The Open-Source NVIDIA "Nouveau" Driver Gets A Batch Of Fixes For Linux 5.3

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Open-Source NVIDIA "Nouveau" Driver Gets A Batch Of Fixes For Linux 5.3

With last week's big DRM pull request for Linux 5.3 that brought Navi support most notably on the AMD side while Intel received HDR display support, continued Icelake/Gen11 work, and more, there weren't any changes to the open-source NVIDIA "Nouveau" driver. It was another unfortunate cycle of no major improvements for the Nouveau driver but at least sent out today were a set of new "fixes" for this driver that remains crippled on Maxwell GPUs and newer...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Nouveau-Just-Fixes-Linux-5.3

[ThoreauHD]

"It just works"

[yoshi314]

We still hold out hope that some kernel release in the not too distant future will bring re-clocking support for GeForce GTX 900 "Maxwell" series and newer as well as automatic re-clocking support for GTX 600/700 "Kepler" GPUs.

i think we'll get proper gma600 driver before that happens.

[Guest]

I thought I heard somewhere that re-clocking on Maxwell was possible with nouveau if you extracted something from the proprietary driver?

[Neraxa]

Ive used Nouveau on older hardware (7 years) where the only way to get it to work is to disable hardware acceleration. Otherwise, the kernel will crash after a period of use. A black screen will occur and the system will become entirely unresponsive . Unfortunately the Nvidia driver still seems to work best in some cases if you need hardware acceleration, despite API shenanigans.

Overall however Linux had been making so much progress on many fronts for the desktop user however so it was pretty disappointment such a major regression and step backwards that eliminating 32 bit support represents which would kill many printer drivers plus huge libraries of games, and throwing people who use 32 bit hardware under the bus (some 32 bit computers are only 10 years old at this point). A big use for Linux is to breath new life into older hardware which say could be donated to schools, libraries or developing countries. It shows how the big distros just don't care about desktop users.

[josh_walrath]

Overall however Linux had been making so much progress on many fronts for the desktop user however so it was pretty disappointment such a major regression and step backwards that eliminating 32 bit support represents which would kill many printer drivers plus huge libraries of games, and throwing people who use 32 bit hardware under the bus (some 32 bit computers are only 10 years old at this point). A big use for Linux is to breath new life into older hardware which say could be donated to schools, libraries or developing countries. It shows how the big distros just don't care about desktop users.

You can always bring 32-bit support back.

But no desktop users should still be using 32-bit anything unless it's software from companies ridiculously obstinate to upgrade, like Valve.

[Slartifartblast]

"It just works"

Is that with tongue firmly in cheek as I personally have found Nouveau quite the opposite over the years ?

[rene]

"It just works"

your point being? That nvidia sucks and should finally publish register level specs and firmware to load onto the cards to work properly?

[rene]

Ive used Nouveau on older hardware (7 years) where the only way to get it to work is to disable hardware acceleration. Otherwise, the kernel will crash after a period of use. A black screen will occur and the system will become entirely unresponsive . Unfortunately the Nvidia driver still seems to work best in some cases if you need hardware acceleration, despite API shenanigans.

Overall however Linux had been making so much progress on many fronts for the desktop user however so it was pretty disappointment such a major regression and step backwards that eliminating 32 bit support represents which would kill many printer drivers plus huge libraries of games, and throwing people who use 32 bit hardware under the bus (some 32 bit computers are only 10 years old at this point). A big use for Linux is to breath new life into older hardware which say could be donated to schools, libraries or developing countries. It shows how the big distros just don't care about desktop users.

IIRC nouveau works w/ acceleration on my 6600 G5, and GT 750M and some cards in between. In any case more people should hold NVidia accountable, and ask for open specification and firmware, and not accept binary only junk, ..! :-/

[shmerl]

I thought reclocking support is only becoming harder and harder to provide (see here).

So I don't expect this to improve, until Nvidia will upstream their driver themselves. Basically, avoid Nvidia if you want to have normal upstream drivers.