NVIDIA 1.0-8751 + CoolBits

With our continual investigation of NVIDIA's private Beta drivers (1.0-8751) for Linux graphics solutions, we have yet another small detail to share. Back on August 1, 2005 we had reported to NVIDIA a bug that would cause CoolBits from operating on Xinerama-enabled systems. When one NVIDIA graphics solution is installed and Xinerama is enabled to drive two display heads, and then attempting to alter the X configuration with Option "Coolbits" "1" would result in CoolBits not activating. When NVIDIA reproduced our bug, they opened up the issue as bug 181974 so their development team could look into such a problem. Well, precisely 35 weeks later or 245 days and three public driver releases, this bug has yet to have been addressed. With NVIDIA's TwinView enabled for a multi-headed display, CoolBits is known to work fine but we have just confirmed this morning that the 1.0-8751 drivers still are unable to run CoolBits when Xinerama is activated. While this issue isn't a problem for most consumers, it is another bug that has yet to be addressed almost a year later. The next Linux/FreeBSD/Solaris public driver release is expected soon.