Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX

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* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
@ 2020-09-17 12:53 Raghav Gururajan
  2020-09-17 19:53 ` Efraim Flashner
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: Raghav Gururajan @ 2020-09-17 12:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-guix

Hello Yasuaki Kudo!

AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD chip-set compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.

Regards,
RG.


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-17 12:53 Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX Raghav Gururajan
@ 2020-09-17 19:53 ` Efraim Flashner
  2020-09-17 21:00   ` Yasuaki Kudo
  2020-09-17 21:26   ` Raghav Gururajan
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 10+ messages in thread
From: Efraim Flashner @ 2020-09-17 19:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Raghav Gururajan; +Cc: help-guix

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 545 bytes --]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:53:50PM +0000, Raghav Gururajan wrote:
> Hello Yasuaki Kudo!
> 
> AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD chip-set compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.
> 
> Regards,
> RG.
> 

I can confirm the GeForce GT 710 works. I picked one up after I broke
the VGA port on my motherboard.

-- 
Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 833 bytes --]

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-17 19:53 ` Efraim Flashner
@ 2020-09-17 21:00   ` Yasuaki Kudo
  2020-09-18 10:27     ` Efraim Flashner
  2020-09-17 21:26   ` Raghav Gururajan
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: Yasuaki Kudo @ 2020-09-17 21:00 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Efraim Flashner; +Cc: Raghav Gururajan, help-guix

Thank you Efraim and Raghav but I forgot to mention that I need decent web browser experience of dual 60hz 4K  (HDMI).

While the reviews on amazon.jp do confirm Linux friendliness but they say it is way too slow for that, even with hardware acceleration enabled...  😅




> On Sep 18, 2020, at 04:54, Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:53:50PM +0000, Raghav Gururajan wrote:
>> Hello Yasuaki Kudo!
>> 
>> AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD chip-set compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> RG.
>> 
> 
> I can confirm the GeForce GT 710 works. I picked one up after I broke
> the VGA port on my motherboard.
> 
> -- 
> Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
> GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
> Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-17 21:00   ` Yasuaki Kudo
@ 2020-09-18 10:27     ` Efraim Flashner
  2020-09-24 12:34       ` yasu
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: Efraim Flashner @ 2020-09-18 10:27 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Yasuaki Kudo; +Cc: Raghav Gururajan, help-guix



On September 17, 2020 9:00:54 PM UTC, Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> wrote:
>Thank you Efraim and Raghav but I forgot to mention that I need decent web browser experience of dual 60hz 4K  (HDMI).
>
>While the reviews on amazon.jp do confirm Linux friendliness but they say it is way too slow for that, even with hardware acceleration enabled...  😅
>

Yeah, that does sound unfortunate. I would assume that another GPU from that generation (something208) should work also but unfortunately I don't have any experience with that.

>
>> On Sep 18, 2020, at 04:54, Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> wrote:
>> 
>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:53:50PM +0000, Raghav Gururajan wrote:
>>> Hello Yasuaki Kudo!
>>> 
>>> AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD chip-set compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> RG.
>>> 
>> 
>> I can confirm the GeForce GT 710 works. I picked one up after I broke
>> the VGA port on my motherboard.
>> 
>> -- 
>> Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
>> GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
>> Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received unencrypted

-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-18 10:27     ` Efraim Flashner
@ 2020-09-24 12:34       ` yasu
  2020-09-25  5:50         ` yasu
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: yasu @ 2020-09-24 12:34 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Efraim Flashner; +Cc: Raghav Gururajan, help-guix

Just to follow up, here's what I did:

  - Removed my original NVidia GTX 750 video card
  - Installed the new AMD RX580 video card
  - Added an unofficial Guix channel to use the "regular"
      Linux Kernel (instead of Linux-Libre)

My new Guix experience is now a world apart from the old!
  - It does't freeze like every 30 minutes anymore...
  - It works like any other normal computer! (Great 2D/3D/video 
performance!)

Cheers,
Yasu


yasu@guix ~$ guix system describe
Generation 16	Sep 24 2020 20:27:04	(current)
   file name: /var/guix/profiles/system-16-link
   canonical file name: 
/gnu/store/9crwhnhyc6nwspd9j4m09sk1bb6r93j3-system
   label: GNU with Linux 5.8.10
   bootloader: grub-efi
   root device: label: "my-root"
   kernel: 
/gnu/store/2z8smc1cn921gxqhb7m11byk6h3asf1k-linux-5.8.10/bzImage
   channels:
     guix:
       repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
       branch: master
       commit: ff128dc6332fddfc65658a8462796fc7ecd1bdd2
     nonguix:
       repository URL: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix
       branch: master
       commit: fc683132b1838cfdbe968b49e459dc12f4f41ef8
   configuration file: 
/gnu/store/9f1vi852r032wd38hchm5g2sywxzfkj1-configuration.scm

yasu@guix ~$ cat 
/gnu/store/9f1vi852r032wd38hchm5g2sywxzfkj1-configuration.scm
;; This is an operating system configuration template
;; for a "desktop" setup with GNOME and Xfce where the
;; root partition is encrypted with LUKS.

