On Friday 07 September 2001 02:46 pm, Linux Newbie escribi�:
> Is it possible for me to get a reverse-compiler
> for Linux and de-compile these things into C or C++ ?
Yes, then D/l the windoze drivers and have at it. You'll also need to
dissect their chips. Might need some $pecial hardware ;> Careful tho,
you might havt'a finish the job in jail along with that Russian guy.
The excuse 'partially' Linux supportive vendors like nVidia an other
Win-tel members give is that they don't want to expose their
intellectual property by releasing the source for their drivers.
I guarantee this is B$. The Wintel-M$ gang doesn't want popular and
current hardware fully supported by other than Billy's OS. ATI has
probly dissected nVidia drivers and chips to the point they might even
know more about them than nVidia does.
Hard fact of life that remains is that their hardware will never be
fully functional and/or supported, or even could possibly be, by the
Linux community developers until they provide open source so that it
can be compiled against the almost infinite number of kernel, libc,
gcc, etc., possibilities that currently exist across Linux distros,
kernels, and users .... without retribution.
What bothered me the most about nVidia's newest 1512 "Mandrake 8.0"
closed source B$ drivers is that either out'a stupidity on their part,
or intentionally, they were built against a 2.4.3 kernel and XFree 4.0.2
Neither of which are current to 8.0. The Xfree part maybe NBFD, but
the kernel is.
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.o
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.1512
Module class: XFree86 Video Driver
D/l the nVidia precompiled 8.0-1512 rpm and you'll get a warning that
it needs '2.4.3-20mdk' kernel. That doesn't mean it won't work with
newer kernels, but it means it probly won't... and doesn't in my
experience, or from what I've read on the cooker (Mdk developers) list.
I've got one word for nVidia's Linux support, and like most in the
wintel-gang, it's .... DISINGENUOUS. They're just stringin us along,
with poor, partially capable, closed source secret drivers. IMO, out'a
fear of losing M$ cooperation. YMMV I'm sort's pi$$'d at myself for
buyin nVidia crap, even tho I knew all the above beforehand. My only
excuse is it's gettin harder and harder... not to. Billy's winning ;(
--
Tom Brinkman Galveston Bay
>
> On Thursday 06 September 2001 10:32 am, so spoke Tom Brinkman:
> > On Thursday 06 September 2001 09:38 am, s escribi�:
> > > On Thursday 06 September 2001 09:31 am, Tom Brinkman wrote:
> > > > If you are using LM 8.0 and haven't upgraded the kernel
> > > > from 2.4.3-20mdk, I suspect you'll have some luck with them.
> > > > I'm using a 2.4.8-18 kernel and d/l'd and rebuilt nVidia's
> > > > src.rpms to fit my system. 2d works, 3d accel doesn't. Even
> > > > 'gears' won't start. I've gone back to the open source drivers
> > > > Mandrake ships with. 2d is 'clearer' with the open source
> > > > drivers than any of nVidia's closed source drivers, including
> > > > the 1512's.
> > >
> > > Have you tried the tarballs?
> > > -s
> >
> > That's what I tried first. Altho I know they're only tar.gz
> > wrappers around precompiled closed source secret binaries. Part of
> > the problem, besides having a kernel version that nVidia didn't
> > use, is I also have upgraded glibc, among other things, to newer
> > versions.
> >
> > The src.rpm's are nothin more than the same thing as the
> > tarball's, but are made to be more distro compatible than the
> > tarballs. The nvidia src.rpms rebuilt without a hitch and produced
> > NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-1512.i686.rpm and NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-1512.i686.rpm
> > both of which installed with no problem. I keep two versions of
> > XF86Config-4 in /et/X11. I switched to the one appropriate for the
> > nvidia drivers, checked it against nvidia's current README, and
> > restarted. X came up fine, but no 3d accel.
> >
> > I didn't fool with it any further. I really don't like using
> > closed source binaries, and I don't need 3d accel with Linux. AND
> > since 2d is better and a touch faster with the Linux developed open
> > source drivers, I switched XF86Config-4 back to the open source
> > version.
> >
> > I wasn't surprised by any of this, I didn't expect nvidia's
> > closed source drivers to run properly on anything but a system
> > similar (ie, kernel, gcc, glibc, etc) than what nVidia used to make
> > 'em. I just tried 'em out'a curiosity. I was surprised that
> > nVidia used a 2.4.3 kernel, since 8.0's had a MandrakeUpdate for
> > security and bug fix reasons to 2.4.7 for some time now.
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