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Graphics Software Linux

3DLabs Releases Linux Drivers 201

Posted by michael from the not-just-nvidia dept.
wilfie writes "3DLabs have released linux drivers for their for Wildcat III and Wildcat 4 Graphics accelerators. Being closed source they'll taint your kernel, but what the heck. Press release with penguin-friendly quotes available too." DataSquid has a note about ATI's Linux support: "While on the job hunt, I came across this posting at ATI seeking a project team lead. Last on the list of key responsibilities is "Act as a leader to improve the overall quality of Linux support at ATI." Good news? Certainly better news than what was suggested before."
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3DLabs Releases Linux Drivers More

3DLabs Releases Linux Drivers

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  • What happened to it, were they fired, or move to some other department?

  • This taints our image (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sabshire ( 40466 ) <slashdot.3.sabsh ... .spamgourmet.com> on Thursday July 10, 2003 @07:41AM (#6406509)
    Being closed source they'll taint your kernel,

    This is the kind of statement that taints the integrity of the ope source community, and is a prime example of why few commercial companies support Linux.

    • Re:This taints our image (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dicky ( 1327 ) <slash3@vmlinuz.org> on Thursday July 10, 2003 @07:47AM (#6406541) Homepage
      Taint, in this case, is a technical term. The kernel keeps a flag showing if all the code in it or loaded into it (i.e. modules) is open source, and if a module containing closed source code is loaded, the taint flag is set.

      The point, of course, is that when you post on the lkml saying "Wah wah my kernel's dead", they can come back and say "Sorry - we can't fix that because you're running code in your kernel which we don't have access to". Or possibly something less polite :-) But anyway, that's why the taint flag exists.

      • Re:This taints our image (Score:4, Informative)

        by wirelessbuzzers ( 552513 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:04AM (#6406621)
        Another point of the taint flag is that you cannot make a binary distribution of a tainted kernel. Under the GPL, if you distribute any modifications of the original kernel, you must include the source, which you can't do if you have closed-source drivers.

      • Why use "tainted"? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by WIAKywbfatw ( 307557 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:28AM (#6406704) Journal
        Taint may well be a technical term but the common usage of the word evokes very negative images, and its usage here is clumsy at best.

        Tell someone who doesn't know this technical term that their system is tainted and they'll probably panic, imagining that their PC has been hit by a virus, trojan horse or other undesirable event, where the reality couldn't be further from the truth. (We'll leave the debate about the pros and cons of closed source drivers to another discussion.)

        There's got to be a better way of describing a kernel that contains closed source software that isn't so dramatic or apocalyptic. How about "ajar"? At least "ajar" is a better, less ambiguous, description - to me it says "not 100 percent open, and not 100 pecent closed", which is what we're talking about.
        • There's got to be a better way of describing a kernel that contains closed source software that isn't so dramatic or apocalyptic.

          How about "hainted"? Damn Richers, putting their closed code in our kernels.

        • Re:Why use "tainted"? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by irc.goatse.cx troll ( 593289 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:50AM (#6406850) Journal
          "imagining that their PC has been hit by a virus, trojan horse or other undesirable event,"

          A tainted kernel is. undesirable. And it very well may be trojaned, You can't check.

          I'm not saying these big name companies would backdoor their own drivers, but someone could easily[*] hack their server and modify them

          [*]Easy as in this has happened with IRCII, BitchX, OpenSSH, and who knows how many others.

        • Tainted is negative (Score:4, Insightful)

          by nuggz ( 69912 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:54AM (#6406874) Homepage
          That's the point.

          By using closed code in your kernel you are putting an unknown in it.
          This is bad, the kernel developers can't help you, you can't fix it yourself, you're just stuck with broken software.

          I think removing the ability to fix a problem is a dramatic change, particularly when that is a major benefit of free software.

        • How about... (Score:3, Funny)

          by Knunov ( 158076 )
          "How about "ajar"? At least "ajar" is a better, less ambiguous, description - to me it says "not 100 percent open, and not 100 pecent closed", which is what we're talking about."

