Re: How to determine the correct graphics card driver

> Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2022 at 3:04 PM
> From: "Polytropon" <freebsd@edvax.de>
> To: "Rocky Hotas" <rockyhotas@post.com>
> Cc: "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>
> Subject: Re: How to determine the correct graphics card driver
>
> On Sat, 16 Jul 2022 11:22:18 +0200, Rocky Hotas wrote:
> >
> > vgapci0@pci0:0:16:0:    class=0x030000 rev=0xa2 hdr=0x00 vendor=0x10de
> > device=0x07e1 subvendor=0x1734 subdevice=0x115b
> >     vendor     = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
> >     device     = 'C73 [GeForce 7100 / nForce 630i]'
> >     class      = display
> >     subclass   = VGA
> >
> > So I guessed that it's an NVIDIA card.
>
> Yes, looks like it.

Ok!

> Note that /etc/X11/xorg.conf is deprecated, the correct path
> now is /usr/local//etc/X11/xorg.conf for a full config file,
> and /usr/local//etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ for partial config files
> (such as keyboard, forcing specific modes, loading custom
> modes and fonts, and so on).

This a very useful reminder.

> On the part of the kernel side, you need to load the correct
> kernel module. For X, you need to install the correct driver.
> Regarding nVidia cards, there are three drivers to choose
> from: "nv", "nouveau" and "nvidia"

For `nvidia' there are several packages,

nvidia-driver-510.60.02        NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-304-304.137_9    NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-340-340.108_3    NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-390-390.151      NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
nvidia-driver-470-470.103.01   NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering

Also `nv' is available,

xf86-video-nv-2.1.21_4         X.Org nv display driver

But I can not find any `nouveau'-related package in the
repository.

> Also see:
>
> https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics

Apparently I couldn't find any information about nvidia in this
wiki: it all seems to deal with Intel or AMD graphics.

> I'm using this vintage card (haha) here:
>
>     class=0x030000 card=0x06201462 chip=0x039210de rev=0xa1 hdr=0x00
>     vendor     = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
>     device     = 'NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS (G73)'
>     class      = display
>     subclass   = VGA

Oh, it's not so different from mine, maybe just a little more recent.

> After getting X up and running, check "glxinfo" and "xvinfo"
> program output as well as /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if all
> the parts are working together as intended.

So far, with FreeBSD, I only had experiences with Intel of AMD
graphics and, when the proper driver and/or kernel module was
loaded, the screen resolution was immediately improved. This happened
during the boot, when the kernel messages are still printed on screen,
before the login prompt.

X is something "later" than this. I would have really liked to get my
640x480 resolution improved even in this machine, before being able
to run X.

Thank you so much anyway for all your observations and advices.

Bye!

Rocky