Is this v1.0-4349 faster and better?

[ant]

I currently have 1.0-4191 installed from src.rpm files. I'd like to know if there are any improvements in terms of speed, quality, etc. http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_update and README doesn't say much about these things.

I am using an Athlon XP 2200+ with old Red Hat Linux 7.2 (compiled Kernel 2.4.20) and Leadtek WinFast A250 LE TD (MyVIVO Edition; GeForce4 Ti 4200 with 128 MB). Should I skip this version (ignoring the cool installer)? My current Linux games are Quake 3 Arena and Return to Castle Wolfenstein. I might get Neverwinter Nights.

Thank you in advance. :)

[Andy Mecham]

You should see some improvement in OpenGL performance, but I can't really give you an exact figure. If you don't like it, you can always use the --uninstall feature of the installer. :)

--andy

[ant]

Originally posted by Andy Mecham
You should see some improvement in OpenGL performance, but I can't really give you an exact figure. If you don't like it, you can always use the --uninstall feature of the installer. :) Thanks Andy. I hope it will compile because in the past, I had to use src.rpm. Red Hat 7.2 RPMs did not work for me (dependencies and crashes).

How come I don't see any .src.rpm? Does the installer get .src.rpm packages and compile for me?

[bwkaz]

Yes it does. If all else fails, run the installer with --extract-only, and it'll decompress the sources to a directory like the .tar.gz's used to.

[ant]

Originally posted by bwkaz
Yes it does. If all else fails, run the installer with --extract-only, and it'll decompress the sources to a directory like the .tar.gz's used to.
bwkaz: Wait, does the installer make .src.rpm? Do I need to uninstall the current RPMs before using this? I like RPMs to keep things clean and organized. And also see what version I have when I do a rpm -qa |grep NVIDIA* ;).

[Andy Mecham]

No, it doesn't use RPMs. It will uninstall your RPMs for you.

You can use nvidia-installer to tell what version you have.

--andy

[ant]

Originally posted by Andy Mecham
No, it doesn't use RPMs. It will uninstall your RPMs for you.

You can use nvidia-installer to tell what version you have.OK. I hope this works when I try it tonight or whenever.

I hope the latest driver fixed the Video In problem with RivaTV driver (http://rivatv.sourceforge.net/) as well. I got corrupted screen when using it. :)

[ant]

Does the installer optimize the video drivers? With the old .src.rpm files, I used --target=athlon parameter. Will the installer do the same?

[bwkaz]

There is no GLX source, so that's a moot point. Just so we're clear on that bit. ;)

That said, there also isn't much in the way of source on the kernel module. With 4191, of the 1708105 bytes in the nvidia.o final module, fully 1664916 of it is precompiled (the nv-kernel.o file). Which means that only 10% of it is compiled on your system.

Compiler optimizations aren't going to make a difference when there's that little code in question...

[ant]

Originally posted by bwkaz
There is no GLX source, so that's a moot point. Just so we're clear on that bit. ;)

That said, there also isn't much in the way of source on the kernel module. With 4191, of the 1708105 bytes in the nvidia.o final module, fully 1664916 of it is precompiled (the nv-kernel.o file). Which means that only 10% of it is compiled on your system.

Compiler optimizations aren't going to make a difference when there's that little code in question... Interesting on no GLX source information. I think I will have time to try the new version tonight. Wish me luck! ;)

[pestilence]

Just finished installing the 4349 drivers on my Slack 9 (2.4.20 kernel) box using a geforce 3 ti200, 1800XP+ and 768 megs ram. glxgears showed an increase from from 1700fps to 2400fps over the old 4xxx series drivers I was using. I've also noticed a considerable increase in window drawing in X, even when ripping oggs in the background. Nice work so far, even though I haven't loaded any games yet.

Bummer is the install script didn't work. kept barkingERROR: The kernel header file
'/lib/modules/2.4.20/build/include/linux/modversions.h' does not exist.
The most likely reason for this is that the kernel header files in
'/lib/modules/2.4.20/build/include' have not been configured.

Not really sure why it had a problem, but running the script with the --extract-only flag and installing from there installed the drivers without a hitch. Granted, I haven't built a new kernel yet on this box and in fact had to grab the 2.4.20 source from kernel.org and install first as I hadn't grabbed it yet :) I'm pretty sure that when I rebuild the kernel it will put the properly configed modules in /lib/modules and will be a non issue once I've done it "properly":D

[ant]

Wow, that easy. Everything seems to work. I haven't tested enough though. I did find one glitch so far.