nVidia vs nouveau drivers

[erasmus]

Hello
I made the experience with LMDE that after introductione of Linux Kernel 3.x the nouveau driver is equal (for my needs) to the proprietory nVidia drivers. In one instance even superior: nVidia does not accept the permanent change of the monitor to portrait mode unless one makes amendments to some obscure configure file. Nouveau is much easier: Systemeinstellungen --> Anzeige und Monitor, then turn the screen by 90°, confirm and press the button to make it standard. To change it to Landscape a mere Ctrl/alt/0 and back to Portrait Ctrl/alt/7 is all it needs. As I do not use and fancy desktop «Schnick-Schnack», nor do I use any heavy 3-D-games or 3-D-applications, I am absolutely not dependent on nVidia drives. My nVidia card: Geforce I-8400GS-H4E3DH.

So, how do I get rid of the nVidia driver and install the nouveau one? Thanks for any good councels.

[albfneto]

In my sabayons, i use NVIDIA in one installation, and Nouveau in other. Both works!

You may use NVIDIA or nouveau, but not in the same installation.

the driver that you not use should be removed or put inside blacklist.

for using nouveau, the easy manner is using rigo, remove ALL NVIDIA packages, and install nouveau, mesa and gallium packages.
after this, carry out these commands:

Code: Select all

eselect opengl list
sudo eselect opengl set (HERE, USE THE NUMBER CORRESPONDING TO XORG)


then with a text editor, check if the driver "nouveau" is placed into the file /etc/X11/xorg,conf in the place just previous was nvidia (driver="nvidia") if not, edit as root and substitute nvidia by nouveau. Close the session as re-open, or best reboot to the last kernel.