(use-modules
   (gnu)
   (gnu system nss)
   (nongnu packages linux) ;; engine power
   (nongnu system linux-initrd)) ;; engine power

(use-service-modules desktop xorg)
(use-package-modules certs gnome)

(operating-system
     (kernel linux) ;; engine power
     (initrd microcode-initrd) ;; engine power
     (firmware (list linux-firmware)) ;; engine power
   (host-name "guix")
   (timezone "Asia/Tokyo")
   (locale "en_US.utf8")

   ;; Choose US English keyboard layout.  The "altgr-intl"
   ;; variant provides dead keys for accented characters.
   (keyboard-layout (keyboard-layout "us"))

   ;; Use the UEFI variant of GRUB with the EFI System
   ;; Partition mounted on /boot/efi.
   (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
                 (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
                 (target "/boot/efi")
                 (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)))

   ;; Specify a mapped device for the encrypted root partition.
   ;; The UUID is that returned by 'cryptsetup luksUUID'.
   ;; (mapped-devices
   ;; (list (mapped-device
   ;;        (source (uuid "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc"))
   ;;        (target "my-root")
   ;;        (type luks-device-mapping))))

   (file-systems (append
                  (list (file-system
                          (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
                          (mount-point "/")
                          (type "ext4")
                          ;; (dependencies mapped-devices)
                         )
                        (file-system
                          (device (uuid "C2D0-0B91" 'fat))
                          (mount-point "/boot/efi")
                          (type "vfat")))
                  %base-file-systems))

   (users (cons (user-account
                 (name "yasu")
                 (comment "yasu")
                 (group "users")
                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"
                                         "audio" "video")))
                %base-user-accounts))

   ;; This is where we specify system-wide packages.
   (packages (append (list
                      ;; for HTTPS access
                      nss-certs
                      ;; for user mounts
                      gvfs)
                     %base-packages))

   ;; Add GNOME and Xfce---we can choose at the log-in screen
   ;; by clicking the gear.  Use the "desktop" services, which
   ;; include the X11 log-in service, networking with
   ;; NetworkManager, and more.
   (services (append (list ;; (service gnome-desktop-service-type)
                           (service gnome-desktop-service-type)
                           ;; (bluetooth-service)
                           (set-xorg-configuration
                            (xorg-configuration
                             (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
                     %desktop-services))

   ;; Allow resolution of '.local' host names with mDNS.
   (name-service-switch %mdns-host-lookup-nss))


root@guix ~# glxinfo | egrep -i 'device|memory'
      Device: Radeon RX 580 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.10, LLVM 
10.0.0) (0x67df)
     Video memory: 8192MB

https://www.amazon.co.jp/SAPPHIRE-RADEON-%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-VD6907-SA-RX580-8GD5PL002/dp/B07PCCS63W/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&dchild=1&keywords=amd+580&qid=1600948539&sr=8-3


On 18.09.2020 10:27, Efraim Flashner wrote:
> On September 17, 2020 9:00:54 PM UTC, Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> 
> wrote:
>> Thank you Efraim and Raghav but I forgot to mention that I need decent 
>> web browser experience of dual 60hz 4K  (HDMI).
>> 
>> While the reviews on amazon.jp do confirm Linux friendliness but they 
>> say it is way too slow for that, even with hardware acceleration 
>> enabled...  😅
>> 
> 
> Yeah, that does sound unfortunate. I would assume that another GPU
> from that generation (something208) should work also but unfortunately
> I don't have any experience with that.
> 
>> 
>>> On Sep 18, 2020, at 04:54, Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> 
>>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:53:50PM +0000, Raghav Gururajan wrote:
>>>> Hello Yasuaki Kudo!
>>>> 
>>>> AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD chip-set 
>>>> compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.
>>>> 
>>>> Regards,
>>>> RG.
>>>> 
>>> 
>>> I can confirm the GeForce GT 710 works. I picked one up after I broke
>>> the VGA port on my motherboard.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
>>> GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
>>> Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received 
>>> unencrypted


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-24 12:34       ` yasu
@ 2020-09-25  5:50         ` yasu
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 10+ messages in thread
From: yasu @ 2020-09-25  5:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Efraim Flashner; +Cc: Raghav Gururajan, help-guix

Just one more note:


In GNU IceCat browser, in about:config, this option needs to be enabled:

layers.acceleration.force-enabled

See:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=239077

Otherwise, there will be a subtle but noticeable tearing of videos.





