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Also worth noticing, there are other operating systems that does not use the Linux kernel. FreeBSD does have an official Nvidia driver (although a pretty limite

by erk__ 6y ago

Also worth noticing, there are other operating systems that does not use the Linux kernel. FreeBSD does have an official Nvidia driver (although a pretty limited in term of framework suppot) and Nouveau is not ported anymore. The AMD drivers are a port of the Linux drivers and are usually some versions behind because it is work to port them. So it means that I cannot try out sway on my laptop, and as I am not planning to buy a new laptop in the next few years, it is not something I can try soon. Sure I can just run Linux and I do on another drive, but I just end up with X so I can share configurations.

floatboth 6y ago
I don't think Nouveau ever was ported before. I actually tried it myself (unsuccessfully). Kind of a painful codebase. > usually some versions behind Currently on 5.4-5.5, only Big Navi is not supported yet. With the state of the GPU market right now, we'll probably catch up before the prices on those become sane :D Funnily enough, it's Intel that's slowing the updates down more than anything. amdgpu is rarely an early adopter of new Linux kernel API surface. i915 is very much one, all the time.
- Lammy 6y ago
  It was a very long time ago (long enough for 'xf86' naming) https://www.freshports.org/x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau https://www.freshports.org/x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau
  - floatboth 6y ago
    No, xf86 naming is still there, but you're kinda misunderstanding what a driver is. These xf86 things are tiny pieces for the xorg server. (Irrelevant with Wayland, obviously.) The real "meat" of the driver is in two places: Mesa and the kernel. The kernel module is the hard part. You can install the higher level parts without it, they just won't be useful. You can have the xf86 thing, and libdrm_nouveau, and Mesa dri_nouveau, they don't even require any porting, but they're absolutely useless without the kernel driver, they wouldn't have anything to talk to.

by erk__ 6y ago

floatboth 6y ago

I don't think Nouveau ever was ported before. I actually tried it myself (unsuccessfully). Kind of a painful codebase. > usually some versions behind Currently on 5.4-5.5, only Big Navi is not supported yet. With the state of the GPU market right now, we'll probably catch up before the prices on those become sane :D Funnily enough, it's Intel that's slowing the updates down more than anything. amdgpu is rarely an early adopter of new Linux kernel API surface. i915 is very much one, all the time.

Lammy 6y ago
It was a very long time ago (long enough for 'xf86' naming) https://www.freshports.org/x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau https://www.freshports.org/x11-drivers/xf86-video-nouveau
- floatboth 6y ago
  No, xf86 naming is still there, but you're kinda misunderstanding what a driver is. These xf86 things are tiny pieces for the xorg server. (Irrelevant with Wayland, obviously.) The real "meat" of the driver is in two places: Mesa and the kernel. The kernel module is the hard part. You can install the higher level parts without it, they just won't be useful. You can have the xf86 thing, and libdrm_nouveau, and Mesa dri_nouveau, they don't even require any porting, but they're absolutely useless without the kernel driver, they wouldn't have anything to talk to.