Open and Closed Source: New Drivers by ATI and Nvidia
AMD has put its money where its mouth is, and published the first free Linux drivers for its ATI R500 and R600 graphics cards in collaboration with Novell. After a lengthy break, Nvidia has also released a new version of its proprietary graphics driver.
The developers describe the quality of the first free ATI driver as "Alpha". The next steps on the roadmap include support for RandR 1.2, video overlay, 2D graphics acceleration and adding more hardware. The drivers are available as prebuilt installation package for Fedora, Mandriva and various Suse distributions. Users with other GNU/Linux systems can download the driver source code from the Git archive and build a driver themselves.
Things have also been happening down at Nvidia's HQ. The vendor has just released an updated version of its closed source driver which includes support for Quadro graphics chips and Geforce 8 cards. Add a larger number of bugfixes and improved support for the current X.org version 7.3 and kernel 2.6.23. Other changes and enhancements are available from the vendor's website. Drivers for Linux and Solaris are available for downloading now. Users with FreeBSD will have to wait, though.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Digital Autonomy
• The Answer Was Already on the Shelf
• Changing the Chip Industry: How Public Investment Has Grown Open Silicon
• United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
• EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
• France Says “Au Revoir” to Microsoft
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
The Linux Kernel Dev Staging Area Now Rejects AI-Generated Patches
Unless a kernel patch is a valid security fix, it will be rejected if it was created using AI.
-
Linux Surpasses Double-Digit Market Share
According to two sources, the Linux operating system has hit a major milestone in market share that naysayers thought would never happen.
-
AI Helped Develop a Linux Exploit
A use-after-free race exploit was discovered and exploited on CentOS Stream 9.
-
Yet Another Linux Kernel Vulnerability Discovered
Affecting millions of systems, a kernel flaw discovered by Qualys could allow users to gain root privileges.
-
Ubuntu 26.10 to Include Ubuntu Certified Hardware Check
If you've ever wondered if your laptop or PC is officially certified to run Ubuntu, that curiosity will soon be met.
-
Substantial Update to IPFire Now Available
The lastest version of IPFire features a fundamental change to how the system handles DNS.
-
Gnome Working on Test Center App to Make Testing Easier
It's now possible to test experimental features on the Gnome desktop without worrying that you'll break things.
-
New Vulnerability Discovered in Linux Kernel
Hiding out for nearly 15 years, the Ghostlock vulnerability allows a standard logged-in user to gain root privileges.
-
New Linux Flaw Lets Attackers Escape VMs
A 16-year-old vulnerability allows an attacker to escape a virtual machine, gain access to the host, and execute malicious code.
-
Hannah Montana Linux Is Back!
Developer Noah Cagle decided the world needed the once obscure but beloved Linux distribution and gave it a decidedly pink refresh.