FreeBSD-amd64 driver ? [Archive] - Page 9

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Freaky

11-30-06, 08:45 PM

I imagine support will follow fairly closely after FreeBSD covers the needs of the driver in a RELEASE branch. That work can probably be accelerated with suitable application of funds; otherwise you're just *hoping* an experienced kernel developer has the time and inclination to design, write and support it. Money tends to make time and inclination :)

adamantium

12-01-06, 04:25 PM

well, i've moved to freeBSD, and i was considering buying Nvidia but, it seems they dont have drivers for the AMD64 (buying ATI)

Sorry Nvidia, but you failed it :thumbdwn:

gilboa

12-01-06, 04:28 PM

well, i've moved to freeBSD, and i was considering buying Nvidia but, it seems they dont have drivers for the AMD64 (buying ATI)

Sorry Nvidia, but you failed it :thumbdwn:

If you read back into this thread, you'll notice that nVidia -is- working with the FBSD devs to get the required kernel ABI support for the AMD64 driver.

- Gilboa

stjack1

12-04-06, 01:33 PM

*In need of amd64 nvidia driver

whiletrue

12-05-06, 09:20 AM

One more vote!

I really need FreeBSD-amd64 nVidia driver. Please compile it...

flz

12-05-06, 10:56 AM

It's not a matter of vote. It's a matter of code!

Please read at least some parts of this thread (that should really be closed now or replaced by a sticky cause it's growing silly).

If you want the FreeBSD/amd64 driver so badly, contact the FreeBSD Foundation and make a donation.

gilboa

12-05-06, 11:36 AM

whiletrue

12-06-06, 08:14 AM

I didn't understand! There will be NO SUPPORT from nVidia.
Why should I donate FreeBSD developers? I've already donated nVidia buying it's f***ng card!

flz

12-06-06, 08:35 AM

I didn't understand! There will be NO SUPPORT from nVidia.

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2006-June/016995.html

Why should I donate FreeBSD developers?

http://www.freebsdfoundation.org/donate/

I've already donated nVidia buying it's f***ng card!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation

uOpt

12-07-06, 05:33 PM

Note that the required support has been committed to the 7-current branch of FreeBSD quite a while back. I don't know whether it contains everything that NVidia needs but certainly the main chunk.

I didn't see a clear statement from NVidia saying what kind of release status they want on a FreeBSD version to support.

The FreeBSD team could decide to make a 7-release at a quicker pace than planned, or the changes could be backported to 6.2.

Keep in mind that most people actually hacking FreeBSD avoid NVidia like the plague, so they feel no pressure to do anything and might not even be aware of this issue. Before yelling at them it would be the better strategy to ask NVidia for a statement of what kind of release status they want to see.

SirDice

12-08-06, 05:39 PM

I don't think the required changes from -CURRENT will get back-ported to 6.2 right now. They (freebsd team) are about to release 6.2-RELEASE, no major changes will be happening to the kernel sources. It might come just after that on 6.2-STABLE on the road to 6.3-RELEASE. We'll at least have to wait until 6.2-RELEASE comes out. http://www.freebsd.org/releng/index.html and http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.2R/schedule.html

AFAIK NVidia supports, at least on x86, the stable (6.x) and the legacy (5.x) releases, not current (7.x). Which doesn't mean the driver doesn't work on 7.x, it's just not supported.

I the mean time my amd64 runs quite happily freebsd-i386 with the x86 drivers.. I'll switch to freebsd-amd64 when there's an amd64 NVidia driver.

I do notice NVidia stepping up the release of newer drivers, that's a good thing(tm) :captnkill:

Fatman-UK

12-08-06, 10:03 PM

Oooh! Me too! [I can see it's in the works, but the devs on both sides need encouragement. And coffee. And geek toys, like binary clocks and RC shock tanks. We should all send a random geek toy and/or cake.]

(bump)

Don't do it for me - do it for my shiny new laptop. Could you live with yourselves knowing the 7600 Go [MXM2] wasn't pushing triangles at its max rate?

Here is my contribution:

int main(int argc, char**argv) {
// fill in the rest here
return 0;
}
Here's hoping for a new year release, and keep grinding ATI into the dust.

Fatman-UK

Sunnz

12-17-06, 09:44 AM

I was going to get a nVidia card for my new FreeBSD system... too bad that AMD64 driver isn't available yet...

If nVidia just doesn't have the resource to do it, just provide enough information to BSD developers to write their own one; currently this just isn't good enough.

