Re: GeForce 8800 GTS under Linux

Previously Stefan Patric <tootek2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 16:03:17 +0000, Arno Wagner wrote:

This is to document my recent experiences when I bought a GeForce 8800
GTS. The reason I bough it was, of course, not Linux, but gaming under
Windows. But since I do everything else under Linux, it was critical to
get the card working there as well.

Test-system:

Asus m2n32ws Professional, 2GB RAM, Athlon 64 x2 5600+ GeForce 8800GTS
from Asus with 640MB RAM (EN8800GTS) BenQ FP73G LCD with 1280x1024
resolution Debian Lenny 32 bit (currently testing)

Hardware Installation:

[snip]

Linux X.org - nv driver:

In order to get support for the 8800GTS from the nv driver, you need at
least X.org 7.1.1. Unfortunately Debian Etch has 7.1.0 and hence no
support fot the card in the nv driver. The card can still run with the
VESA driver, see below. I updated to Debian Lenny, which has X.org 7.2.
The nv driver works out of the box.

One issue I found is that xvideo support seems to be missing. I suspect
that it is not malfunctioning, but actually not (yet) implemented. The
one application I use that needs xvideo is mplayer. After some fruitless
efforts to get xvideo to work, I found a work-around: Use mplayer with
the x11 output driver and allow software scaling ("mplayer -vo x11
-zooom). I found that playing viedo full screen only takes about 20%
CPU load (of one core) and is running smoothly.

The other issue was that I had a mouse-button limit of 7 in my old
xorg.config (my current mouse has 8 buttons) and it seems this limit was
broken in X.org 7.1, but works in x.org 7.2. Removing the limit fixed
the problem. Apart from that, no issues at all.

Note: I did not try the Nvidia driver for Linux, since I do not need 3D
support and viedo-playback wiorks fine without it.

You should install the native nVidia driver, if only to try it out. I
have the GeForce 6600 card on my 64-bit system (Abit KN9, Athlon 64 2.0
GHz, 2 GB RAM, 1280 x 1024 on a CRT). Whether or not you use 3D stuff or
run games, neither of which I do, there is a noticeable improvement in
the update speed of the display as compared to the default nv driver.

I don't need faster update speed, since I do not notice any delays
as it is. Furthermore the Nvidia driver sucks insofar as it needs
to be recompiled for every kernel change (and I frequently change
my kernel).

Since I run Fedora Core 6 64-bit, I downloaded the nVidia driver from the
livna repository -- as recommended -- instead of the one from nVidia's
web site, which I'm told is not 100% compatible with Fedora.

Or with the Linux kernel....

Arno
.

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