NVIDIA Pushes Out New Linux Driver Updates

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA Pushes Out New Linux Driver Updates

NVIDIA hasn't been updating their binary Linux drivers as frequently as they were earlier this year when it would be hard to go even just a week without seeing a new beta, an official update, or changes to either of their legacy drivers. However, there are some new NVIDIA Linux drivers to start off this week...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NzQ3NA

[gsacks]

Overscan

Let me know when they address the overscan issue for HDMI connected TVs. This is the one area where I was able to easily (relative term) fix the issue with my AMD/ATI 780G board, but I am stuck with my nforce 9300 board.

[md1032]

You can already do that by setting the scaling mode to "centered" and creating a mode with a smaller visible area.

[gsacks]

You can already do that by setting the scaling mode to "centered" and creating a mode with a smaller visible area.

Have you actually tried that with an HDTV using an HDMI connection? Because for me, it is not possible to set a lower resolution with my Panasonic Plasma. The Nvidia settings program will not actually accept it. It always goes back to the default 720P resolution with about 2% overscan. I'll have to try it again later tonight. But I am 99% sure that it does not work with my TV. While the media applications MythTV and XBMC have their own over scan compensation, so it is OK for what I use the HTPC for, it is annoying when I have to use the gnome desktop.

[Yfrwlf]

Have you actually tried that with an HDTV using an HDMI connection? Because for me, it is not possible to set a lower resolution with my Panasonic Plasma. The Nvidia settings program will not actually accept it. It always goes back to the default 720P resolution with about 2% overscan. I'll have to try it again later tonight. But I am 99% sure that it does not work with my TV. While the media applications MythTV and XBMC have their own over scan compensation, so it is OK for what I use the HTPC for, it is annoying when I have to use the gnome desktop.

My TV lets me go into "reduced" mode so I can see everything, but then I have an underscan problem. It is indeed silly and annoying given that TVs should all be just big monitors by this point.

Let me know when they address the overscan issue for HDMI connected TVs. This is the one area where I was able to easily (relative term) fix the issue with my AMD/ATI 780G board, but I am stuck with my nforce 9300 board.

Might I ask how you fixed the problem? I get the same over/underscan problems with both ATI/AMD and Nvidia cards. Have not tried Intel or any others.

[gsacks]

My TV lets me go into "reduced" mode so I can see everything, but then I have an underscan problem. It is indeed silly and annoying given that TVs should all be just big monitors by this point.



Might I ask how you fixed the problem? I get the same over/underscan problems with both ATI/AMD and Nvidia cards. Have not tried Intel or any others.

I should clarify. The Nvidia settings will also let me go into a severely reduced resolution. They will not let me set a custom resolution, or simply 'adjust overscan'. For the Nvida board, I have worked around the most annoying aspect simply by making the top an bottom panels large enough that they 'fill' the overscan area and still let me see the icons and menus. I just live with the overscan on the sides. Again, my HTPC is mostly used with XBMC and it has its own overscan adjustment which works wonderfully. Why Nvidia and AMD can't or won't do this in their own linux drivers is beyond me.

For the AMD/ATI board, there actually are command line controls to adjust it. If you look in the ATI driver forum and search for the topic 'black border' you will find the instructions in there. I don't remember exactly how to do it, and it takes a little trial and error to get the exact resolution that works. It is not intuitive.

[greg]

Why Nvidia and AMD can't or won't do this in their own linux drivers is beyond me.

I think you can't blame them; overscan is something absolutely pointless with HDTV. If your TV doesn't allow you to disable it, it's shit.
Besides, have you tried generating a custom modeline for a resolution that includesa black border? This should work.

[gsacks]

I think you can't blame them; overscan is something absolutely pointless with HDTV. If your TV doesn't allow you to disable it, it's shit.
Besides, have you tried generating a custom modeline for a resolution that includes a black border? This should work.

I think your statement about TV's not being able to disable overscan is rather pointless and misplaced. My Plasma TV is over 5 years old. When it was manufactured, I doubt they thought very hard about it being used as a monitor. That doesn't make it 'shit'. Anyway, I didn't ask for a commentary on my home electronics. That is beside the point. When you consider than both Nvidia and ATI do have overscan adjustment in the windows drivers in the gui, that indicates they have both recognized the issue and decided it was worth providing end users with a simple solution. Why is it too much to ask for them to add the same feature their Linux drivers? It is clearly a feature that is missing from the driver. If you had this issue, and had searched for a solution as much as I have, then you would know that there is ample demand for a fix.

Yes, I probably could, through trial and error, find the correct modeline to adjust for the overscan. In the process, I might render my system temporarily unusable and cause myself lots of headaches. I should not have to do that. There is a reason why xorg is trying to move away from using xorg.conf

[md1032]

The Nvidia settings program will not actually accept it.

You can't use nvidia-settings to do it. You have to create a modeline that has the same overall timings but a smaller display size.

[gsacks]

Finally got off my duff and made a custom modeline, and it worked. However, I still stand by my statement that this should be made part of the Nvidia X settings tool. Kudos to the author of the how-to in the following thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1003099&page=2