[opensuse] nvidia or nouveau?
Hello, I just installed Leap on my default computer, using a nvidia graphic card. It works fine, much better than the 13.2 one I could never get fine (Gfore GT320) - no with nouveau (defaulted to nv) nor proprietary driver. I would like to know (just about curiosity) if it's a free driver or a proprietary one and the driver status for nvidia. After install, I added the nvidia community repository, but never installed anything from it myself, but my driver is taken there this repository is http://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/leap/42.1 but looks like it chains to the OBS, as in yast if I go to repository view, and select nvidia, version tab, the driver links to obs://build.suse.de/home:sndirsch:drivers the licence is PERMISSIVE-OSI-COMPLIANT that seems fine: https://opensource.org/faq#permissive does this mean than nvidia drivers are now free? thanks jdd -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 12:34 PM, jdd
does this mean than nvidia drivers are now free?
There are three drivers you should know about when dealing with Nvidia graphics cards. The "nv" driver is an open source driver (MIT license) that Nvidia originally developed/wrote and later depreciated in 2010. It only works up to Tesla microarchitecture GPUs (e.g. the GeForce 300 series). This driver only provides 2D acceleration. This driver provides no 3D acceleration. The "nouveau" driver is a community driven project which brings 2D and 3D accelerated drivers to GNU/Linux. It is licensed under the MIT License and is compatible with the GPL. This driver requires immense amounts of reverse engineering by the developers since Nvidia does not release internal hardware specifications to the open source community. The "nvidia" driver is the closed and official proprietary driver released by Nvidia. There is a lot of pre-compiled binary blobs, etc. The "nv" driver was never really meant for daily use by end-users. It was more so a bridge to allow users to easily install GNU/Linux and then download the proprietary driver from Nvidia. Nvidia even included obfuscated source code at one point. "nvidia" performance is slightly better than "nouveau" performance from the last time I checked, but your end use and application should direct you to research which driver suits your philosophical and performance needs. Brandon Vincent -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 12/24/2015 02:24 PM, Brandon Vincent wrote:
"nvidia" performance is slightly better than "nouveau" performance from the last time I checked, but your end use and application should direct you to research which driver suits your philosophical and performance needs.
From my possibly obsolete observation, the nvidia drivers take better advantage of the hardware. For example, I've seen nouveau leave the small fans on the graphics adapters in full "scream" mode, while the nvidia drivers can control the fan rpm to tailor it to the load. I hate noisy fans! Indeed, the adapter I have now (GeForce GTS 450) has no fan at all, just a massive heat sink with pipes. Maybe it's time to try nouveau again? Regards, Lew -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
Le 24/12/2015 23:24, Brandon Vincent a écrit :
direct you to research which driver suits your philosophical and performance needs.
but the driver I have is installed by default, I never asked for anything of sort, and it seems to come from OBS and to be free (look at my first post) so why I asked if there is a change in nvidia policy jdd -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (3)
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Brandon Vincent
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jdd
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Lew Wolfgang