Tumbleweed & Nvidia-community repository?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I am highly interested in Tumbleweed, but the Tumbleweed-Portal warns:

Due to the Linux kernel being updated very frequently, users who rely on proprietary graphic drivers should not use the Tumbleweed repository unless they are familiar with updating these drivers from source on their own.

However, in the sticky post by swerdna in this sub-forum implies that having the Nvidia-Communiy repository is ok:

You might also have one or more of these Community repositories activated:

  • Main Repository Contrib
  • NVIDIA or ATI Repository
  • other specialist repos like Google Earth etc

I am confused:
Can I continue to use the NVIDIA Community repository with Tumbleweed?

I do use the NVIDIA Community repository, I do use specialist repositories (GoogleEarth & Haskell). I do need the NVIDIA binary driver (TwinView, etc.). I do not want to compile my own NVIDIA driver (compiling had always been a pain; and the community repository works so nice). So can I use Tumbleweed without a headache?

If no, then why is there no Tumbleweed version of the NVIDIA Community repository?

My problem is that KDE is still updating frequently, i.e. I just compiled the KDE Editor Kate from git because of a minor bugfix, which happens to be really important to me. There are other things, like the recent major bugfix to Kmix, etc. So I would love an up-to-date KDE SC from ready-to-use repositories, which I think Tumbleweed is offering, no?

#2

sed:
Can I continue to use the NVIDIA Community repository with Tumbleweed?

No you have to disable that repository and rebuild after each kernel update “the hard way” as outlined in the openSUSE wiki. I did it and it was simply a matter of running a console command.

I did not make that issue clear. Have another look, is it clear now (needing your advice here)?

#3

You should not use the nvidia repo
But install the driver manually
@swerdna does point that out

disable/remove NVIDIA or ATI repos (you have to install drivers for these “the hard way” after each kernel update).

#4

Ok, thanks for the clarification! So I guess all community repositories or exotic repositories (e.g. GoogleEarth) should be disabled then?

I still don’t understand why Tumbleweed does not include updates for Nvidia/ATI drivers as well (those get frequently updated too), but then again, I don’t understand anything about the Suse-BuildService at all. Anyway, I’ll wait for now and see how things develop, upgrading KDE’s bits & pieces manually as needed.

#5

On 2011-04-06 15:36, STurtle wrote:

> I still don’t understand why Tumbleweed does not include updates for
> Nvidia/ATI drivers as well (those get frequently updated too),

Because somebody would have to do them >:-)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.2 x86_64 “Emerald” at Telcontar)

#6

You can leave GoogleEarth attached. It’s a judgement call for each community repo; e.g. here’s mine ATM:

john@tumbleweed114:~> zypper ls
#  | Alias                            | Name                             | Enabled | Refresh | Type    
---+----------------------------------+----------------------------------+---------+---------+---------
1  | Developer_Recoll                 | Developer Recoll                 | No      | No      | rpm-md  
2  | LazyKent_for_Recoll              | LazyKent for Recoll              | No      | No      | rpm-md  
3  | OracleVBox114                    | OracleVBox114                    | No      | No      | rpm-md  
4  | PackmanTumbleweedEssentials      | PackmanTumbleweedEssentials      | No      | No      | rpm-md  
5  | RPM_local                        | RPM local                        | Yes     | Yes     | plaindir
6  | Tumbleweed                       | Tumbleweed                       | Yes     | Yes     | rpm-md  
7  | Tumbleweed_All_of_Packman        | Tumbleweed All of Packman        | Yes     | Yes     | rpm-md  
8  | Updates-for-openSUSE-11.4-11.4-0 | Updates for openSUSE 11.4 11.4-0 | Yes     | Yes     | rpm-md  
9  | download.nvidia.com-opensuse     | NVIDIA Repository                | No      | No      | rpm-md  
10 | download.opensuse.org-standard   | Main Repository (Contrib)        | Yes     | Yes     | rpm-md  
11 | google-earth                     | google-earth                     | Yes     | Yes     | rpm-md  
12 | openSUSE-11.4-11.4-0             | openSUSE-11.4-11.4-0             | No      | No      | yast2   
13 | repo-non-oss                     | openSUSE-11.4-Non-Oss            | Yes     | Yes     | yast2   
14 | repo-oss                         | openSUSE-11.4-Oss                | Yes     | Yes     | yast2

There’s a whole bunch of personal decisions there (and no one should use that for any kind of template).

#7

On Wed, 06 Apr 2011 13:36:04 +0000, STurtle wrote:

> Ok, thanks for the clarification! So I guess all community repositories
> or exotic repositories (e.g. GoogleEarth) should be disabled then?

Well, if you have community repos that you rely on, why not ask me to add
those packages to Tumbleweed so that everyone can benefit with them being
updated?

As for “exotic” repos, you are on your own there, like always…

> I still don’t understand why Tumbleweed does not include updates for
> Nvidia/ATI drivers as well (those get frequently updated too), but then
> again, I don’t understand anything about the Suse-BuildService at all.
> Anyway, I’ll wait for now and see how things develop, upgrading KDE’s
> bits & pieces manually as needed.

We can’t include updates for closed source Linux kernel drivers due
to the legal issues surrounding distributing them. Please bug ATI and
nvidia about this, there is nothing that we can do about it.

best of luck,

greg k-h