Re: Nvidia (their's) driver on multiple kernels.
David Baron wrote:
> Are they "better" or equivalent? Probably updated with Xorg changes, etc.
> which is better. However, the manufacturer must also know what they are
> doing?
Files inside are exactly the same, except maybe cases where certain
modifications are needed to make them work in Debian.
The driver needs to overwrite a couple of files that belong to xorg, so
if you use the installer, the files will be overwritten without Debian
package management system knowing that. This will lead to them being
overwritten again by xorg on next upgrade, and you will have to
reinstall NVIDIA drivers.
The packages make the package management system remember they were
overwritten and preserves them on upgrades. They will also be updated
once NVIDIA releases a patch, which you would have to apply manually
otherwise.
You will get the same either way. Proprietary drivers are still
proprietary drivers no matter how you install them.
> Didn't know there were any options. Next new kernel, I'll try it (if I do not
> go over to the Debian driver).
If you decide to go with debs, do not forget to uninstall the driver
before installing packages.
One thing to consider is that if you do not run Debian Unstable, you
will not get the latest drivers. On the other hand, all NVIDIA drivers
are buggy in one way or another, so a new driver is not necessarily better.
> I would assume that the default behavior would be to leave the pre-existing
> kernel's module in place. This is what most folks trying a newer kernel would
> want.
You are free to bug NVIDIA as much as you want, but do not expect things
to change anytime soon. As long as the driver is proprietary, there is
nothing we can do to make things work the way they should.
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