          Or better yet, how about "ajar-jar"? That way we can hook the Joe Sixpack crowd with the sheer cuteness of the term, along with the 3-6 year old user group.

        • I suggest a new term: It'll give you "kernel herpes."
        • You're using an OS that claims code quality and security as a result of massive code review (lots of eyes looking at the code.) Then you stick this binary-only 'black box' into the kernel, code nobody's seen except a few programmers of unknown ability from a company with most likely only a mediocre interest in Linux support. Yeah, I'd call that tainted code.

          Not to mention the pain you'll go through if XFree gets updated but your binary-only driver doesn't. If you don't consider it tainted in the first case
      • It's because 't ain't supported :-)

    • Freedom is what makes Linux special, and "tainting" the kernel by linking in closed-source software directly compromises that freedom, together with security, maintanability, and upgradeability.

      Linux works just fine without "commercial companies" (by which I'm sure you mean developers of proprietary closed-source software that denies its users the freedom to use, study, modify, and share it) and will continue to do so.

      On the other hand, many successful companies (including IBM, Red Hat, SuSE, Oracle, Su

      • Sorry, but if you "need" the driver which doesn't exist in a Free Version, just taint your kernel and accept whatever technical issues with this.

        I guess this is becoming ridiculous to read such statements, it's like those Jehova Witnesses who can't take any medication if they're ill because their faith is against such necessity.

        The first Freedom that Free Software should bring would be the Freedom to choose.
        If you don't have a choice, whether commercial or not, then consider the risk and do with what you
    • Bah, tainted code schmode mr troll.

      More drivers for linux = more users = good thing.

      If you ain't got the users you ain't got the market-share and you ain't going nowhere.
      (3DLabs is probably a bad example, but we're talking in general here ;^)

    • Re:This taints our image (Score:2, Insightful)

      by grub ( 11606 )

      This is the kind of statement that taints the integrity of the ope source community

      Bang on the money.
      I'd like to know how many free OS users have the source code to their BIOS or the microcoding to their CPUs and other low level hardware yet don't squawk about it.
    • Being closed source they'll taint your kernel, but what the heck.

      At least take the whole quote. It does taint the kernel and that is an important point to make because to some it makes a difference. Clearly, the majority probably won't be bothered by this, hence "but what the heck."

      -N

    • This is the kind of statement that taints the integrity of the ope source community, and is a prime example of why few commercial companies support Linux.

      You misunderstand. What they mean is if you have a problem with these drivers, 'tain't the kernel's fault.

  • An attractive proposal... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jkrise ( 535370 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @07:44AM (#6406521) Journal
    Looking at the plethora of video cards with differing amounts of VRAM, performance specs, drivers for Linux, stability problems with Windows (especially newer OS versions and Service Packs which often make video drivers unstable), I've got a suggestion.

    Why not make a commodity video card with about 8MB video RAM (a Mattrox 8MB card out-performed a 32MB S3 hands down), and a stable open-source Linux driver? Will this lead to commoditisation of the video card and drive all other mfrs to imitate?

    Just wondering...
    • We have that already. Older ATI chipsets (like Rage 128) have decent support from the DRI project (http://dri.sourceforge.net) and give quite acceptable 2D and hardware-accelerated 3D performance for most uses, at a quite reasonable cost. DRI supports some newer ATI cards as well. However, it can't support chipsets whose makers won't release specs, such as those made by NVidia.
      • I use a Rage 128 with the GATOS drivers in my machine at work. And while they are adequate for simple things, they *are not* enough for heavy 3D accelleration.

        Even though this Rage 128 works fine at work, it still won't meet the needs of things that I do at home. I play games on my home Linux machine (Yeah, yeah... Don't beat a dead horse, trolls.) and there is no open solution that is suitable for that.

    • Re:An attractive proposal... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The older Matrox cards are already very well understood, documented and supported by Matrox. Open Source drivers for loads of systems abound. Same for the older ATI chipsets.

