NVIDIA driver *taints* kernel???

[Guy Fraser]

On Tue, 2005-18-01 at 21:34 -0500, Sam Varshavchik wrote:
> Steven Pasternak writes:
> 
> > I use fedora 3 on an athlon xp and an nvidia geforce fx 5200. I go to install 
> > the Nvidia driver version 1.0-6629 and during the installation at the end it 
> > says that the license 'Nvidia' taints the kernel, but it still continues and 
> > seems to work. If I boot in runlevel 5, though, it gets to the part where it 
> > starts X (right at the beginning) and X doesn't start - It freezes. I 
> > uninstall the driver and use the 'nv' driver and it works. I have to compile 
> > the kernel module because it can't find one at the nvidia site. When I'm in 
> > runlevel 3 I can run the accelerated graphics until I shut down, then I have 
> > to boot runlevel 3 and recompile the module again. Any advise?
> 
> Advice: only use graphics cards that provide and support open source 
> drivers.
> 
> Otherwise, the results will be what you have now.  Although on this occasion 
> you might be lucky enough to find someone to give you a workaround, sooner 
> or later you'll be boned.  Unless, of course, you use precisely the kernel 
> version and build that received the official stamp of approval from NVidia.
Male bovine feces!

nVidia does a good job of providing multidisplay and 3D drivers 
that work.

I have had trouble in the past, but within a short period of time 
the binary drivers were fixed, and all was well again.

I use nVidia because I want dual displays and nVidia makes good dual
display AGP cards.

The trick Steven needs to perform is before X starts he needs to 
load the nvidia kernel driver. The way I do is to make a new 
initrd with a "MODULE=nvidia" option whenever I replace the 
kernel.

I made a shell script that builds the new module and creates the 
new initrd, but it is on my machine at home.