NVIDIA / nouveau thread branch [was Re: Fedora 12 QA retrospective - feedback needed]

[Bob Arendt]

On 12/11/09 10:17, Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-12-11 at 12:00 -0500, Douglas Kilpatrick wrote:
>> Adam Williamson wrote:
>>> Uh? If the nouveau kernel module is loaded, the nvidia kernel module
>>> refuses to load, complaining that another module is in control of the
>>> hardware. I've seen multiple people report this. I haven't seen anyone
>>> who's got the NVIDIA driver working if the nouveau module is loaded.
>>
>> Me.  As per google, add "nouveau.modeset=0 vga=0x318" to the end of the
>> kernel boot line.
>>
>> $ lsmod | grep '^\(nouveau\|nvidia\)'
>> nvidia               8096992  34
>> nouveau               568932  0
>
> you're a bit late to the party. =) we've since confirmed that the two
> can co-exist in some cases but not others. we're not sure the exact
> intersection of module configuration / hardware setup that determines
> when it works and when it doesn't, though.
>
Though the nouveau module is loaded, nothing's using it (as evidenced
by the 0 in final column).  nouveau.modeset=0 keeps the kernel DRM
from touching the hardware via nouveau, likewise the removing rhgb
from the boot line.  vga= explicitly uses the bios(?) vga support, again
sidestepping nouveau.  When Xorg starts, configured with nvidia, it's
the first driver to access the device (not counting the VGA abstraction).
nouveau may have scanned the bus and knows that it could run, but nothing
has opened the device via nouveau.  Coexistence is possible.