Nvidia using 32 bits install

[Roland Smith]

On Tue, Apr 01, 2008 at 01:54:01PM +0000, Sébastien Morand wrote:
> Hi people,
> 
> I'm new on FreeBSD, but used to run linux for a lot of years.
> My hardware is : Nvidia 7300GS and Amd64 ...
> The usage is : Desktop + Dev with some classical services : FTP /
> Samba / SSH / Apache / MySQL and of course eclipse (wtp, pdt, cdt,
> etc.) and dev tools.

Be aware that some ports are only available on i386. E.g. the nvidia
drivers and the windows emulator wine.
 
> I read there is no nvidia driver for 64 bits install, but there is
> some in 32 bits install.

On amd64 only Xorg's standard nv driver is supported. This works fine
for 2D, but doesn't support 3D direct rendering. This is because nvidia
doesn't release enough documentation to enable open source drivers to be
written. There is a binary-only nvidia driver for i386. 

If you want an amd64 desktop, you'll need graphics hardware that is
supported by the open-source Xorg drivers, because they will work.

The best open source supported video hardware at this moment is either
intel (often on-board) or ATI (who've just provided a lot of
documentation to the Xorg developers). If you can find an ATI video card with
a 9250 chip (rv280) it will work, including 3D direct rendering.

> Is there any issues to be aware of before installing 32 bits version
> on Amd64? (Compatibilty? Reliability? Performance?)

If you switch from amd64 to i386 you'll have to re-install all software,
base system and ports. But not your data or configuration files, of course.

Strictly speaking you only _need_ amd64 if you regularly run out of
address space (memory) on i386, or if you have >4GB RAM installed and
want to use it.

The relative speed of amd64/i386 depends on the workload. For a normal
workstation it probably doesn't really matter because the CPU will be
idling most of the time. :-)

Roland
-- 
R.F.Smith                                   http://www.xs4all.nl/~rsmith/
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