[gentoo-user] Re: [OT sort of] S-video support on NVidia-based cards

[James]

Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:



> solution currently hooked to the big screen. ATI dripped support for
> the chipset in that box in the Linux driver and Gentoo decided not to
> support the old driver or the kernel required to run it so that
> machine hasn't been updated in over 2 years.


There are folks that pull support, via specific chipsets, forward
for such things as this. Are you suggesting that the folks at Gentoo
singularly decided not to pull this driver forward? The kernel
hackers (firmware folks focused on PC type hardware) usually
make these decisions. Gentoo folks, except for those involved
in firmware or low level drivers, usually  have nothing to do
with drivers, based in the kernel space. Firmware folks often
backport drivers (same something for the 2.6.x to the 2.4.x)
to older kernels, or take sources from old kernels (say 2.4.x)
and port them to 2.6.x often in the embedded linux world. However
often these drives to not make it into the published kernels.

Also, drivers are "consolidated" all the time so that one "mega"
driver works with many devices. All of this I assume you know.
But video is a different horse. The video companies routinely
"age" or deprecated hardware and drivers so customers spend
new money. Not sure what the deal is in your case, I'm just
trying to help.



>    I don't have any TVs with HDMI. We don't watch TV all that much. If
> we do it's NetFlix DVDs or NetFlix via the Roku box. Myth just records
> junk mostly and I need to display it on the TV which has an extra
> S-Video input that I currently use. My wife doesn't play games,
> doesn't need 3D or anything fancy.


Nice to know.

>    I guess what I'm saying is who are **you** to decide what makes
> sense in my life or how I should spend my time and money?

I think you miss-read my intentions. I was not really insisting
on what you do, just trying to provide a workable path towards
resolution. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt (trying to be
polite here) and assume you are frustrated, due to your driver
not being pulled forward in the new kernel stuff. Being nasty
only discourages folks from help you, imho. I did not see
anyone else bothering to help you, or discuss your options.


> If you're
> not interested in answering my question then why not simply stay
> silent instead of this? If you want to start a thread of your own
> about the merits of that card then feel free to do so and then you and
> others can go down that path.

Um, looking back at the email, you suggest you are spend new
money. You did not state that you hate ATI and only nvidia
solutions are viable. In fact you talk about Intel and ATI video
hardware. Nvidia, imho, is the most aggressive
company at deprecating old hardware. I know  I have several 
Nvidia cards sitting on the shelf, but, all of my ATI cards
are mostly usable... (note ymmv).



>    I'll consider ATI again when 100 people on this list say it's the
> best thing since sliced bread and they'd never buy another N-Video
> card. Until then goodbye to ATI if possible.


got it

good luck


(pisst) if you look for somebody to pull the driver forward for you,
try to be nice to them....... Problem is Nvidia rarely makes the
chipset data available. ATI is much more copasetic with information,
imho. Of the dozens of embedded video drivers I have been
involved with, Nvidia is the one that always fails to provide
information necessary for small manufactures to use. ATI is
more forthcoming on critical data. There are many open source
efforts on ATI video cards and some on Intel too. I have not
really found any viable open source Nvidia driver projects....


James