    • Re:An attractive proposal... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Dark Lord Seth ( 584963 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:24AM (#6406691) Journal
      Why not make a commodity video card with about 8MB video RAM (a Mattrox 8MB card out-performed a 32MB S3 hands down), and a stable open-source Linux driver? Will this lead to commoditisation of the video card and drive all other mfrs to imitate?

      Well, the same reason as to why we don't have room-temp (or only requiring passive cooling) 500mhz processors for $25, silent single platter 10gb HDs for $25, 256mb 266mhz DDR RAM for $25. Flashy new stuff sells, innovation of older products doesn't. Hence why Intel and AMD are pushing up specs instead of improving and lowering the cost of older processors. The HD manufacturers thrive on selling larger and larger HDs instead of coole, more silent and cheaper ones. Hence why we have expensive 250Gb IDE blast furnaces instead of silent 5 to 10 Gb drives whic only cost about 25 bucks. Same thing for memory; pushing up the ammount of memory and speed sells while improving older technologies to be cooler, cheaper and more efficient... Doesn't sell.

      Which is kind of stupid really; I'd imagine computers with lower specs but increased stability, efficiency (wasting less power on warming the office) and lower costs would be popular in the corporate scene. Then again, I bet those people are rather thick and convinced by marketing that Office '97 and Windows 98 really do require 200gb of disk space (well, almost) and a P4 3ghz with HT. Not to mention that 512mb of DDR400 and that Ati 9800 that makes Excel run smooth. Woo!

      • Which is kind of stupid really; I'd imagine computers with lower specs but increased stability, efficiency (wasting less power on warming the office) and lower costs would be popular in the corporate scene.

        Except for the lower cost thing I'd swear you're talking about a Mac.

        Personally, I want Doom3 to run at 1000 FPS just like I like my Quake3 (yes, I can tell the difference and it makes a difference in competition).

        I want my 3D renderings to be completed instantly and I want my videos encoded in real t
        • I want Doom3 to run at 1000 FPS just like I like my Quake3 (yes, I can tell the difference

          Bullshit. When the rendering rate is as high as the screen refresh rate, it is impossible to do any better. Screen refresh rates are rarely higher than 100Hz. The only reason for not getting smooth graphics with 100 frames rendered per second would be the rendering and refresh not properly synced.
      • There actually are such products as 25$ 500 MHz processors and all the other stufff you just described. However, they are not used in the typical PC you buy at Walmart or some such store. Rather, they are used by OEMs, usually in speciality devices, such as controllers for automated processes or robotized assembly lines.
        The main reason is that up till recently there was a real need to get faster processors, and graphic cards and so on. However, we are reaching a point where the latest and greatest in CP

        • The main reason is that up till recently there was a real need to get faster processors, and graphic cards and so on. However, we are reaching a point where the latest and greatest in CPU and graphic cards will only be of interest to a very limited number of users.

          As way of reply, I offer you this quote.

          (ElCabalero) said on 22nd Feb, 1995

          "I am going to make a prediction. Basically everyone has heard about the
          net by now. My prediction is that most of those who will want access,
          will have it soon, and pro

      • Well, the same reason as to why we don't have room-temp (or only requiring passive cooling) 500mhz processors for $25, silent single platter 10gb HDs for $25, 256mb 266mhz DDR RAM for $25.

        600MHz passive-cooled processor for $15 [pricewatch.com]
        Silent single-platter 20gb HD for $39 [tigerdirect.com] (can't hit the magic $25 price point, but it is 20gb)
        256mb 266MHz DDR RAM for $22 [pricewatch.com]

        It CAN be done for the prices you quote; but your point still is valid. The flashy stuff sells and gets the PR.
      • You'll probably never see $25 hard drives, because there's a substantial cost to the parts of the hard drive that aren't storage. Regardless of the storage capacity of the platters and the precision of the heads, you'll always have a motor spinning the disks really fast and evenly, which costs money. This means that mid-range disks are more cost-effective than either high-end or low-end disks. Prices are really like $20 + $1/GB (until you get to the capacity limits), so you're not going to see less than ~$4
    • Why? What's the point? It doesn't have 3D capabilities (at least none worth even mentioning at only 8 MB), and 2D video is old hat nowadays. You can get any number of cards with fully accelerated 2D drivers under Linux. The issue is 3D drivers... and then it's only an issue if you want open source drivers that actually perform to the cards capabilities.

