Frustrated: Linux, IFL90 and 8600m GT

Mongoose posted this over on the IFL90 / Linux thread and I have to agree. For some reason the Linux drivers for the 8600m gt totally stink. When i run glxgears to test frame rates in ubuntu, I score around 4100 fps. By comparison, when I fire up my old Radeon 9600, I get around 4900!!!

I've been searching the ubuntu forums and I can't seem to find a solution to this.

Has anyone gotten their 8600m gt to work well in with a Linux distro? If so, what's the secret?

 

what way did you install the drivers?

 

I used Ubuntu's restricted drivers manager. I've been reading around and the general consensus is that those of us with 8600m gt cards will have to wait until Nvidia gets around to releasing a new driver for Linux.

This stinks because I like to work in Linux. I've become totally dependent on compiz!!

 

Have you tried envy?

 

No, Envy is not recommended because it works outside of the dependencies generated by apt. I could try this but then I would be scared that someday, down the road, my system would fail.

Maybe i should just wait for hardy heron?

 

I play games fine with my 8600 in Ubuntu. I get a little less fps than in XP, but I'm guessing it's because it's overclocked in XP.

 

How did you install the driver finally?

I'm posting this on a live cd of Mandriva, 2008. I'm an ubuntu convert, but I might give this distro a whirl.

 

I used the restricted driver thing to enable the Nvidia driver, when I restarted I was greeted by a huge Nvidia logo and then logged in, and everything worked fine. If you have the old drivers you can get the new ones by typing this in console: sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new

 

^^ Cool. I'll try this next. Thanks.

I tried Envy, to no effect. Restricted drivers manager actually worked while Envy did a whole lot of nothing.

Mandriva works well out of the box, but it stinks otherwise.

 

Well, I went back to installing the restricted drivers. At least they work.

Still not as fast as my Radeon 9600!!! I guess I'll just have to wait.

 

Please see this link for further details: http://lddubeau.com/avaktavyam/linux-on-a-compal-ifl90/

 

Yeah, that was my first stop. I added the repositories but they weren't accessible. I couldn't tell when the website had been last updated, but I figured the workarounds for Gutsy were out of date or something.

 

Hmmmmmmm i will check for more details.
ubuntu is running on friends system very well, so i will contact him and ask to give more details about the VGA setup.

 

It's running well enough for me to work in Ubuntu. It's just not running any better than my 3 yr old AMD64/Radeon 9600 Gateway.

 

I use ubuntu, with my nvidia driver installed by Envy and I get around 5000 fps in glxgears.

 

Check this website for further support with Nvidia.
Handy info and tools for support within Linux.
http://linuxhardware.kerseyfamily.com/nvclock/

 

btw glxgears is *not* a benchmark, i.e. it's not to be taken too serious.

 

I second that, I think compiz has an option to display the current fps, you can try that.

 

Also, are you running Xgl or are you using nVidia's AIGLX? If in xorg.conf the extension Composite is enabled, you're using AIGLX which is known to be slower. Switch to use Xgl and compiz will speed up noticeably.

 

I would still recommend using Envy, they install 169.07 (newest) drivers whereas the ones in the repo's are pretty old.

 

I don't know much about linux or the gears benchmakr you were running, but if you really are getting 4100 and 4900 fps it would be more cpu limited that GPU limited

 

As you can see in the link above, glxgears IS NOT a benchmark ultility ...

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Glxgears_is_not_a_Benchmark