NVIDIA users take heed!

[GreyGeek]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

IF I were running an NVIDIA chip and my current driver was working fine ... fan control ok, no overheating, good frame rates ... I'd open Synaptic and pin ("Lock Version" under the "Package" menu option) the driver so it won't get "updated" unless I specifically unpinned it and did the update myself.

[dibl]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

Here's the correct link to the announcement (apparently they changed it): http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/announcement.php?f=14

@Telengard, yes, you're running the 190.xx driver, so it is not affected (per the announcement). Yes, 43C is actually nice and cool. You need not start worrying until you see 75C, and you need to start remembering the quickest shutdown procedure you know if you see 81C.

Mine is still 42C after some hours of running, including compiz -- if there is an issue with the 195.36.08 driver, it is clearly not affecting my hardware. Looks like they are pulling it off the ftp site, so I guess I'd better hang to it -- 8)

[Telengard]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

You don't have to. It's frame rate is bogus. TuxRacer or Stellarium will give more accurate frame rates.

Which of those two will work my CPU and GPU the hardest? I want to try kicking the temperature up a bit to observe what happens.

The real value in glxgears is its companion program, glxinfo, used to determine if you have direct rendering and what version of video drivers you are using:

Then it is a truly worthless program. ** SEE EDIT AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST ** The nvidia tools already provide all that information. (The following Konsole log has been edited because the forum software choked on the massive amount of information generated by the nvidia-settings -g command. The complete Konsole log is available at http://pastebin.com/64bs2hMU.)

$ nvidia-settings -g
GLX Information for owner-desktop:0.0:
 direct rendering: Yes
 GLX extensions:
  GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating
. . .
 server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
 server glx version string: 1.4
 server glx extensions:
. . .
--fc- --vi- vt buf lv rgb d s colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ---ms---- cav -----pbuffer----- ---transparent----
 id  id   siz l ci b t r g b a bf th en r g b a mvs mcs b eat widt hght max-pxs typ r g b a i
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x075 0x021 tc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16  0  0 0  . 2000 2000 4000000  . 0 0 0 0 0
0x076 0x022 dc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16  0  0 0  . 2000 2000 4000000  . 0 0 0 0 0
0x077 0x024 tc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16  0  0 0  . 2000 2000 4000000  . 0 0 0 0 0
. . .

Furthermore something very wierd happened when I removed the mesa-utils package:

$ sudo apt-get remove mesa-utils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
 compiz-wrapper mesa-utils
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 262kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
(Reading database ... 158080 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing compiz-wrapper ...
Removing mesa-utils ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...

Why did APT have to remove compiz-wrapper? What effect might this have on my otherwise fine Jaunty system?

Edit:
I guess I must have gotten some fans of the glxgears program stirred up by saying, "it is a truly worthless program." Please understand that I was only responding to Grey Geeks explanation of the program's usefulness, and it was not my intention to bash anyone who actually has a use for the program. I should have probably said something like, "redundant for me", but that would not reflect my true feeling about the program upon learning it served no purpose for me.

[dibl]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

Then it is a truly worthless program.

Upon observing some strange video behavior after a dist-upgrade, even when there was not a kernel update, I have typed "glxgears" in a terminal and learned that GLX was broken, indicating that my Nvidia driver needed reinstalled. I'm sure there are other diagnostics available, but that is a very fast and easy way to test whether the video driver is working, or not.

[GreyGeek]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

You don't have to. It's frame rate is bogus. TuxRacer or Stellarium will give more accurate frame rates.

Which of those two will work my CPU and GPU the hardest? I want to try kicking the temperature up a bit to observe what happens.

TuxRacer runs at a pretty constant speed, but Stellairum will vary the frame rate with the zoom. So, using Stellarium, zoom into deep space and then out again, repeatedly, as fast as you can. My frame rate is around 60 fps, and the G45 is a medium speed video chip.

The real value in glxgears is its companion program, glxinfo, used to determine if you have direct rendering and what version of video drivers you are using:

Then it is a truly worthless program. The nvidia tools already provide all that information. (The following Konsole log has been edited because the forum software choked on the massive amount of information generated by the nvidia-settings -g command. The complete Konsole log is available at http://pastebin.com/64bs2hMU.)

$ nvidia-settings -g
GLX Information for owner-desktop:0.0:
 direct rendering: Yes
 GLX extensions:
  GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating
. . .
 server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
 server glx version string: 1.4
 server glx extensions:
. . .
--fc- --vi- vt buf lv rgb d s colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ---ms---- cav -----pbuffer----- ---transparent----
 id  id  siz l ci b t r g b a bf th en r g b a mvs mcs b eat widt hght max-pxs typ r g b a i
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0x075 0x021 tc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0 . 2000 2000 4000000 . 0 0 0 0 0
0x076 0x022 dc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 0 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0 . 2000 2000 4000000 . 0 0 0 0 0
0x077 0x024 tc 32 0 rgb y . 8 8 8 8 4 24 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 0 . 2000 2000 4000000 . 0 0 0 0 0
. . .

Well, if your Nvidia utility generates that then glxgears/glxinfo is redundant, because glxinfo returns identical information.

Furthermore something very wierd happened when I removed the mesa-utils package:
$ sudo apt-get remove mesa-utils
......

Why did APT have to remove compiz-wrapper? What effect might this have on my otherwise fine Jaunty system?

Of more interest to me is why you would want to remove mesa-utils, which is helps the glx mesa drivers? Nvidia doesn't need them?

[Telengard]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

Of more interest to me is why you would want to remove mesa-utils, which is helps the glx mesa drivers? Nvidia doesn't need them?

Does it? No one told me so, and even dibl implied that mesa-utils is optional for Nvidia. My Jaunty install did not include mesa-utils out of the box. If it is needed then why is it not included with Kubuntu?

If Nvidia drivers need mesa-utils, then why isn't it part of the download? Why doesn't the Nvidia driver site instruct me to install the mesa-utils package if it is required for Nvidia drivers to function?

I'll give Stellarium a run and see whether it will make a dent in my GPU core temp.

[skunk]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

Seeing that nvidia and ati include their own proprietary glx implementation, there is no need to include the open source glx http://www.mesa3d.org/

glxinfo is a very useful program to use because is not tied to a particular glx implementation. You can run it on any glx stack (nvidia, ati, intel...) and it will work. I don't think running nvidia-settings -g would return any useful information on a machine without an nvidia driver loaded.

[Telengard]

Re: NVIDIA users take heed!

I don't think running nvidia-settings -g would return any useful information on a machine without an nvidia driver loaded.

Yes, of course I should have qualified by statement by specifying Nvidia users who's driver package included the Nvidia tools. I suppose if ATI drivers don't include any useful tools, then ATI owners might have use for third party tools.

I'm glad I bought Nvidia