8600GT+650i+Linux: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

[...Max...]

Crux of the problem: 100.14.09 crashes, no new suggesstions forthcoming from NVidia (thread "100.14.09 and 8600GT - random X Server lockups"). Open-source driver does not support 8*** chipsets. I am left with VGA which means no hardware acceleration.

Since my goal is to have a VM-based system, the option of forgoing Linux as a host and going back to Windows is starting to look attractive. I would like to eliminate the "operator error factor" first though. Thus a question to all -- does anyone have, or seen, a 8600GT working reliably in a hardware-accelerated mode under Linux, on an nForce 650i based m/b (with or without SLI)? What distro, kernel version and driver?

Currently I am running Ubuntu 7.04 with 2.6.20-16 kernel.

Thanks in advance,
...Max...

[netllama]

The 'nv' X driver currently supports G8x GPUs.

[...Max...]

Wow! Operator error it was: I did not find that version. Could you provide a link please?

[zander]

The most recent versions of the nv driver are available from the Xorg git trees; please see http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/ for details.

[AaronP]

You can also find links to the current nv driver releases at http://people.freedesktop.org/~aplattner/nv

[...Max...]

Just to provide the info for others with the same problem:

nv 2.0.96 does indeed work on my system. Installing it on Ubuntu, however, requires some effort as neither the binary package itself nor its dependencies (xserver-xorg 1.3 or newer) are provided via pre-configured package sources. I've installed it by adding the Debian "testing" source (deb http://http.us.debian.org testing main) which provided the xserver-xorg* and downloaded .deb for the nv driver itself from the experimental section of packages.debian.org since I didn't want other "experimental" upgrades to happen inadvertently. YMMV.

While my immediate problem appears solved (thanks to netllama and zander!) I'll still be waiting for a resolution of the proprietary driver's crashing issue... want that accelerated 3D sometime too! :-)

...Max...