Nvidia Driver on FreeBSD 14(current) Absolute Newbie Questions

[n8lbv]

Hi, this is my first post here ever.
As per the title I am an absolute newb to installing and trying out FreeBSD.
I much desire to play and get my feet wet with the latest & greatest, not just to have it easy for any reason.
With that, I am trying to install the Nvidia driver and run xorg.
From what I can tell so far it installs fine but will not load do to a kernel mismatch error (I will get more specific later).
Is pkg install nvidia-driver "not enough" in this case. (I'm on the current version)
And is the immediate problem have something to do with that I'm playing with current versus release version?
And is this something I need to build or compile. versus just install because of this?
I am brand new to pkg and never used ports yet I still need to study and read this.

Also I am only describing my problem at a very high level and have not got into or shared any detail yet.
I can and plan to do that as I go.
But just wanted to start off with a couple very basic questions.
I am gathering some information from other posts and reading the docs so far.
Answer is not obvious (yet) but I suspect a few things as mentioned above.
Any pointers to applicable docs or other basic pointers very much appreciated.
I am pretty much at step one and first need to get the nvidia driver installed and configured properly.
And am immediately faced with the kernel mismath error.

I'm having fun.
Thanks.

 

[zirias@]

Never ever install -CURRENT as "an absolute newb". It's the main development branch, only needed for actual development (and testing).

First start over and install a release version, I suggest the latest 13.2-RELEASE.

 

[cracauer@]

Please post the specific error message in such cases.

If the pkg version doesn't load and you are sure that your base is up-to-date then compile the driver from ports. It is pretty likely that you created an out-of-sync situation yourself, however.

 

[zirias@]

Indeed, specific error messages would be needed to understand the actual problem. ?

I still stick to my recommendation NOT to use -CURRENT as a beginner. In fact, if you don't intend to do development/testing yourself, the only other reason to ever try -CURRENT would be when you really need a feature (most likely: hardware support) that's not in any release version yet...

But this made me rethink my recommendation to use 13.2-RELEASE. We have these (rare) cases of in-kernel changes between minor versions affecting *-kmod packages... does anyone know whether the Nvidia driver is affected by this? If so, the better idea for a beginner would be to start with 13.1-RELEASE and only upgrade after it went EOL.

 

[Jose]

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[cracauer@]

But this made me rethink my recommendation to use 13.2-RELEASE. We have these (rare) cases of in-kernel changes between minor versions affecting *-kmod packages... does anyone know whether the Nvidia driver is affected by this? If so, the better idea for a beginner would be to start with 13.1-RELEASE and only upgrade after it went EOL.

I still think that the way that two supported releases are served by the same binary packages is not sustainable. It might be few ports that are affected, but they are popular with users who can't solve the resulting fallout.

 

[Jose]

But this made me rethink my recommendation to use 13.2-RELEASE. We have these (rare) cases of in-kernel changes between minor versions affecting *-kmod packages... does anyone know whether the Nvidia driver is affected by this? If so, the better idea for a beginner would be to start with 13.1-RELEASE and only upgrade after it went EOL.

I'm typing this on a 13.2-RELEASE machine with an Nvidia card. All I had to do was pkg install nvidia-driver.

 

[Alain De Vos]

For a newbie I advice 13.2.
If everything works well you can upgrade to current
For nvidia i have in /etc/rc.conf
kld_load="drm linux64 linux nvidia nvidia-modeset"

 

[zirias@]

I still think that the way that two supported releases are served by the same binary packages is not sustainable. It might be few ports that are affected, but they are popular with users who can't solve the resulting fallout.

I tend to agree with this. But I really hate the "straight-forward" solution (encode the minor version into the ABI identifier and create a separate repository for each) as a massive waste of ressources. After all, for "normal" user-space software, this will never be an issue, and looking at kernel modules, only some are affected...

Some (IMHO) "correct" solution would include special handling only for packages containing kernel modules. And this looks like a lot of work. Someone should do it ... ?

I'm typing this on a 13.2-RELEASE machine with an Nvidia card. All I had to do was pkg install nvidia-driver.

Ah thanks! So in this case, going with 13.2-RELEASE is a valid recommendation for a beginner ?

 

[Jose]

If everything works well you can upgrade to current

That is NOT an upgrade. This is the Gentoo mentality. All you get is an unstable, slower system. CURRENT has witness(4) enabled for troubleshooting by experts. Don't use it unless you're an expert that's working on the Freebsd base system.

