Nvidia fixes

[shkhln]

1. 304, 340, 390 are out of support: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3142/~/support-timeframes-for-unix-legacy-gpu-releases. In addition to that 304 and 340 are also completely broken.
2. The nvidia-modeset advice is simply wrong.

[grahamperrin]

Related:

• 269626 – FreeBSD Handbook: NVIDIA: corrections
• https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics#NVIDIA_graphics

I'll update the wiki in due course.

[shkhln]

Is there a reasonable time frame for the "due course"? As you are well aware, I publicly promised to drop my ports if this is not merged and we need some date for that.

[shkhln]

drop my ports

Just in case somebody thinks this is too harsh: we are already ignoring the intention behind the nvidia-driver pkg message, actual people's experience and even the confirmation from one of the Nvidia Unix driver devs.

[sergio-carlavilla]

I asked about this to the current nvidia maintainer in FreeBSD.
I'll make the commit when I have an answer from him.
Thanks for the patch and sorry for the delay

[grahamperrin]

Is there a reasonable time frame for the "due course"?

There's the interim change that was made around two minutes after #114 (comment). I intended to await a commit here before making a more substantial change.

[danfe]

In addition to that 304 and 340 are also completely broken.

That's somewhat an overstatement. While nVidia had apparently neglected an earlier request to catch up the -304 branch with xserver ABI 24, there are fresh reports of success with -340 version by ignoring the ABI:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "1"
EndSection

we are already ignoring the intention behind the nvidia-driver pkg message

We're not ignoring anything. If you read it carefully, you'd notice that commit you reference largely quotes the pkg-message text.

The nvidia-modeset advice is simply wrong.

This is true when it is advised out of the context, I presume that's the problem with the Handbook? The nvidia-modeset kernel module was introduced in driver version 358.09 to program the display engine of the GPU (changing resolutions, transformation settings, display device hot-plugging, etc.) and works in conjunction with the nvidia.ko kernel module. At the time of the writing, only the latest version of the driver shipped this module, most users would still go the kld_list="nvidia" way. We simply forgot to flip the switch as the time had passed. I'll update the port's pkg-message accordingly.

[shkhln]

we are already ignoring the intention behind the nvidia-driver pkg message

We're not ignoring anything. If you read it carefully, you'd notice that commit you reference largely quotes the pkg-message text.

Not you, those two guys. I didn't want to make this personal, thus "we".

The nvidia-modeset advice is simply wrong.

This is true when it is advised out of the context, I presume that's the problem with the Handbook?

No, the problem with the Handbook is that now it downright tells users to avoid nvidia-modeset. There is no nuance there at all.

[sergio-carlavilla]

I'll upgrade the handbook information with the commit https://cgit.freebsd.org/ports/commit/?id=a09185f8b66c
Thanks @danfe :)

[sergio-carlavilla]

Fixed in https://cgit.freebsd.org/doc/commit/?id=9af61238

[grahamperrin]

Likewise, thanks :-)

I'll update the wiki in due course.

Done.

For updates to the FreeBSD Handbook, I might put something in Phabricator this weekend. #122