x11-drivers/ nvidia-drivers & Kernel Version Compatibility ?

Message

Perdignus · Post by **Perdignus** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 5:01 pm

Hi,

Does anyone know of a list that shows the compatibility between kernel versions and x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers releases?

Thanks,
Perdignus.

bobbymcgee · Post by **bobbymcgee** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:35 pm

there is no real hard requirement. the ABI of xorg-server is what changes relatively frequently. if you have a problem, its probably config related or a one off.

gerard27 · Post by **gerard27** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 7:48 pm

Did you search Gentoo for info?
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/NVidia/nvidia-drivers/de
It depends on the age of the card.
Gerard.

bobbymcgee · Post by **bobbymcgee** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:03 pm

age of card matters for which drivers to use, but i cannot remember a major break in years assuming you're relatively up to date. maybe i'm wrong. it's always sort of cat and mouse though because of linus' rage for nvidia, but nvidia's driver people still keep up. minor breakage is frequent, major is not.

ct85711 · Post by **ct85711** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:29 pm

I do recall several times where the current nvidia-drivers (the actual current, not the stable branch, which can easily be months behind, if not a year) did not work with the newest kernel versions. A lot of those breakages are to be expected, considering you have a driver that was released long before the new knerel gets released. Even on those breakages, usualy by the second week, nvidia devs have a patch available on their forums/nailing list to address it.

There has been breakages between xorg and nvidia drivers too, not as common but does happen once and a while. From what I have seen, xorg's API tends to be fairly stable so big breakages don't happen too often. Even then, the few times it does happen; it is usualy a case of nvidia-drivers being released long before xorg updated and haven't got a new version out addressing the issue.

In short, the main area you'd find a breakage is with the kernel, and that can easily be addressed by not updating immediately to the newest kernel (assuming you are using unstable branch). Mixing stable branch nvidia-drivers and unstable branch kernel is asking for breakage.

bobbymcgee · Post by **bobbymcgee** » Sat Jun 16, 2018 8:39 pm

ct85711,

nvidia-drivers are coded to not compile against an incompatible xorg-server so the end user is not likely to ever experience it, so in a way I agree with you, but I'd bet the kernel/driver interface is more stable overall, too lazy to research further so i'll digress though.

ct85711 · Post by **ct85711** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:52 am

Code: Select all

nvidia-drivers are coded to not compile against an incompatible xorg-server so the end user is not likely to ever experience it

That is more of a joke than anything else, as how are you suppose to know some version of xorg in the future is incompatible until it happens? The most the devs (upstream) can do is restrict on version, but that is very crude method and often fails. Now, quite often the gentoo devs/maintainers help isolate these incompatibilities before it hits the tree but they are hardly perfect.

bunder · Post by **bunder** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 2:56 am

ct85711 wrote:
Code: Select all
nvidia-drivers are coded to not compile against an incompatible xorg-server so the end user is not likely to ever experience it
That is more of a joke than anything else, as how are you suppose to know some version of xorg in the future is incompatible until it happens?

I think Linus has the right idea...

bobbymcgee · Post by **bobbymcgee** » Sun Jun 17, 2018 11:18 pm

ct85711 wrote:
Code: Select all
nvidia-drivers are coded to not compile against an incompatible xorg-server so the end user is not likely to ever experience it
That is more of a joke than anything else, as how are you suppose to know some version of xorg in the future is incompatible until it happens? The most the devs (upstream) can do is restrict on version, but that is very crude method and often fails. Now, quite often the gentoo devs/maintainers help isolate these incompatibilities before it hits the tree but they are hardly perfect.

i guess you're referring to the "only tested to this commit error". I was referring to the nvidia xorg API check. it will error out as not compatible. I am speaking independent of the tree.

there are no hard requirements on kernel version so no list. there are hard requirements on xorg, but they all supported retroactively. what is the point of this argument?

satanail · Post by **satanail** » Mon Jun 18, 2018 6:21 pm

Not long ago, I was wondering why do people complain about nvidia.... But recently I got this very strange behaviour, where bbswitch can't stop my nvidia on boot... then unplugging/plugging my charger turns it ON, I have to stop it again... If i spam cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch to check it's status if on battery, my laptop lags hard for 2-3 seconds and it turns ON itself, blacklisting the module doesn't work... I dunno but I feel like if I see some nvidia dev I'd humiliate him so hard...