of what you were saying?!

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

pau1ie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:30 pm

Author: pau1ie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:30 pm

I believe intel graphics chips have open source drivers. My wifes PC has integrated graphics with an intel card and that works with a default kernel. I have an nvidia card, but I intend my next graphics card to have open source drivers, even if it is more expensive or performs less well, because I believe it is important to encourage industry to open source drivers. Also you may not realise that your kernel will not be supported if you use Nvidia drivers, as they install a kernel module which has the capability to do pretty much anything including corrupting memory used by other kernel modules, and since the source is not available there would be no way of fixing it.

Its a difficult problem though, please post what you decide in the end.

PaulH

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

linuxgirlie — Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:52 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 7:52 pm

Agree with nelz, Nvidia is the most linux friendly, I havent had a problem once with upgrading my driver, I dont particularly care about it being open source and understand the reasons so they do ok in my books

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

alloydog — Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:02 pm

Author: alloydog

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 2:02 pm

Was it SiS who ripped of Thomas Winischhofer's drivers & posted them on their own site without any sort of credit to him?

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

nelz — Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:01 am

Author: nelz

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:01 am

I would say nVidia are the most Linux friendly. They have their own drivers for Linux, which they update frequently, what more could you ask for? (apart form the source, which is out of the question).

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

janne — Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:17 am

Author: janne

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:17 am

Thank you!
I will check.
/Janne

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

alloydog — Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:20 am

Author: alloydog

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 8:20 am

You need to go to the respective Release notes and then to the section titled "Video drivers":
XFree86
X.org

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

janne — Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:51 am

Author: janne

Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:51 am

Thank you for your replies.
I have experience with Matrox and ATI cards under Linux and they work good enough for me. I had a nVidia card a few years ago but it was not sharp enough for 1600x1200 resolution. The explanation I got from my supplier is that the nVidia card was a good 3D card but not very good for 2D.

I have checked both www.x.org and www.xfree86.org but couldn't find any compatibility lists. Maybe I didn't try hard enough?

Both ATI and Matrox have drivers for Linux but the big question remain, which company is most Linux friendly? I realise that my action in this case will make very little difference in the graphics card market but if all of us try to buy the products with the best Linux support things will change.

/Janne

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

nelz — Wed Sep 07, 2005 10:40 pm

Author: nelz

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 10:40 pm

The nVidia drivers are not open source though. Some people have a problem with this, but it was the only way nVidia could release Linux drivers that give the same performance as the Windows ones. Some of the 3D code is proprietary, licensed from another company, so they are unable to release the source.

RE: Open source drivers for graphic cards?

linuxgirlie — Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:59 pm

Author: linuxgirlie

Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2005 7:59 pm

nVidia all the way, never let me down, have a 5600fx at the moment am just about to upgrade to a 6600gt they have the drivers etc or they come with bought additions for example mandriva. Just remember its not the card your buying its a chipset, for example if you go to www.dabs.com/uk (the best in my opinion) you can get a dabs value really cheap, which is the exact same as a more expensive card...