SirDice

12-17-06, 09:52 AM

If nVidia just doesn't have the resource to do it, just provide enough information to BSD developers to write their own one; currently this just isn't good enough.
Read the rest of the thread. The problem isn't with NVidia but with the FreeBSD developers.

Sunnz

12-17-06, 09:54 AM

I like to read about it but in case you haven't noticed, this thread is over 200+ post and 15 pages long.

SirDice

12-17-06, 09:55 AM

I like to read about it but in case you haven't noticed, this thread is over 200+ post and 15 pages long.
Most of the relevant stuff is on the last few pages..

This will give you a head start:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2006-June/016995.html

To make a long story short... The FreeBSD kernel is lacking some functions NVidia (and others) need to even begin writing a driver for AMD64.

Edit: My AMD64 runs quite nicely on freebsd-i386 with the x86 NVidia driver...

bender1

12-24-06, 05:25 AM

Most of the relevant stuff is on the last few pages..

This will give you a head start:
http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hackers/2006-June/016995.html

To make a long story short... The FreeBSD kernel is lacking some functions NVidia (and others) need to even begin writing a driver for AMD64.

Edit: My AMD64 runs quite nicely on freebsd-i386 with the x86 NVidia driver...

Well, there's people registered here about a year and half ago+ just for this driver and I see nvidia's reasons but I think that the feeling is that is not a 100% good reason. A company like nvidia with their resources and the knowledge about the driver, could be nice involving themselves with the open source side needed by the drivers. Is like there's not many interest for them for making this possible. They are only saying what they'd like to have for the driver but nothing more.
In fact, if companies like nvidia and ati had open sourced the drivers, be sure that would have been adapted by the community long long ago.

There's a lot of work in the way of thinking of these companies. I think they should have open sourced their oldest drivers at least...companies like ID Software with their games, Sun (star office,java, opensolaris), are just doing this for their software and nothing happens. They are not going to sell less graphic cards for doing this...in fact, the linux, *bsd people would be happy buying their cards

An your amd64 runs on freebsd-i386, but runs better on freebsd-amd64 :p

(and sorry for my engrish ;-) )

Edit: Just something interesting I've found reading at the spanish edition of slashdot: http://nouveau.freedesktop.org/wiki/ . I've donated a bit of money although I'm very skeptical about this but Keith Packard says that this could be done at about xorg 7.3. Well, they are asking for people support for this.
It's not a freebsd driver but is an open source driver that could make things faster if done (perhaps?)

SirDice

01-05-07, 10:02 PM

It's pretty simple.. developing a kernel or an OS is something quite different compared to writing a driver. NVidia makes money selling cards/chipsets and creates drivers for them so people can use those cards/chipsets. They don't have the time, the resources and the knowledge to do kernel/OS development, it's just not their core business.

As for opening up "old" sources.. In the real world there is a thing called Intellectual Property. Perhaps Nvidia is using (and paying big bucks for it) IPs owned by someone else? Maybe they just aren't allowed to reveal this (NDA)?

smooth

05-17-07, 06:29 AM

"Please make drivers for FreeBSD AMD64"

shinji

05-22-07, 07:48 AM

Please make nvidia geforce driver for amd64!

zander

05-23-07, 12:12 PM

Please see http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=82203.

outpaddling

08-09-07, 11:46 AM

I manage systems for a large, multidisciplinary fMRI research group at the Medical College of Wisconsin. We've found FreeBSD to be the best OS for our data analysis, mainly because of its remarkable stability. We currently have 29 FreeBSD servers/workstations, most of which use nVidia drivers. Thanks to advances in MRI technology, we're now collecting much higher resolution images than we could a few years ago. The memory demands of many research tools have increased as a result, and many developers are now recommending 4G RAM for all workstations, so 32-bit operating systems will soon be obsolete for our purposes. It will be critical for us in the next year or so to have high-performance 3D graphics on FreeBSD-AMD64, so we really hope to see the nVidia drivers ported soon.

Thank you,

Jason Bacon

gilboa

08-12-07, 05:59 AM

Given the link Zander posted, unlikely. The TODO list is fairly long and I don't see anyone taking it under his winds.

I know that I will be crucified for suggesting it, but if you -require- 64bit right now, you should consider switching to Linux or Solaris.

- Gilboa

sjss

10-01-07, 08:41 AM

gilboa

10-04-07, 12:27 PM

Are there even good 3D drivers for nVidia cards in Solaris?

Yes.

Honestly, I'd rather switch my vid card than my OS.

For now, only nVidia has working -high-performance- 3D drivers running on Linux,BSD and Solaris.
Never the less, only time would tell what will be quality of ATI's OSS drivers now that AMD had released the require specs.

- Gilboa