      I think you have a complete and total lack of understanding about video cards based on your 8MB vs 32MB comment. You realize that 1600x1200 32-bit 2D video
    • Well, there's the venerable VESA2.0 standard which is implemented in all video cards produced since mid-late '90's, and you can take advantage of this by the vesa XFree86 driver.

      The problem is that the VESA standard interface gives you just a framebuffer: there's no 2D or 3D acceleration and that is a real performance hit. (BTW, memory size has nothing to do with speed).

      So, what you ask for is already done: you can use any videocard to display a (somewhat slow) X session.

      But 2D is a solved problem: if yo

  • Why not open source graphics card drivers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mikeophile ( 647318 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @07:45AM (#6406532)
    Are the card companies afraid more of revealing technology to their competitors, or of revealing their benchmarking cheats...er optimizations?
    • Probably because these drivers are just a little pet side project of one small team, they'd be riddled with bad code, hacks, kludges, and possibly even bugs. Once some OSS zealot gets hold of the code it'd not be 'Cool, they've released the source for us to work on and improve!' but 'Jesus, these people have no idea about writing open source software, wah wah wah.'

      Linux drivers are a priviledge, not a right.

    • Re:Why not open source graphics card drivers (Score:5, Informative)

      by The Analog Kid ( 565327 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:09AM (#6406639)
      In nVidia's case they licensed code from SGI or some company like that. If they GPL'd the code their would be a lawsuit which I don't think they want. Now you could atleast release the spec for the cards , so the community could create its own drivers. That is proabably why many companies don't get involved in Linux for drivers, because the community already made them.
      • really?

        Don't you know practically all of this SGI 3D stuff, IP, people has been transfered from SGI to nVidia?

        If you are still really unsure, well, know that SGI opensourced GLX (old news) but also the "OpenGL sample implementation" on which practically all commercial opengl drivers (more than likely including SGI) are normally based.

        see http://oss.sgi.com/projects/

        The reason nVidia keeps their drivers closed, is probably not because of some mysterious "IP" that crept its way into their drivers, but I b
    • IMHO because it takes *work* to open the source. One nice/bad point of closed-source Windows drivers is that it lets you skimp on documentation and ship just-working code.

      "Nice" because every word of that documentation had to be typed and verified, and that calls for a paid employee. "Nice" because the code just has to "work", not be presentably clean.

      "Bad" because it means that drivers are coded based on sketchy documentation, informal notes, hallway conversations, and developer memory. Losing a develope

  • Closed source as usual (Score:2, Interesting)

    by boer ( 653809 )
    I has to be closed source, so application specific cheats^H^H^H^H^H features wouldn't be so blatant. I wouldn't expect any graphics card driver from a manufactorer to be Open Source.

  • The heck (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    3DLabs have released linux drivers for their for Wildcat III and Wildcat 4 Graphics accelerators. Being closed source they'll taint your kernel, but what the heck.

    The heck is that we can't port them to other [freebsd.org] systems [sourceforge.net] and platforms [ibm.com]
  • I don't see why hardware drivers are not made open source. Considering these companies don't make any money off of the drivers, and instead only make money off the hardware, how do they benefit from keeping the drivers closed source. This only means that there's a smaller number of people who are able to use their hardware. It also means that they are loosing out on improvements that could be made by others, making the hardware more valuable. There is no reason to keep these things closed source
    • My impression on at least one of the reasons why they do this, is that there is certain proprietary code licensed from other companies in these drivers, which they simply do not have permission to release with an open license. I suppose the primary manufacturer (ie, nvidia, ati, or 3d labs) could work to get the people who do own the proprietary licenses on that code to open it. However, this seems like a lot of work from a video card chip manufacturer's perspective, for (debateably) little gain. I've al

  • From the my-linux-is-9.1-what-about-yours dept. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kickasso ( 210195 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:03AM (#6406618)
    These are not Linux drivers. These are Red Hat 7.3 drivers. I'll stick with NVidia for now, thankyouverymuch.
    • The drivers provided by NVidia corporation aren't "Linux drivers" either. They are "x86/IA64/AMD64 Linux drivers". If they were genuine Linux drivers, you could use them on any platform supporting both Linux and AGP cards- such as a Macintosh/powerpc.

