Re: [git pull] drm request 3

[Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@gmail.com>]

On 03/04/2010 01:32 PM, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> On 03/04/2010 02:04 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
>> "Please note that these drivers are under heavy development, may or may
>> not work, and may contain userspace interfaces that most likely will be
>> changed in the near future."
>
> Shipping it as the default Fedora driver for NVIDIA hardware makes that
> text largely irrelevant.

Indeed, that text isn't really reconcilable with the fact that the 
driver is being used by default in a stable distro release. (Why do 
people keep forgetting the whole "upstream development" thing?)

>
> Jesse said
>> Dave and the nouveau guys include the driver in Fedora to get
>> much needed test coverage, and make sure the latest bits in rawhide
>> work together.
>
> but when it is the default driver, it is the default _production_ driver
> for Fedora users, in an official, stable Fedora release.
>
> And the alternative? You said
>> F-12 continues to ship the -nv driver, which will work fine with any
>> kernel version as long as nouveau is disabled.
>
> FAIL. I actually tried that. Have you? Do you think it is remotely easy
> for a technically component, non-Xorg-hacker type to accomplish?
>
> I attempted to use the non-default 'nv' driver just before nouveau was
> merged into upstream/staging, because I wanted a development kernel that
> actually worked on my Fedora-based devel boxes. It was a complete
> exercise in frustration, requiring at least one bugzilla bug report, and
> ultimately resulted in failure.

Advising people to use nv is pretty much a joke IMHO, it's barely above 
VESA in some ways. People would be more likely to use the nvidia binary 
driver than that contraption..

Aside from the fact that running nouveau on this machine would drive me 
crazy (there's no fan speed control implemented so the GPU fan screams 
away at maximum speed), the other big reason I can't use it is that at 
least until quite recently it couldn't work with upstream kernels. 
Unfortunately, changes like this will being that problem back..

So at this point the nvidia binary driver is the most practical solution 
that actually meets my needs, sadly enough..

>
> I gave up and waiting for Linus to merge nouveau, which instantly made
> my life a lot easier :)
>
> Kernel hacking on Fedora, my own dogfood, has become increasingly
> cumbersome because of all these graphics issues. Sometimes it's just
> easier to test a modern kernel on an ancient distro, sadly.
>
> Jeff
>
>
>