On Wed, 2007-12-26 at 12:48 -0500, Bit wrote:
> <snip>
> Thanks to both of you for the reply. Good information, but that still
> doesn't really answer my question. I'm more interested in the technical
> side of things. What I really want to understand boils down to this:
>
> Why is it that in Windows I can install ATI drivers once and never worry
> about it again, while in Linux I may have to *reinstall* the drivers at
> a later date after a system update to get my card working with them
> again? Experience has proven to me that in Windows I can install the
> ATI drivers once, leave those same drivers on there for eternity, update
> the system over and over with Automatic Updates, and never worry about
> it breaking my video card. In Linux, every time I see a kernel update,
> I've learned to be braced for impact and just be ready with my ATI
> drivers to reinstall to get my card working again. I've never
> understood this. I'd like a technical explanation for why this is so.
If your drivers come originally from the OS repo, you should not have to
do this. If they come from elsewhere, they may get stepped on when you
do a yum update. Depends on the structure of the components
(directories, etc.).
Something that may help, is to make sure they come from some kind of
rpm. After updates, "updatedb" followed by "locate rpmsave rpmnew" may
help also. If your driver is from external source, maybe all that
happened is your (X?) config file was (not) replaced?
If the kernel API hasn't changed and your driver is from outside the
repo of the distribution you use, you shouldn't have to re-install. Just
reference it in the appropriate config file (Xorg.conf, modprobe.conf?
etc.)
There is also dkms available to automatically remake the drivers and
another pkg I can't remember. Search with google using site::centos/org
for dkms and you'll see the thread that mentions the other system too.
Oh! http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2007-October/087623.html
Knod is the preferred system.
>
> Thanks,
> bit
> <snip sig stuff>
--
Bill
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