a nvnet driver question...

[connyosis]

Just bought a motherboard with the nforce2 chipset, and I must say I love it. It works great. Now. The thing is that since neither nVidias graphics driver or network driver is opensourced, and therefore not included in the kernel it took me quite some time until I got the thing working.
I installed the motherboard and booted up, only to realize there was no sound, network or DMA support. Not very weird since I hadn't compiled a new kernel for it, so I did.

Issue 1: I couldnt find where to turn on DMA support. Was there no nForce2 support in Linux? Yes it was, but it wasnt named nforce2 support in the kernel config, but AMD Viper support. Took me a helluva time to realize thar I can tell you. :-) I guess this might be the kernel developers fault for not being clear enough for us clueless, but what do I know...

Issue 2: Since there was no support in the kernel for the nForce2 soundcard I just enabed sound, so I later could compile the sound module. Well hell no! Trying to compile the module after rebooting with the new kernel gave me unresolved symbols. Something about AC97 blah blah...
Apparently I had to not only enable sound support, but also enable support for a soundcard I'm not using! I enabled support for the ensoniq 1370 card, recompiled and rebooted, and now the compilation worked fine. Why oh why nVidia do I have to enable support for hardware I'm not going to use, just so I can use your drivers?

Issue 3: Of course, there was no network support either in the kernel for the nForce2 NIC, so I enabled network, and PCI network support in the kernel. Well of course, I didnt have the nvnet driver downloaded so I figured that I'd just download it...doh! Since I didnt have any networking going, I couldnt download any drivers now could I? Yes, this is easliy solved by letting a friend download it for me and burn a cd, but it feels really unnecessary to go through this just to get something as basic as a friggin motherboard working.

So...why arent these drivers open source? I mean we dont buy the nvnet or graphics driver from nVidia, it's free. nVidia wont loose any income on opensourcing these drivers. They will most likely be developed faster if they are GPLd and integrated into the kernel, not to mention the reduced hassle with gettting it all to work.
Dont get me wrong, I love nVidia. Their graphics drivers kickss ass, and so far both sound and networking is working like a charm, but I would really really love to see these drivers open sourced. There is nothing to loose in that, only things to gain...

[captnmark]

>> So...why arent these drivers open source? I mean we dont buy the nvnet or graphics driver from nVidia, it's free. nVidia wont loose any income on opensourcing these drivers. They will most likely be developed faster if they are GPLd and integrated into the kernel, not to mention the reduced hassle with gettting it all to work.


Agreed. For me lack of open source drivers for the motherboard (especially the NIC, now that the AGP issue is solved) is a showstopper for buying a nforce2 based board.

This better be solved soon, cause KT600 is coming out soon and is not much worse.

[connyosis]

Yeah exactly. I mean if you choose between two equally fast boards, and one of them has good open source drivers, of course you are going to pick that one. Its a known fact that open source software develops faster than closed source, and faster development pace means less bugs and slicker code.

nVidia please! At least open your nvnet driver. (Though I would love to see the graphics driver open as well and integrated into the kernel.)

[udok]

I would like that nvnet and nvaudio drivers are open too
I have to install my first nforce system tomorrow and I hope it will easily enough for me
patching a kernel is very painful, and when a kernel is upgraded, the patch doesn't work anymore for a long while

I don't have any problem with graphic driver (especially since there is an easy way to install it with 4363)
but for other drivers, like other people, I would like to see it open sources

[Linulux]

open source boys get on it...

http://www.petitiononline.com/nforce2/petition.html

[connyosis]

Oh yes, I've already signed that.
Everyone else wanting the drivers to be open should do it too.
Come on people! Just bitching about this wont do any good, signing this petition might.