For nvidia i have in /etc/rc.conf
kld_load="drm linux64 linux nvidia nvidia-modeset"

All that's actually needed is kld_list="nvidia-modeset".

 

[zirias@]

That is NOT an upgrade. This is the Gentoo mentality. All you get is an unstable, slower system. CURRENT has witness(4) enabled for troubleshooting by experts. Don't use it unless you're an expert that's working on the Freebsd base system.

Just for completeness: Of course, you can build -CURRENT as if it was a release, leaving out all that debugging stuff. All it takes are a few knobs in /etc/src.conf, and using the GENERIC-NODEBUG kernel config. And that's exactly what I do for my ports testing machines, after all, on them, I want to test ports, not base ?

Still, of course, fully agree with you!

 

[Jose]

Just for completeness: Of course, you can build -CURRENT as if it was a release, leaving out all that debugging stuff. All it takes are a few knobs in /etc/src.conf, and using the GENERIC-NODEBUG kernel config. And that's exactly what I do for my ports testing machines, after all, on them, I want to test ports, not base ?

You're not exactly a newbie.

Still, of course, fully agree with you!

?

 

[zirias@]

You're not exactly a newbie.

Haha thanks ?

Actually, I recommend something here I didn't follow myself when I was new to FreeBSD... I first ran 11.0-CURRENT on my desktop, because 10.x didn't have the required GPU drivers. ? But I already had lots of experience with other *nix systems (mostly Linux, but also AIX, HP-UX, Solaris at university) and as a software developer, so, that's my excuse

Seriously, putting it in a nutshell: Only ever run -CURRENT if you know exactly what you do. And being new to FreeBSD, chances are, you don't.... (and just btw, of course I only run -RELEASE myself, only exceptions are the machines used for testing ports)

 

[Alain De Vos]

As sidenote between current 14 & releng 13.2 there is stable 13.

 

[n8lbv]

Thanks!
Not an absolute newb to everything but am really new to FreeBSD.
I prefer to work through this "issue" and learn a bit versus just installing a release that works.
I will get much more specific with errors and anything else as I try to figure it out.
I also have some specific reasons that I want to be working in current.
Thanks for the pointers so far.
I actually prefer to have witness running as I am trying to get a little more familiar with that as well haha
And I get it that this is not really the place or version to be expecting or asking for "support" on.
I appreciate that anybody even responded at all.

As green as I am here I will figure it out.
I will figure it out sooner with help of course.
I may share some more specifics on the "error" and driver not loading as I study learn a little more
and if I feel I'm not wasting anyone's time here after I have studied up some more and tried some more things.
It's obvious that some here want to help and others are telling me I'm totally in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And how scarce help resources are and that they are not really intended to be applied here.
I have not yet tried compiling anything, or tried much of anything for that matter.

I get it.
Thanks.
Steve

 

[n8lbv]

Please post the specific error message in such cases.

If the pkg version doesn't load and you are sure that your base is up-to-date then compile the driver from ports. It is pretty likely that you created an out-of-sync situation yourself, however.

This is along the lines of what I expect.
All I had tried so far was installing the binary.
and as fast as thing move or how they move I suspect the binary could be out of sync with the base (kernel in use).
To pretty much use basic terms.

 

[n8lbv]

Obligatory

Topics about unsupported FreeBSD versions

The FreeBSD Forums cater primarily to end-users and systems administrators. As such, the Forums focus almost exclusively on FreeBSD versions that are officially supported according to the official FreeBSD website. Since resources are scarce, the FreeBSD Forums strongly suggest that anyone asking...

forums.freebsd.org

===You should really only install -CURRENT if you're prepared to participate in fact-finding and troubleshooting sessions with the FreeBSD developers on the freebsd-current mailing list.===
This is certainly one of my intents as I get rolling.
Thanks.

 

[n8lbv]

Haha thanks ?

Actually, I recommend something here I didn't follow myself when I was new to FreeBSD... I first ran 11.0-CURRENT on my desktop, because 10.x didn't have the required GPU drivers. ? But I already had lots of experience with other *nix systems (mostly Linux, but also AIX, HP-UX, Solaris at university) and as a software developer, so, that's my excuse

Seriously, putting it in a nutshell: Only ever run -CURRENT if you know exactly what you do. And being new to FreeBSD, chances are, you don't.... (and just btw, of course I only run -RELEASE myself, only exceptions are the machines used for testing ports)

I certainly don't (know exactly what I'm doing).
I am also running RELEASE as well. to get more familiar and compare what happens over there to what happens here on certain items.
Thanks.