Is nVidia driver stable?

[rex]

Might be a stupid question, but it is all because of the internet. This is the first time I'm installing fbsd on a laptop with nVidia graphics card. I choose nv drivers and it is working fine. But in the internet I read that nVedia drivers on fbsd requires linux emulation (this might be an old story).

So just needed to know is nVedia drives stable now? I'll be using this laptop for some critical job at my office.

[robbak]

nvidia binary driver is requred if you need 3d acceleration or hardware-assisted video playback.

As with all binary blobs, we are completely at the mercy of the manufacturer for bug fixes. There are several, and they don't seem to be getting around to fixing them. They also have not produced a driver for amd64, either.

So, if possible, buy ATI, as they are now actively supporting the Open Source community, instead of actively hindering it like Nvidia is.
Stick with nv unless you need 3d for games or compiz. If you need 3d, then you will need the binary driver. It works, and, for the most part, most people have no trouble.

[chill]

You do not need linux binary compatibility to use the nvidia driver. It runs natively but there is only a 32 bit binary though. I find the FreeBSD binary to be more stable on my system than the current linux binary on linux but maybe thats just me.

The three ports you will probably want are:
-x11/nvidia-driver (driver itself)
-x11/nvidia-xconfig (automatically configures and updates xorg.conf)
-x11/nvidia-settings (gui to manage all your settings)

Enjoy

[rex]

I need no hardware acceleration or 3d graphics. Just want to run X and occasionally watch videos and listen music and for some c development.

So what is nv driver then? Is it not nVidea driver? if it is which my xorg.conf says (as I didn't installed nVedia but xorg found it) then is it dependable?

[chill]

nv is the open source 2D nvidia driver, no thanks to nvidia documentation

Sounds like you dont really need the nvidia binary from what you require. You do get better video output options in mplayer with it though. You could always install it, try it out and if you decide you dont need it you can just change the X driver back to nv in xorg.conf.

[graudeejs]

Originally Posted by rex

Might be a stupid question, but it is all because of the internet. This is the first time I'm installing fbsd on a laptop with nVidia graphics card. I choose nv drivers and it is working fine. But in the internet I read that nVedia drivers on fbsd requires linux emulation (this might be an old story).

So just needed to know is nVedia drives stable now? I'll be using this laptop for some critical job at my office.

It's stable, i use it myself

[Oliver_H]

Originally Posted by chill

You do not need linux binary compatibility to use the nvidia driver. It runs natively but there is only a 32 bit binary though. I find the FreeBSD binary to be more stable on my system than the current linux binary on linux but maybe thats just me.

The three ports you will probably want are:
-x11/nvidia-driver (driver itself)
-x11/nvidia-xconfig (automatically configures and updates xorg.conf)
-x11/nvidia-settings (gui to manage all your settings)

Enjoy

If you want to use some software with Linuxulator and 3d acceleration then it is a must.

http://http.download.nvidia.com/free...hapter-02.html

[BSDfan666]

As stated, there are 2 primary NVIDIA (Where did the 'e' come from?)

• nv - AKA, the Xorg "xf86-video-nv" driver, open source, accel 2D only.. Xvideo is supported.
• nvidia - The proprietary vendor-supplied binary-only blob driver, it supports accelerated 2D and 3D, buggy.. only works on a handful of "supported" OS's and architectures.

There is also a project aimed at reverse engineering nVidia chipsets, it's called "Nouveau", but it's in the early stages.. BSD support is kinda hit and miss.. 3D is still a W.I.P.

http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/nv
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/

I personally, along with many others, would never use the vendor supplied driver if had the chance of doing so.. avoid it if you can, save up and invest in a good ATI/AMD card. (The vendor is releasing documentation!).

[rex]

video in mplayer seems to ve working fine with nv drivers and that is all what I want. My only concern was is NV driver stable or not?
And it seems it is.
for games and all I got different laptop.

Thanks to all for the valuable information
I got a question about laptop, but I think a new thread would be better for it.

[jb_daefo]

nvidia-driver runs here, however "agp.ko detected, aborting setup!" (iirc) appears
on the terminal (visible after X quits)... no "aborting" in Xorg.0.log though.

[Oliver_H]

Just disable FreeBSD agp in /etc/device.hints with hint.agp.0.disabled="1" and add Option "NVAgp" "1" to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (screen section).

[mdh]

Also worth note is that you need compat_5x for the nvidia (binary) driver. This includes both kernel support (since it has a kernel module as a component), and the package installed.

[graudeejs]

Originally Posted by mdh

Also worth note is that you need compat_5x for the nvidia (binary) driver. This includes both kernel support (since it has a kernel module as a component), and the package installed.

not really
i have commented COMPAT_FREEBSD5 and COMPAT_FREEBSD4 out of kernel config, and nvidia binary drivers works just fine

[mdh]

Originally Posted by killasmurf86

not really
i have commented COMPAT_FREEBSD5 and COMPAT_FREEBSD4 out of kernel config, and nvidia binary drivers works just fine

Hmmm, OK - this must have changed in a recent release of nVidia's drivers, then. Do you have compat in the kernel for 6x? (Or are you running 6?)

[graudeejs]

Originally Posted by mdh

Hmmm, OK - this must have changed in a recent release of nVidia's drivers, then. Do you have compat in the kernel for 6x? (Or are you running 6?)

I do have Compat 6, but, i don't remember which app needed it.... (i know for sure, it's was other than nvidia-driver, but i don't know if nvidia-driver will work without it, cause i haven't used kernel without compat 6)