Re: Console resolution
On Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:49:33 -0500 (EST), Paul Cartwright wrote:
> Camaleón wrote:
>>
>> You are not using "nuvó" at all but the nvidia driver:-)
>>
>
> right, I knew that.
>>
>> To make this a bit more clear, nvidia card owners can run either:
>>
>> a) KMS+nouveau
>> ...
>
> so, what is this, why would I want it?
The nvidia driver offers both 2D and 3D acceleration. But it is
non-free. The nv driver is free, but does not offer 3D acceleration.
It generally does offer 2D acceleration though. Nvidia's historical
position on the nv driver is that they offer it so the user will have
a driver to use during installation. It can then be upgraded to the
nvidia driver after installation. But they dropped support for the
nv driver about a year ago, I think. The rationale is that the user
can use the vesa driver during installation and then install the
nvidia driver after installation. That did not set well with those
who wish to use all free software. With nv, they at least got 2D
acceleration. With vesa, I don't think there's even 2D acceleration.
The nouveau driver is an attempt to create a free driver that offers
both 2D and 3D acceleration. Since Nvidia stubbornly refuses to
publish the specs, the nouveau driver had to be reverse-engineered.
It doesn't support all modes of all nvidia chipsets, but a number
of them do seem to work with the nouveau driver. You would want the
nouveau driver if you wanted 3D acceleration but didn't want to use
proprietary, non-free software, such as the nvidia driver. If you
already have the nvidia driver installed, and it is working for you,
you probably don't want to switch to nouveau.
>>
>> b) nvidia propietary driver
>> c) vesa/fb
>> d) nv (obsolete but still available, AFAICT)
>
> I don't know if nv is still available in squeeze, I would imagine it is,
> but I hope I never have to use it!
It is still available in Squeeze, and in Wheezy also, and I use it.
I'll tell you why. My video card is an old one. It has a "RIVA TNT2 /
TNT2 Pro" chipset. This chipset supports interlaced video modes.
My monitor requires an interlaced video mode. I cannot use the
proprietary nvidia driver because I would need the 71xx-series driver
to support a chipset this old, and Nvidia has not enhanced this driver
series to support the release of the X server that runs under Squeeze.
And they have no plans to do so. I cannot use the nouveau driver because it
does not work with interlaced video modes. (Or at least it did not the
last time I checked.) I could use the vesa driver, I suppose, but it
does not offer 2D acceleration. So the nv driver is my choice. It
supports my chipset, it supports interlaced video modes on my chipset,
and it at least offers 2D acceleration.
If I have made any factually incorrect statements, someone please
correct me.
--
.''`. Stephen Powell
: :' :
`. `'`
`-
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