      (However, the unaccelerated open-source drivers for NVidia cards can work on non-x86 Linux)

  • The question I couldn't find the answer to... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sevn ( 12012 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:11AM (#6406641) Homepage Journal
    is will their best card with their driver burn
    smoking rings around my nvidia card with nvidia's
    drivers the way that nvidia cards with nvidia
    drivers burn smoking rings around ATI cards with
    ati drivers under linux? I tell you this... If
    ID does a 180 and doesn't release a Linux version
    of Doom3 at the same time, or a reasonably short
    time after the windows version, I'm getting
    whatever card is fastest under XP and giving up
    on Linux gaming altogether. It's really nice
    having a quake3 link in my blackbox menu, but
    I'm already sick of having to reboot to play
    counterstrike, NOLF2, and other games.
    • Why do you reboot to play counterstrike? I play half-life, tfc, and cs on winex without a hitch. You should try it if you have an Nvidia card. It works quite well on my humble laptop.
      • I don't know what cave I was living in. I'm running
        an emerge wine-cvs right now. Looks like on top of
        about half the games I'd normally have to reboot
        to run, I can also run the newest version of k-lite
        with winex. :)
        • You can run k-lite??? can you tell me how you did it? I am having problems with it.
          • http://frankscorner.org/

            This site made life soooooooo much easier. I ended
            up using winex for a bunch of my games including
            halflife/counterstrike and max payne, then using
            regular wine for kazzalite 2.10.
          • Quick Note:

            I have a friend that could NOT get wine working
            with k-lite on mandrake. Didn't know if you had
            mandrake or not (I run Gentoo), but in case you
            do, or you have problems with the link on franks, here are the instructions he used to
            get k-lite working on his mandrake home system,
            and a redhat laptop he has at work:

            http://www.mail-archive.com/expert@linux-mandra k e. com/msg71788.html

            Make sure to take out the freaking retarded space
            in the URL that slashcode puts in cause it's GAY.

  • hmf. kinda poor effort if you ask me. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ashridah ( 72567 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:12AM (#6406645)
    Well, since they've only released rpms for specific kernels that are shipped with redhat 7.3, I don't know that you can say they're supporting linux, so much as supporting a very small subset of linux.

    Too bad if you need to step outside the box, but then, if you're using high-end workstation graphics software, that's probably something you don't want to do, since the software's probably targeted at the same place. You tend to lose support from vendors quickly, even tho 99% of the time, the differences mean jack, unless the vendor's got crappy software to begin with. (you hearing me oracle?! your installer is a PITA)

    Still, redhat 7.3 is miles out of date, and that you're SOL if you need to say... use your own kernel for some reason, or hell, NOT use redhat at all.

    I really hate companies that do that. Redhat's always been far more annoying to configure and use than I'm even remotely interested in dealing with, and they keep making it more useless every time they make a release. Hell. I'd happily tell people to use windows than deal with the annoyances that come with trying to use redhat to get stuff done.
    [end generic rant]

    If course, since I just ragged on the HOLY REDHAT, I'm probably going to be on the receiving end of a massive moderation smackdown. oh well.

    ashridah
    • >>>If course, since I just ragged on the HOLY REDHAT, I'm probably going to be on the receiving end of a massive moderation smackdown. oh well.

      I wouldnt come to that conclusion. If anybody has ever installed RedHat's new'ish version and then NMAP'ed it, you'll find some interesting things started.

