[aklug] Re: Another graphics driver question...

From: James Zuelow <e5z8652@zuelow.net>
Date: Sun Mar 22 2009 - 06:54:04 AKDT

On Saturday 21 March 2009 23:19:45 Christopher Howard wrote:
> TAKE YOUR FINGER OFF OF THAT DELETE KEY! Thanks.
>
> Question for those of you who use Debian: Do any of you guys use the
> NVIDIA drivers and module from the offical repositories? (I've always used
> the Lenny repos since I switched to Debian.)

I've tried them once or twice, they didn't help me, so I ditched them.

> Whenever I've tried using these when setting up a new system, my 3D
> acceleration never works (which is the whole point). Consequently, I end
> up just downloading the install package from NVIDIA, installing the
> necessary kernel headers, and then running the install package, which
> always seems to work.
>
That has been my experience as well. My laptop has a GeForce GO 6150, which
seems to need specific versions of the nvidia driver. I can't track the
latest & greatest nvidia driver, and IIRC the last time I tried the nvidia
kernel it was using an incompatible driver. But I just keep the working
install packages on my machine so I don't download them until I try a newer
version.

I haven't tried since Lenny went stable though.

> The only downside here is that each time I get a new kernel from the
> repositories, I lose the 3D acceleration, and I've got to go through the
> whole thing again.
>
Or if you update xorg! Remember to check
that /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so is a symlink to the
libglx.so.XXX.XX.XX that should be in the same directory. I always forget to
check that after an xorg update replaces my simlink. But then I don't really
need 3d accel that much -- really, only for Celestia. If you need 3d accel
for day to day stuff you would notice right away.

Fixing the symlink is a lot faster than doing a whole re-install, but it's
still a minor pain since you have to restart X to see the fix. I really
should chattr that link...

> This is annoying because my preference is to upgrade the kernel the
> moment a new one shows up in the repos. (To get better security, and all
> that.) Also, I prefer to set up automatic, scripted upgrades, which I
> can't do if I have to manually install the NVIDIA drivers all the time.

ditto.

> (Side note: The next graphics card I buy will probably be ATI, but at the
> moment I happen to have 5 NVIDIA cards which I didn't have to pay for...)

Hmm, good luck with that. ATI cards I've dealt with have been flakey even
with ATI drivers. YMMV of course, I know that some people really like their
graphics chipsets.
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.
Received on Sun Mar 22 06:54:20 2009

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Sun Mar 22 2009 - 06:54:21 AKDT