Should I run nouveau or not?
Nouveau works strictly better than xf86-video-nv and has the following philosophical and technical advantages over the proprietary driver:- Open source.
- Can always build with the latest kernel and xorg-server code from git.
- Supports all Riva TNT, GeForce and integrated chipsets, except for the GTX 400 series.
- Kernel Modesetting for framebuffer console at native display resolution and flicker-free vt switch.
- XRandR 1.2 support for dynamic output configuration.
- No power management support.
- No video decode acceleration.
- Limited multi-card support (all non-primary cards must be NV50/G80 or later generation, no SLI)
- TV-out only works on NV40 and older.
- 3D acceleration is experimental and not recommended for the timid.
Installing nouveau on Gentoo
If you have decided that you want to try nouveau, the best way to proceed depends on whether you run a (mostly) stable system, an unstable (~arch) system or whether you always live on the bleeding edge of development.Before you begin, ensure that eselect opengl is set to x11 and you are not loading the proprietary nvidia kernel module.
Stable users: You can run nouveau on an otherwise stable system with the following packages from ~arch:
- Kernel 2.6.33 (set DRM_NOUVEAU=m or =y)
- x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau (latest version)
- x11-drivers/nouveau-firmware (only needed for NV50 generation cards)
~arch users and stable users who want newer nouveau: You cannot use the nouveau drm in kernel 2.6.33 with the unstable version of x11-libs/libdrm due to the aforementioned API break. So you need the following packages:
- x11-base/nouveau-drm (latest version), see here if it complains about missing kernel options which you cannot find in menuconfig
- x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau (latest version)
- >=x11-libs/libdrm-2.4.18
- Nouveau from Kernel 2.6.34_rc4 or newer, or x11-base/nouveau-drm-9999 from the x11 overlay (needs 2.6.34_rc2 at least)
- x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau (latest version)
- >=x11-libs/libdrm-2.4.20
- =media-libs/mesa-9999 from the x11 overlay, built with USE="gallium" and VIDEO_CARDS="nouveau" (only if you want the experimental 3D acceleration for which nouveau developers provide no end user support).
3 comments:
I know it's supposed to be "not for the timid", but I'm running Compiz on Nouveau on a mobile 8400GS, and everything works fine, transparent cube and all. There's a few barely-noticeable artifacts, but it actually seems (a bit) snappier than the proprietary driver.
Now, I didn't try Quake3 of course :)
I used the git kernel (2.6.34.rc4) off the nouveau site, built xorg 1.8.1, and emerged enlightenment and the e_bling module. Enlightenments compositing works very well in software and hardware renderer. Software is a *bit* faster.
Thanks for the guide, and the comment. Got me brave enough to check it out.
I tried nouveau last week and got about 4000 F.P.S. with glxgears. OpenGL screensaver's worked fine (at least the ones that I tested did), and Half Life 2 even started in Wine and Steam, though it was completely unplayable because the 3D graphics were practically nonexistent.
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