[Leaplist] Do *NOT* upgrade nVidia to latest 196 drivers ...

[Bryan J. Smith]

I've already seen a report on another board about systems
hanging in 2 minutes when running the "nvidia" driver.
Considering nVidia's binary objects are unified across all
platforms, it's very likely the same culprit:  

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7551&tag=content;col1  

Although it's been yanked, several 3rd parties may have
built the driver.  I offer my "educated guess" below on what
is happening based on reports.

--- Forward ---

No, it's very likely _related_!

nVidia uses an _unified_, binary kernel memory-GPU object plus
user-space objects for all Oses, with only select interface
differences being the difference for the OSes.  So if it affects
one OS, it's very likely to affect _all_ OSes.  It's the main
way nVidia avoids all IP and porting issues, and has for the
last decade.

CPUs and GPUs over the last 5+ years will automatically scale
down performance based on thermal/environmental conditions.
Since these are nominal operations -- especially in GPUs -- they
will not be audited (unless debugging is turned up).  In this
case, the thermals are quickly going through the roof, so the
GPU starts shutting down units to the point of a hang.

Sounds like a faulty set of conditionals in the nVidia control
systems logic, one that is wrapped up in those unified objects
(and doesn't need to be).  If there was ever a reason for
nVidia to consider striping the binary object down to only the
essential IP/ABI portions, and open source everything else,
this is one.

Then again, I've seen open source drivers dork things like this
before as well -- everything from DACs and scan ranges to control
of the fan and output.  Years of dealing with Intel has taught
me that it's no less likely to happen on open source -- although
it does show how the unified object in nVidia's world can quickly
mess up _all_ OSes in short order.  ;)

-- Bryan

P.S.  At least in Linux, you can bring the OSes up without the
nVidia driver and X at all.  In Windows, even safe mode may not
launch Windows without the driver.  This leaves people in a
circular state that cannot be solved.  Oh boy, this was a major
oversight!


 -- 
Bryan J  Smith           Professional, Technical Annoyance 
Linked Profile:         http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith 
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