NVidia 96.xx.xx & 173.xx.xx Legacy drivers don’t work in Ubuntu 12.04

[AaronP]

Originally Posted by PenguinPower

Will the 96.xx.xx driver be updated as well?

I can't promise that.

[PenguinPower]

Originally Posted by AaronP

I can't promise that.

Ouch, that's a serious bummer...

Didn't expect that to be honest. Always had the feeling that both the 96.xx.xx and 173.xx.xx driver needed similar kinds of modifications, since they were often updated simultaneously. Of course, that was just my assumption.

I guess it's not a definite 'no', but that doesn't sound very hopeful because NVidia's Linux team seems to be very busy. Anyway, i really appreciate your answer, since we can make up our mind now on what to do next. Downgrading distribution, or yet taking the plunge and trying to downgrade xorg against all advice, or something else.

But i still keep a bit of hope, so if you can find some time...


PS:
If the 96.xx.xx and 173.xx.xx driver actually do need similar kinds of modifications, i would be happy to give a modified but not extensively tested 96.xx.xx driver a try, although i understand if NVidia probably doesn't want an untested driver to be 'released'.

[Gusar]

Originally Posted by AaronP

I can't promise that.

I agree with PenguinPower, that's quite an ouch!

One last 96xx driver that works with the current Ubuntu (a LTS release) would get you a looooong way in terms of mindshare. You could declare both 96xx and 173xx as EOL after that, we are after all talking about 10+ year-old hardware, but just one more release that works with current LTS distributions.

[alezflute]

Originally Posted by Gusar

I agree with PenguinPower, that's quite an ouch!

One last 96xx driver that works with the current Ubuntu (a LTS release) would get you a looooong way in terms of mindshare. You could declare both 96xx and 173xx as EOL after that, we are after all talking about 10+ year-old hardware, but just one more release that works with current LTS distributions.

That would seem an ideal solution, if opensourcing the driver (not english speaker here, sorry it that word doesn't even exist ) in any possible way for the nouveau community is out of the table

[BilaRC]

Originally Posted by AaronP

I can't promise that.

I'm starting to get worried!!!

[PenguinPower]

Originally Posted by Gusar

...
we are after all talking about 10+ year-old hardware
...

Not necessarily. My card (GeForce4 MX4000) isn't that old, about 6 or 7 years, yet it requires the 96.xx.xx driver...

[Gusar]

Geforce 4 was released in 2002, Geforce FX in 2003. Besides, a year or two up/down, doesn't make a difference, these things are oooooooooooold. Like really.

I consider my Geforce 6 ooooold, the laptop it's in is now 7 years old. That's so old, that I find it interesting Geforce 6/7 is still supported in 300xx, it would not have surprised me at all if 300xx was for G80 and up only.

[PenguinPower]

Originally Posted by Gusar

Geforce 4 was released in 2002, Geforce FX in 2003.

The MX4000 i was talking about was introduced at the end of 2003, and widely on sale from 2004 to 2006. So people bought them just 6 or 7 years ago, yet it requires the 96.xx.xx driver. Therefore not all cards that require this driver are 10+ years old. I don't want to hassle about 1 or 2 years either, but only want to put things in perspective. Most people understand that these cards won't have top-priority anymore in the update order of NVidia, but that's something different than just saying 'throw a 6 years old card away', as some people do.

No one expects additional features, just these cards to work. It's unlikely that an update of xorg requires a complete rewrite and entire overhaul of the driver. Of course one uses more recent hardware for HD-content or heavy CAD-applications, but a 6 years old card is still adequate enough for most tasks on a second or spare computer.

-------------------------------

Some useful information to others perhaps: I downgraded xorg successfully. Everything seems to run stable for the time being (Kubuntu, don't know whether other desktops cause problems). It's not the most elegant solution, and i know it's strongly advised against, but as long as there is not a real solution you've got to do something. I appreciate the effort that is put into the nouveau driver, but everything runs much smoother now with the NVidia driver and things like TV-out are working again properly.

Hopefully downgrading xorg only has to be a temporary 'solution'.

[hl_]

I agree, these cards are really, really old. Dropping support for them now is reasonable. If you really bought a GeForce 4 MX in 2006, that's a bit your fault. The GPU was already quite old and outdated back then, and actually was only a renaming of the GeForce 2 when it was released! These GPUs are 12 years old tech!

[TDMX595]

Originally Posted by hl_

I agree, these cards are really, really old. Dropping support for them now is reasonable. If you really bought a GeForce 4 MX in 2006, that's a bit your fault. The GPU was already quite old and outdated back then, and actually was only a renaming of the GeForce 2 when it was released! These GPUs are 12 years old tech!

I registered for this forum to reply to this thread specifically because statements like this really anger me.

Why does it matter how old the tech is? The GeForce 4 MX series graphics cards still have plenty of power to run the latest releases of Linux distros. I think that's a testament to excellent design by NVidia coupled with the flexibility of running a Linux OS. The NVidia 173/96 drivers would still be working perfectly fine if the x.org server hadn't changed. The philosophy that just because something is old and outdated that it should just be discarded is nearsighted and wasteful.

I too am suffering from the 96 driver not working anymore. It worries me that NVidia can't promise to update it, but I understand their position and agree that dropping support now is totally reasonable. I'm at least happy for those of you using the 173 driver. My only hope is that if they don't update the 96 driver perhaps they could release the source so those of us who still want to use legacy hardware with newer OS releases can.

The card I'm using is not on my main machine, it's on a secondary backup machine. This machine is 10 years old, yet it is still powerful enough to run the OS and could still be useful. I feel as though anyone who makes the argument that I should just upgrade isn't understanding that many of us already have upgraded, probably many times over, but would like to continue using older hardware that is still useful.

[BilaRC]

I also have a Geforce4 MX4000 and agreed with PenguinPower and TDMX595.

[Gusar]

Originally Posted by TDMX595

I registered for this forum to reply to this thread specifically because statements like this really anger me.

Why does it matter how old the tech is?

We live in a capitalistic world, ruled heavily by ROI. You may not like it, I don't either, but it's the current reality. So from this perspective, Nvidia being reluctant to support Geforce 4 cards on an OS with a small market share makes perfect sense. Despite your personal feeling towards that, it is the state of today's world. A world where feeling don't really play a role. So it *does* matter how old the tech is.

I understand your anger. But after the anger subsides, you do need to acknowledge the reality of the situation. My laptop with a Geforce 6 is now seven years old. Really, I bought it in 2005. In the fast-paced electronics world, this laptop is museum tech. And here you are, being angry that even older tech might not be supported anymore.