      I always find: Telnet, Finger, Chargen, Mail, and other services started on DEFAULT install.

      If anything, I think we learned from Windows that default daemons/services automatically started at install/st
      • /sbin/chkconfig --del xinetd

        It's not that hard.

      • I wouldnt come to that conclusion. If anybody has ever installed RedHat's new'ish version and then NMAP'ed it, you'll find some interesting things started.

        I always find: Telnet, Finger, Chargen, Mail, and other services started on DEFAULT install.

        Guess you haven't tried RedHat out in quite a while. The telnet server hasn't ever even been installed by default, let alone turned on since the RedHat 6.2 days. Sendmail is installed and turned on by default, but it is only bound to 127.0.0.1, so you can't e

    • Well then, you've got a few choices:
      1) Don't buy a Wildcat. Vote with your wallet and pick up a nice nVidia card with "proper" (Open Source notwithstanding) drivers.
      2) Buy a Wildcat and put up with Redhat 7.3 (or figure out a way to get them working with something you like)
      3) Buy a Wildcat and use Windows.

      In any case, shoot 3D Labs an email with a brief discussion about why you didn't purchase their product. Chances are, they don't care because quite a few hardware companies have realized that creatin
    • RedHat 7.3 is older yes but it's been around the corprate world and is about the current level of support. I work with a lot of comercial linux software and for most redhat 7.3 is the latest supported version. As for rehat in general lets face it support bugets are only so big so you pick one release of Linux and go with it why redhat? Well for starters thats the version thats officialy supported on IBM Big iron. They have the RHCE program so you can at least get a person with some paperwork behind them

  • Pretty pitiful, really (Score:4, Insightful)

    by HisMother ( 413313 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @08:24AM (#6406693)
    This is a sad offering. They only support specific, official RedHat 7.3 kernel patchlevels -- i.e., there's no compilable kernel module like NVIDIA uses. This somewhat limits the audience for these drivers -- certainly makes them useless for me. I'll stick with my Quadro.
    • This makes them useless for *everyone*. Anyone who uses RH as a workstation is using 8.0 or 9. Does 7.3 even support the new KDE/Gnome/XF86?

      I still use 7.3 on headless servers because it's stable as hell. What does Dell offer on their servers? RH 8.0 or 9. Doh!

      I'm ecstatic that they're supporting Linux at all, but, seriously, a lot of these companies need to be hit with a clue stick.
  • We have this issue about 'optimization' or some people like to say 'cheats'. But can't we make a driver that is optimazed for many things?
    The driver would see, oh you running game X, will load these parameters now.

    Or perhaps a different Video driver modual that loads depending on the application?
  • Although I'd really like to see a driver that installs on something other than RedHat (how about a plain tar.gz maybe?). It shouldn't be that hard to repackage.

    The driver works with kernel 2.4.18, so I don't know why so many people are complaining about only supporting old kernels. It should work with any system with that kernel (it might work with any 2.4 kernel), even newer and other distros.

    I assume they recognized that there are tons of 3D movie, animation studios, and medical research labs that are
    • It shouldn't be that hard to repackage.

      It is slightly tricky to package, but NVidia has accomplished it well. You need to split the driver into it's binary core, but also ship the functions which call that core as source code, so your installer routine can recompile them to work with whatever Linux it finds on the target system.

      One standard complaint about Linux is that it makes no effort to support compatibility with binary kernel drivers from different (older/newer) versions. Thus NVidia had to go th
  • Develop and test a user space driver for X Windows, 2D rendering and other non-3D related functionality.

  • ATi (Score:2, Informative)

    by SD-VI ( 688382 )

    They fixed their Windows drivers, so let's hope they can do the same for their Linux drivers. ATi's cards are fairly nice; certainly a little better than the dim-looking GeForce FX line, and I say that as someone who is completely neutral when it comes to corporations. (No reason to make generalizations about anything except their products. Unless they're Rambus, in which case they're evil.)

