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Re: nvidia / ati drivers (Re: [PLUG] debian dist-upgrade from woody (stable) to sarge (testing) report)
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Well, ATI has released drivers for the Radeon 8500LE on their website:
http://mirror.ati.com/support/products/pc/radeon8500/linux/radeon8500linuxdrivers.html?cboOS=LinuxXFree86&cboProducts=RADEON+8500LE&cmdNext=GO%21
However, they are binary drivers in an rpm package. I've tried them with RedHat 8.0 and they install without a problem and seem to work okay. I tried using Alien to convert the rpm to deb. The dpkg install of the deb version generated an error regarding attempting to overwrite a file installed by another package. I installed the package by overriding the error. But I was not able to successfully get X operational in this manner (ATI provides their own XFree86 configuration program to use that is very similar to XF86Config).
RedHat 8.0 recognizes the 8500LE during installation or afterwards by probing the card. It uses the standard 'radeon' driver included with XFree86 4.2.0. It seem to work just as well. Neither seem to be very effective at providing 3D acceleration. For instance, Tuxracer, which comes with RedHat 8.0, is unplayably slow. I haven't tried any other 3D game. Quake 3 would be a good test but I only have the Windows version.
Maybe Nvidia is the way to go for Linux. Maybe I'll look around for a GeForce4 4200. Anyone have a suggestion for the most Linux-friendly/compliant Nvidia videocard that has good 3D performance?
On Thu, 10 Oct 2002 08:44:49 -0400
christophe barbe <christophe@cattlegrid.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 10, 2002 at 12:43:33AM -0400, nathaniel E Barwell wrote:
> > That's why I bought Nvidia.
> >
> > While Nvidia releases binary only drivers, and not source drivers,
> > they do release drivers. ATI releases specs so that fully GPLed source
> > drivers can be written, which is excellent, but they don't release their
> > own drivers. So it takes longer for them to happen. I don't think the
> > 8500 is fully supported under Linux yet, for these reasons.
>
> I can confirm that recent ati chips are not yet fully supported. In my
> new laptop I have a ATI Mobility radeon (M7) and for now I can't put my
> laptop to sleep because the XFree guys doesn't have the spec for the
> power management stuff of this chip. ATI release their specs ... when
> they want.
>
> That said I prefer the ATI way than the Nvidia way.
>
> Christophe
>
> PS: My laptop is a powerpc, I suppose if it was a x86 it would be
> possible to ask the bios to put it on sleep.
>
> --
> GnuPG FingerPrint: E0F6 FADF 2A5C F072 6AF8 F67A 8F45 2F1E D72C B41E
>
> Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're
> absolutely right. --Henry Ford
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