On 24.09.2020 12:34, yasu@yasuaki.com wrote:
> Just to follow up, here's what I did:
> 
>  - Removed my original NVidia GTX 750 video card
>  - Installed the new AMD RX580 video card
>  - Added an unofficial Guix channel to use the "regular"
>      Linux Kernel (instead of Linux-Libre)
> 
> My new Guix experience is now a world apart from the old!
>  - It does't freeze like every 30 minutes anymore...
>  - It works like any other normal computer! (Great 2D/3D/video 
> performance!)
> 
> Cheers,
> Yasu
> 
> 
> yasu@guix ~$ guix system describe
> Generation 16	Sep 24 2020 20:27:04	(current)
>   file name: /var/guix/profiles/system-16-link
>   canonical file name: 
> /gnu/store/9crwhnhyc6nwspd9j4m09sk1bb6r93j3-system
>   label: GNU with Linux 5.8.10
>   bootloader: grub-efi
>   root device: label: "my-root"
>   kernel: 
> /gnu/store/2z8smc1cn921gxqhb7m11byk6h3asf1k-linux-5.8.10/bzImage
>   channels:
>     guix:
>       repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git
>       branch: master
>       commit: ff128dc6332fddfc65658a8462796fc7ecd1bdd2
>     nonguix:
>       repository URL: https://gitlab.com/nonguix/nonguix
>       branch: master
>       commit: fc683132b1838cfdbe968b49e459dc12f4f41ef8
>   configuration file:
> /gnu/store/9f1vi852r032wd38hchm5g2sywxzfkj1-configuration.scm
> 
> yasu@guix ~$ cat 
> /gnu/store/9f1vi852r032wd38hchm5g2sywxzfkj1-configuration.scm
> ;; This is an operating system configuration template
> ;; for a "desktop" setup with GNOME and Xfce where the
> ;; root partition is encrypted with LUKS.
> 
> (use-modules
>   (gnu)
>   (gnu system nss)
>   (nongnu packages linux) ;; engine power
>   (nongnu system linux-initrd)) ;; engine power
> 
> (use-service-modules desktop xorg)
> (use-package-modules certs gnome)
> 
> (operating-system
>     (kernel linux) ;; engine power
>     (initrd microcode-initrd) ;; engine power
>     (firmware (list linux-firmware)) ;; engine power
>   (host-name "guix")
>   (timezone "Asia/Tokyo")
>   (locale "en_US.utf8")
> 
>   ;; Choose US English keyboard layout.  The "altgr-intl"
>   ;; variant provides dead keys for accented characters.
>   (keyboard-layout (keyboard-layout "us"))
> 
>   ;; Use the UEFI variant of GRUB with the EFI System
>   ;; Partition mounted on /boot/efi.
>   (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
>                 (bootloader grub-efi-bootloader)
>                 (target "/boot/efi")
>                 (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout)))
> 
>   ;; Specify a mapped device for the encrypted root partition.
>   ;; The UUID is that returned by 'cryptsetup luksUUID'.
>   ;; (mapped-devices
>   ;; (list (mapped-device
>   ;;        (source (uuid "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc"))
>   ;;        (target "my-root")
>   ;;        (type luks-device-mapping))))
> 
>   (file-systems (append
>                  (list (file-system
>                          (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
>                          (mount-point "/")
>                          (type "ext4")
>                          ;; (dependencies mapped-devices)
>                         )
>                        (file-system
>                          (device (uuid "C2D0-0B91" 'fat))
>                          (mount-point "/boot/efi")
>                          (type "vfat")))
>                  %base-file-systems))
> 
>   (users (cons (user-account
>                 (name "yasu")
>                 (comment "yasu")
>                 (group "users")
>                 (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "netdev"
>                                         "audio" "video")))
>                %base-user-accounts))
> 
>   ;; This is where we specify system-wide packages.
>   (packages (append (list
>                      ;; for HTTPS access
>                      nss-certs
>                      ;; for user mounts
>                      gvfs)
>                     %base-packages))
> 
>   ;; Add GNOME and Xfce---we can choose at the log-in screen
>   ;; by clicking the gear.  Use the "desktop" services, which
>   ;; include the X11 log-in service, networking with
>   ;; NetworkManager, and more.
>   (services (append (list ;; (service gnome-desktop-service-type)
>                           (service gnome-desktop-service-type)
>                           ;; (bluetooth-service)
>                           (set-xorg-configuration
>                            (xorg-configuration
>                             (keyboard-layout keyboard-layout))))
>                     %desktop-services))
> 
>   ;; Allow resolution of '.local' host names with mDNS.
>   (name-service-switch %mdns-host-lookup-nss))
> 
> 
> root@guix ~# glxinfo | egrep -i 'device|memory'
>      Device: Radeon RX 580 Series (POLARIS10, DRM 3.38.0, 5.8.10, LLVM
> 10.0.0) (0x67df)
>     Video memory: 8192MB
> 
> https://www.amazon.co.jp/SAPPHIRE-RADEON-%E3%82%B0%E3%83%A9%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9C%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89-VD6907-SA-RX580-8GD5PL002/dp/B07PCCS63W/ref=sr_1_3?__mk_ja_JP=%E3%82%AB%E3%82%BF%E3%82%AB%E3%83%8A&dchild=1&keywords=amd+580&qid=1600948539&sr=8-3
> 
> 
> On 18.09.2020 10:27, Efraim Flashner wrote:
>> On September 17, 2020 9:00:54 PM UTC, Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> 
>> wrote:
>>> Thank you Efraim and Raghav but I forgot to mention that I need 
>>> decent web browser experience of dual 60hz 4K  (HDMI).
>>> 
>>> While the reviews on amazon.jp do confirm Linux friendliness but they 
>>> say it is way too slow for that, even with hardware acceleration 
>>> enabled...  😅
>>> 
>> 
>> Yeah, that does sound unfortunate. I would assume that another GPU
>> from that generation (something208) should work also but unfortunately
>> I don't have any experience with that.
>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Sep 18, 2020, at 04:54, Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> 
>>>> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 12:53:50PM +0000, Raghav Gururajan wrote:
>>>>> Hello Yasuaki Kudo!
>>>>> 
>>>>> AFAIK, there is only one that is both free-software and AMD 
>>>>> chip-set compatible. It's GeForce GT 710.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> RG.
>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> I can confirm the GeForce GT 710 works. I picked one up after I 
>>>> broke
>>>> the VGA port on my motherboard.
>>>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Efraim Flashner   <efraim@flashner.co.il>   אפרים פלשנר
>>>> GPG key = A28B F40C 3E55 1372 662D  14F7 41AA E7DC CA3D 8351
>>>> Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed on emails sent or received 
>>>> unencrypted


