nvidia-driver

[kees <omekeesje@wanadoo.nl>]

Jo Shields wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-11-03 at 11:40 +0000, kees wrote:
>  
> > Hello folks,
> > Although the problem I am talking about is a general debian 
> > problem/bug, I am
> > sending my message to this list, as there seems to be no list 
> > adequate for this subject and
> > the machine I am working on is a amd64.
> > The problem is the impossibility to get a working nvidia driver with 
> > glx.
> > In the past 10 years or so, I never had any problem with my several 
> > nvidia cards/drivers
> > on debian, but now it seems to be impossible to get things right.
> > The problem is, that when I compile a kernel with the builtin nv 
> > driver, I cannot get
> > glx, which I need for my work with opengl.
> >     
>
> The kernel does not include any drivers called "nv". XFree86 and XOrg do
> - and the kernel includes a framebuffer driver called nvidiafb
>
>  
> > So I abandoned the builtin driver, but now there seems to be no 
> > debian package for
> > nvidiakernel+glx (I am using etch but the same is true for the other 
> > releases).
> >     
>
> O RLY?
> http://packages.debian.org/stable/x11/nvidia-glx
> http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/nvidia-glx
>
>  
> > I tried to install the driver etc. via the *.run file downloaded from 
> > nvidia, but this
> > also did not work (got complaints/errors about not finding the driver 
> > module, although
> > the driver existed and was loaded).
> >     
>
> Which error precisely? It's impossible to give adequate support for
> inadequate questions - can you imagine a car mechanic being asked to
> provide the appropriate fixes for "there's a blinky light on the thing,
> next to the thing"?
>
>  
> > Although I am no newby (I am working with linux for about 15 years),
> >     
>
> You ran Linux the year the 0.0.1 kernel was written as a drop-in for
> Minix, and about two years before Yggdrasil Linux (the first ever
> distribution) had its first release? Impressive.
>
>  
> >  I could have made some stupid mistake. But I have the impression 
> > that debian is fighting
> > a small war with nvidia with the result that the owners of nvidia 
> > hardware will suffer.
> >     
>
> Works for me.
>
>  
> > I hope I am mistaken in this but without a solution I am bound to 
> > abandon debian
> > which I will regret very much after so many years working with this 
> > fine distribution.
> > Therefore I would be very glad to recieve hints/solutions to solve 
> > this problem.
> >     
>
> So give information which it's possible to support.
>
> 1) What's your hardware?
> 2) What's your kernel?
> 3) What's the expected behaviour?
> 4) What, precisely, is the actual behaviour?
>
>
>
>   
Dear Jo,
Thank you for your very prompt reply!!
Not only giving the right information but also accurate reading of 
information
is necessary for a right understanding.
I did not mention the exact date and hour of my starting with linux, but 
I used the
expression ABOUT, remember? So maybe it's not so impressive after all.

Now let's come to the information you asked for:
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ (dual core)
Motherboard Asus A8N-E
Videocard: Nvidia 6600
Kernel 2.6.15-8
Distro: Debian etch, updated till ABOUT july 2006
Expected behaviour:A working X-Windows (Xfree etc. etc.) system WITH GLX,
                               glxinfo should give the right answers.
Actual behaviour:X-Windows etc. was working but without GLX.
I tried to correct this in so many ways I cannot remember now, but all 
in vain.
As I in the meantime had also problems with upgrading libc6,  maybe as a 
result of
installing the newest gcccompiler with openmp (which I needed) from a 
gnu tarfile
and not as a debian package (the debian gcccompiler did not yet support 
openmp), my
system ended up unworkable for the first time in 13-15 years!!
Now I have decided to sweep away the rubbish and install a brand new 
debian system.
But before I do so, I have to be sure that the nvidia driver will work 
the right way,
that is with GLX.
I hope that you understand that it is impossible for me to tell you in 
detail everything
I tried in putting my system right.
One important problem was, that there seems to be no nvidia-driver or 
-glx package in etch.
I read something about using drivers  from the unstable repository, do 
you think
that advisable? I never used anything from unstable (don't like the word).
Greetings,
Kees.
P.S. If the debian meaning of the word unstable means what the 
dictionary says,
I think it is a very bad policy of debian to force a lot of people to 
endanger their
systems by using unstable software!!!!!!!!