[elrepo] Latest nvidia release [310.19] drops support for older 6xxx and 7xxx series cards

[Steve Cleveland]

On 11/19/12 9:42 AM, Phil Perry wrote:
>> To me, it is important that there is an nvidia-304xx release. My current
>> setup detects the model of card and installs the appropriate driver
>> package. I can hardcode the 304.xx release package for those models of
>> cards to get through the install, but I'd have to change code several
>> other places to make sure they don't get updated to a newer release
>> (I've relied on a standard yum update to this point). I've really liked
>> the current way of keeping the packages separate and I'd like that to
>> continue.
>>
>> - Steve
>
> Hi Steve,
>
> Thanks for the feedback - duly noted!
>
> So presumably you'd like to see us fork and rename the current 304.64
> release immediately rather than waiting for any subsequent updates to
> the 304.xx driver from nvidia? I guess this also makes sense for new
> installs on older 6xxx/7xxx hardware once the 310.xx series driver
> (currently in the testing repo) hits the main elrepo repository.

That would be ideal.  Even if both were the same version currently.

>
> Also, I'd be interested to hear how you detect the model of card at
> install time? I would love to add some form of detection to the package
> but unfortunately I fear that's not realistically possible as the yum
> transaction to install/update the package is already under way by the
> time the preinstall scripts are executed - unless anyone has any ideas?

I don't know how it would be integrated into the package unless the 
package users installed was just the script.  I don't know RPM, but I've 
seen some packages that are just scripts that install other packages. 
Presumably you could have some control over what gets installed then?

I found a reference for the pci ids of each of the cards and which is 
supported by each driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html

I then just have a crude csh script that checks for those ids and 
installs the correct driver.  10de is the hex identifier for nvidia, 
followed by the product id.  So this for the 96.xx driver:

     foreach i ( 0110 0111 0112 0113 0170 0171 0172 0173 0174 0175 0176 
0177 0178 0179 017A 017C 017D 0181 0182 0183 0185 0188 018A 018B 018C 
01A0 01F0 0200 0201 0202 0203 0250 0251 0253 0258 0259 025B 0280 0281 
0282 0286 0288 0289 028C )
         set LEGACY96 = `lspci -n | grep -ic 10de\:$i`
         if ("$LEGACY96" >= 1) break
     end

     if ("$LEGACY96" >= 1) then
         echo "Using the legacy 96.43 driver"
         set GRAPHICS = "kmod-nvidia-96xx nvidia-x11-drv-96xx"
     endif

     yum install $GRAPHICS

I do the same for the 173 driver.  These are the ids:

       foreach i ( 00FA 00FB 00FC 00FD 00FE 0301 0302 0308 0309 0311 
0312 0314 031A 031B 031C 0320 0321 0322 0323 0324 0325 0326 0327 0328 
032A 032B 032C 032D 0330 0331 0332 0333 0334 0338 033F 0341 0342 0343 
0344 0347 0348 034C 034E )

The ids for the 304 driver.

       foreach i ( 0040 0041 0042 0043 0044 0045 0046 0047 0048 004E 
0090 0091 0092 0093 0095 0098 0099 009D 00C0 00C1 00C2 00C3 00C8 00C9 
00CC 00CD 00CE 00F1 00F2 00F3 00F4 00F5 00F6 00F8 00F9 0140 0141 0142 
0143 0144 0145 0146 0147 0148 0149 014A 014C 014D 014E 014F 0160 0161 
0162 0163 0164 0165 0166 0167 0168 0169 016A 01D0 01D1 01D2 01D3 01D6 
01D7 01D8 01DA 01DB 01DC 01DD 01DE 01DF 0211 0212 0215 0218 0221 0222 
0240 0241 0242 0244 0245 0247 0290 0291 0292 0293 0294 0295 0297 0298 
0299 029A 029B 029C 029D 029E 029F 02E0 02E1 02E2 02E3 02E4 038B 0390 
0391 0392 0393 0394 0395 0397 0398 0399 039C 039E 03D0 03D1 03D2 03D5 
03D6 0531 0533 053A 053B 053E 07E0 07E1 07E2 07E3 07E5 )


>
> I'd also like to hear from any users of the other 96xx and 173xx legacy
> releases as I've received very little feedback on these and will update
> them if I can find some users who can test them.

I'd have to scan my machines to see if I can find some running that 
release.  I know when RHEL6 was first release, I had several.  But they 
may have been upgraded by now.

  - Steve