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-17 19:53 ` Efraim Flashner
  2020-09-17 21:00   ` Yasuaki Kudo
@ 2020-09-17 21:26   ` Raghav Gururajan
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 10+ messages in thread
From: Raghav Gururajan @ 2020-09-17 21:26 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Yasuaki Kudo, Efraim Flashner; +Cc: help-guix

Hello Yasuaki Kudo!

> Thank you Efraim and Raghav but I forgot to mention that I need decent web browser experience of
> dual 60hz 4K (HDMI).
> 
> While the reviews on amazon.jp do confirm Linux friendliness but they say it is way too slow for
> that, even with hardware acceleration enabled... 😅

In that case, AFAIK, you will have to change your chip-set to Intel H370 and get a graphic-card of Intel UHD Graphics 630.

Regards,
RG.


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
@ 2020-09-17  2:05 Yasuaki Kudo
  2020-09-18  2:07 ` Maxim Cournoyer
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: Yasuaki Kudo @ 2020-09-17  2:05 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Guix Help

Hi,

As per the subject-line, what is the very best video chip/card for GUIX?  My criteria:

• I use AMD Ryzen 5 CPU (The chip has no integrated video feature enabled)
• I currently use NVIDIA with proprietary driver support provided by corresponding NixOS packages but now I am considering switching from NixOS to Guix – so I prefer to have a video card that runs natively without proprietary driver enabling gimmick.
• The video card should behave normally – there should be no performance degradation in 2D/3D/video, etc.

Cheers,
Yasu

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-17  2:05 Yasuaki Kudo
@ 2020-09-18  2:07 ` Maxim Cournoyer
  2020-09-18  5:15   ` Yasuaki Kudo
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 10+ messages in thread
From: Maxim Cournoyer @ 2020-09-18  2:07 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Yasuaki Kudo; +Cc: Guix Help

Hello Yasuaki,

Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> writes:

> Hi,
>
> As per the subject-line, what is the very best video chip/card for GUIX?  My criteria:
>
> • I use AMD Ryzen 5 CPU (The chip has no integrated video feature enabled)
> • I currently use NVIDIA with proprietary driver support provided by
> corresponding NixOS packages but now I am considering switching from
> NixOS to Guix – so I prefer to have a video card that runs natively
> without proprietary driver enabling gimmick.
> • The video card should behave normally – there should be no performance degradation in 2D/3D/video, etc.

