Problems with Proprietary Graphics Drivers
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| galeru Nov 01, 2006 6:00 AM EDT |
For a couple of months now, I have been having problems with Firefox. For some reason, whenever there was some certain snippet of javascript in webpages, my X server would go berserk. I could move my mouse, and that was it. I had tried everything I could think of, including using Mozilla, and Epiphany, but the fact remained, javascript borked it up without fail. Finally, in desperation, I decided to switch my video driver from nvidia to nv. Guess what happened. Nothing. No crashes. Everything worked like it was supposed to. I understand why these drivers should be released under some open source liscense. The community can't deal with the drivers? Ha, not even NVIDIA can deal with the drivers. |
| jimf Nov 01, 2006 7:50 AM EDT |
Now wait a minute... You're saying that the proprietary driver doesn't work with javescript, but that the nv xorg driver does? And you then say that the open source can't deal with drivers??? Your conclusion makes no sense at all... My suspicion is, if the driver source was released to open source, you'd have a fix for that in a week :D |
| herzeleid Nov 01, 2006 7:54 AM EDT |
Let me play devil's advocate here - Your symptoms sounds like a bizarre corner case which is unique to your particular rig. If your experience was normal, nobody but nobody would be using nvidia drivers. If you can give an example URL to test, I'd love to hit it with my nvidia powered linux desktop systems, and give it a whirl. I'm guessing some combination of flaky hardware and other environment issues created a situation where a particular fault was triggered by going down a specific path, By swapping out the driver, the state space was altered, and that particular path became unreachable. |
| incinerator Nov 01, 2006 8:49 AM EDT |
Yeah, I'd like to have the URL of that particular website, as well. The things sounds somewhat hard to believe, really. |
| Sander_Marechal Nov 01, 2006 3:42 PM EDT |
You're misinterpreting the original poster. It's nVidia that says we cannot deal with video drivers. The OP replies that nVidia can't deal with drivers themselves either :-) |
| jimf Nov 01, 2006 4:16 PM EDT |
Ok, On a reread, we're all misunderstanding it I guess... he says: 'I understand why these drivers SHOULD be released under some open source liscense' (my caps) sorry galeru :) |
| galeru Nov 01, 2006 8:06 PM EDT |
I can't create a reproducible bug. It seems like it works for a while, then freezes, after which it keeps freezing on that same spot for a while, until I am forced to reboot instead of just Alt-SysRq-K'ing X.org, and then it changes. The one thing that stays constant is that it always happens when I click on a javascript button. Hmm...I sound crazy. I guess, has anyone else had this bug? Frankly, if I heard it myself, I would be quite skeptical. It's a javascript button that takes you to another page...? Otherwise, I apologize for all the ruckus. |
| jimf Nov 01, 2006 8:38 PM EDT |
are you running the new flash plugin? The reason I mention this is because many users are having problems with the macromedia 9 plugin which are similar to what you're talking about. |
| Sander_Marechal Nov 01, 2006 10:46 PM EDT |
Galeru, could you post some links to websites where this has happened? |
| galeru Nov 02, 2006 4:10 AM EDT |
I don't have macromedia's flash, gnash though... I wrote the response because I was working on some college applications, and had lost my work twice on the essay's specifically because of the button problems freezing my X server. The nv driver didn't freeze trying to login, and so I was able to complete my apps. And now, like I said, I can't seem to reproduce the problem. It doesn't even have to be the javascript. It could be a poorly formed webpage that causes the crashes. It's just that, for no easily apparent reason, opening certain links in any of the 3 web browsers I had used crashed X, not even just the browser. Should I find any more, (I'm back on the nvidia driver (woot short memory spans)), I can post them to here. |
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