    Amusingly enough, the only nVidia card I'd recommend buying right now is their Titanium 4200, the very card that tau

  • Up until now, 3D Labs has maintained a link to Xi Graphics for Linux drivers for the Wildcat cards. (www.xig.com)

    So my question is this... are these drivers just a free re-release of the drivers originally built by Xi? Are they totally new drivers written by folks at 3D Labs? Are they from a combination of the two?

    I'm curious (for both political and practical/technical reasons).
  • I've been trying to get mine to work for ages. The version of XFree86 that comes with unstable is 4.2.1, the 'ati' drivers that come with XFree don't seem to work, and unstable comes with glibc2.3, and the binary ATI drivers are compiled against 2.2 only, so they don't work either.

    Also they only supply the drivers in rpm form, not even a .tgz

    Does anyone have any ideas how I can get my 9800pro working in Debian unstable please? Changing distro is not an option! Ever!! :)

  • Savage driver with DRI, OpenGL, XvMC (Score:3, Informative)

    by Pivot ( 4465 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @09:25AM (#6407042)
    In a related note, S3 graphics has released open source drivers for the S3 Savage graphics family. See eg. here [probo.com].

  • ATI drivers (Score:3, Interesting)

    by vivek7006 ( 585218 ) on Thursday July 10, 2003 @09:38AM (#6407139) Homepage
    I have been observing that most of the notebooks dont use Nvidia graphic cards. Instead they prefer using mobility Radeon or some cheaper on-board cards. This is problem for me, because I am looking to buy a notebook on which I will install linux. Nvidia has fantastic linux drivers, so I wont have to worry about hardware 3D acceleration, if I buy a notebook with Nvidia graphic card. But I just dont see any notebooks in the market with Nvidia graphic cards.

    How does Radeon behave under linux in notebooks? . How is the 3D acceleration in mobile Radeon 8500+ ? Are the opensource drivers good for full screen DVD playbacks? (I usually test hardware acceleration by playing TuxRacer)
  • That is not a good sign, unless they are planning to release specs to the community for 3D driver development.
  • Great, now everyone and their dog will be applying to ATI now that they have received free advertising on Slashdot. They are one of the few places that are hiring. I'll never get a job there now. Bastards.
  • Recently Creative have done a fair bit of interest/benefit to the open source community, including:

    Open sourcing their first stage OpenGL 2 compiler. (To drive adoption, this is good for us because OpenGL2 will work with Linux, DirectX doesnt.)

    Providing information to develop open source drivers for Creative soundcards, including the info needed to develop the Audigy drivers and other associated kit - and hosting the development on their servers.

    Releasing Linux drivers for their high end kit, showing the
  • http://synflood.at/tack/patches/linux/no-more-tain ting.patch
  • Anyone else out there have any experience with this combination? I recently upgraded from RH 8 to 9, and found that I would be lacking 3D acceleration. Anybody have any word on whether my 9700 Pro will ever run accelerated with RH 9 and XFree86 4.3?
  • There needs to be at least one online resource where I can find any and all videocard drivers in existance for Linux, including the ancient Diamond Monster Doodoo card I gots in my old box. It's depressing all these dead links and abandoned webpages that promise near-impossible-to-find drivers and then don't fullfill.
  • 3Labs have been bragging about being top-notch amongst the cream of the crop of 3D hardware since the begining of time. And while their Wildcat series often shure kicked FireGL and others up and down the street performance wise, it was *allways* "Windows only". And nothing *but* Windows only. In fact 3DLabs and their Wildcats are among the very *last* to join the *nix crowd in terms of driver support for professional 3D. The FireGLs have had drivers form ages (in the 3D world that is) and just plain *everyb
  • I am not a lawyer, so do not rely on this as legal advice.

    I believe that 3DLabs is committing contributory copyright infringement (in the United States) by distributing lib/modules/2.4.18-3/kernel/drivers/char/drm/wild c at.o without providing freely redistributable source code to this file, because the only substantial use for some of the contents of this file is to produce a kernel in memory that is not permitted by the copyright permissions under which some parts of the Linux kernel included in that im

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