Behaving normally is an easy target, but "no performance degradation in
2D/3D/video less so, because I'm not sure a GPU exists that can do video
decoding without a binary blob.

I'm currently using an old nVIDIA 8800 GTS on my desktop with the
nouveau driver.  2D and 3D seems fine and stable (I don't play games
though), but it doesn't accelerate videos, so some applications will use
a lot of CPU.

At work, I use another nVIDIA card (GeForce GTX 680) with similar
results (good desktop performance, no video acceleration).

I don't know what the landscape looks like on the AMD side, but I know
their recent cards boasting the free AMDGPU driver are nearly useless
without the binary blobs (no 3D support, and that's if you're lucky that
it doesn't leave you on a black screen at boot).

You can view reports of video hardware at h-node.org [0].

Hope that helps!

Maxim

[0]  https://h-node.org/videocards/catalogue/en

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

* Re: Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX
  2020-09-18  2:07 ` Maxim Cournoyer
@ 2020-09-18  5:15   ` Yasuaki Kudo
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 10+ messages in thread
From: Yasuaki Kudo @ 2020-09-18  5:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Maxim Cournoyer; +Cc: Guix Help

Hi Maxim and everybody,

First of all, thank you all for your replies and I wish to thank the FSF and the community for this whole "blob" discussion.  I had absolutely no idea that:

* Linux had "blob" sections
* GNU (predictably though 😅) would go the distance, remove them all and call it Linux-libre, and that's what Guix uses
* All newer video cards (GPUs), regardless of vendor, need those "blobs" to be supplied by Linux kernel before they function (presumably so they can fix bugs post production and since it is so close to hardware and architecture, they feel the source code for the blobs to be their "intellectual property" ?)

So, although this will probably not be my first Guix-learning project, there is a way around this by using the "inferior", "backdoor", repository I read that I should not utter in this channel 😅

All-in-all, it feel that Guix is very appropriate for my purpose - learn the techniques of constructing highly customizable software for the end-users, (barring the controversial subject of  allowing proprietary components, of course 😅)

-Yasu




> On Sep 18, 2020, at 11:06, Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Yasuaki,
> 
> Yasuaki Kudo <yasu@yasuaki.com> writes:
> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> As per the subject-line, what is the very best video chip/card for GUIX?  My criteria:
>> 
>> • I use AMD Ryzen 5 CPU (The chip has no integrated video feature enabled)
>> • I currently use NVIDIA with proprietary driver support provided by
>> corresponding NixOS packages but now I am considering switching from
>> NixOS to Guix – so I prefer to have a video card that runs natively
>> without proprietary driver enabling gimmick.
>> • The video card should behave normally – there should be no performance degradation in 2D/3D/video, etc.
> 
> Behaving normally is an easy target, but "no performance degradation in
> 2D/3D/video less so, because I'm not sure a GPU exists that can do video
> decoding without a binary blob.
> 
> I'm currently using an old nVIDIA 8800 GTS on my desktop with the
> nouveau driver.  2D and 3D seems fine and stable (I don't play games
> though), but it doesn't accelerate videos, so some applications will use
> a lot of CPU.
> 
> At work, I use another nVIDIA card (GeForce GTX 680) with similar
> results (good desktop performance, no video acceleration).
> 
> I don't know what the landscape looks like on the AMD side, but I know
> their recent cards boasting the free AMDGPU driver are nearly useless
> without the binary blobs (no 3D support, and that's if you're lucky that
> it doesn't leave you on a black screen at boot).
> 
> You can view reports of video hardware at h-node.org [0].
> 
> Hope that helps!
> 
> Maxim
> 
> [0]  https://h-node.org/videocards/catalogue/en


^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 10+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2020-09-25  5:50 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 10+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2020-09-17 12:53 Please recommend zero-hassle video card for GUIX Raghav Gururajan
2020-09-17 19:53 ` Efraim Flashner
2020-09-17 21:00   ` Yasuaki Kudo
2020-09-18 10:27     ` Efraim Flashner
2020-09-24 12:34       ` yasu
2020-09-25  5:50         ` yasu
2020-09-17 21:26   ` Raghav Gururajan
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2020-09-17  2:05 Yasuaki Kudo
2020-09-18  2:07 ` Maxim Cournoyer
2020-09-18  5:15   ` Yasuaki Kudo

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