Re: NVIDIA driver

[Emiel Kollof <coolvibe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Op dinsdag 14 februari 2006 13:00, schreef elekktretterr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
> Does the nvidia driver for FreeBSD work on DragonFly?

I think I'm the most qualified to answer this, assuming you are talking about 
the driver for Xorg ;)

Short answer: No.

Long answer: nVidia decided to ditch FreeBSD 4.x support. Combined with our 
divergence from the FreeBSD 4 ABI, the userlands parts of the nVidia driver 
isn't compatible anymore, nor will they ever be unless they decide to 
recompile/release for DragonFlyBSD as well. I managed to port over the kernel 
glue (of which the source is freely available), but it's useless without the 
userland parts. Also, new kernel glue will not interface with old userland 
stuff. The license of the driver also prohibits this.

I already wrote several times to nVidia that I'd accept to sign an NDA to get 
access to the driver source, but I haven't heard back from them yet. I'm 
seriously considering starting a petition to get dfbsd support, but I don't 
know if it will have any clout, since we're not "big" like FreeBSD yet.

Hope this clarifies things a bit.

Cheers,
Emiel
-- 
Don't let your mind wander -- it's too little to be let out alone.