The Linux Foundation is trying to push Nvidia to make its graphics drivers more accessible. The Foundation's beef: closed drivers make Linux look unstable to end users.
Though a statement issued Monday does not cite Nvidia by name, Linux Foundation Technical Advisory Board Chair James Bottomley cited Nvidia in a phone interview. "My intent is to point out the problems Nvidia has been causing themselves with their binary-only (drivers)," he said. "They are certainly one of the few companies sticking to a binary-only strategy." Binary-only means the drivers are essentially closed.
"We...consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable," the official statement begins. "Vendors that provide closed-source kernel modules force their customers to give up key Linux advantages or choose new vendors."
But Bottomley gets much more specific than this. "Their (Nvidia's) binary module is one of the top causes of kernel crashes, which makes Linux look bad," he said.
"Nvidia does a reasonable job of Q-and-A-ing (quality assurance) of a certain number of configurations but the problem is that their configurations (are) a lot less than what's actually out there on the market," Bottomley said.
In the past, Intel had been the target of open-source advocates, but the chipmaker is now a leading open-source code provider. And graphics-chip supplier ATI Technologies, acquired in 2006 by Advanced Micro Devices, is open source too, Bottomley said. He did, however, cite some outstanding problems with an ATI "FireGL" driver.
"It's basically a reflection of the fact that graphics is one of the most complex and most difficult areas of technology that sits in a computer nowadays," he added.
Nvidia says it provides a high-quality Linux driver. "Nvidia supports Linux, as well as the Linux community and has long been praised for the quality of the Nvidia Linux driver," Nvidia said in a response to an e-mail query.
But the graphics chip maker defends its binary-only policy. "Nvidia's fully featured Linux graphics driver is provided as binary-only because it contains intellectual property Nvidia wishes to protect, both in hardware and in software," according to Nvidia.
"We try to make things open source whenever it makes sense," Nvidia said. The company cited examples here and here.
"To assume that customers won't have access to open-source updates from Linux kernel.org if they use closed source modules is not correct," Nvidia said. "Nvidia's Linux graphics driver kernel module is structured so that all the code that is Linux-specific is provided in source code as a 'kernel interface layer.' When customers upgrade their kernel to get the latest from kernel.org, they have everything they need to rebuild (and even patch, if necessary) the Nvidia's driver's kernel interface layer."
See: Linux developers petition for open Linux kernel drivers and ZDNet report here.
Earlier this week, I described some Registry tweaks that force Windows to shut down faster. Another weapon in the fight against interminable shutdowns in XP is Microsoft's User Profile Hive Cleanup service, a free download written by Robin Caron.
Some programs and services don't release their connections to Registry keys when a user logs off. This can cause problems when the person tries to log onto another PC connected to the same company network, but mainly it just adds to the time it takes XP to shut down.
Before you can download the program, you have to let Microsoft validate your copy of Windows. (The program also works with Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003.) To install the program automatically, you have to have a copy of Windows Installer 2.0 on your system. Otherwise you can install it manually: Open a command prompt (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt), type cd \program files\uphclean, press Enter, type uphclean -install, and press Enter again. The program will start automatically the next time the system boots. Type exit and press Enter once more to close the command-prompt window.
Bonus shutdown-troubleshooting tip
The other day I decided for no good reason that it was time to update my 6-year-old XP system's video driver. I just happened to be visiting my display adapter's entry in Device Manager (right-click My Computer, choose Manage > Device Manager, double-click the entry under Display adapters, and select the Driver tab) and noticed that the driver was almost 5 years old. The fact that the adapter itself was 6 years old never crossed my mind.
(Quick aside: Is six years about as much useful life as you can expect from a PC? This system has been through the ringer since I use it as one of my test machines. But I've got two radios that are more than 20 years old, and they work just fine. Still, it may be time to retire this graybeard before it retires on me.)
I checked the vendor's download site and saw that the company recommended a replacement driver for that ancient model. The lure of free software was irresistible.
After I downloaded and installed the new driver, everything seemed to be working just fine, until I shut down Windows. That's when the PC restarted unexpectedly. I recognized this as a symptom of trouble, and sure enough, when Windows reloaded it ran a disk check. Though the check didn't indicate any disk errors, I was warned that Windows had recovered from a "serious error."
I started the troubleshooting process by stopping the automatic restarts: Right-click My Computer, choose Properties > Advanced, click Settings under Startup and Recovery, and uncheck Automatically restart. The next time I shut down I saw the blue screen displaying the error codes. A Web search of the code confirmed my suspicions, though a bad video driver was only one of several possibilities as the source of this error code.
Uncheck 'Automatically restart' in Windows XP's Startup and Recovery dialog box to view the error code causing the shutdown problem.
(Credit: Microsoft)Using XP's Roll Back Driver option didn't fix the problem, so I chose Uninstall instead. The next time I restarted XP, it started at the video adapter's lowest resolution, but after I readjusted it to the previous setting, the display appeared unchanged. When I reopened the display adapter's entry in Device Manager, it was back to the original driver version, but the shutdown error disappeared, and Disk Check didn't run the next time XP started.
Like they say, don't try fixing what ain't broke.
Monday: backup online for free.
My 3-year-old Hewlett-Packard PC stopped playing optical discs a couple of months ago. Not only were the built-in DVD and CD-ROM drives out of commission, I couldn't even get a brand-new external DVD drive to work. I searched and searched for driver updates, but came up empty. It wasn't until I happened upon a Registry patch on Chris Pirillo's great Lockergnome site that I got the machine to recognize the optical drives.
The patch was provided by a volunteer who had no affiliation with HP, Microsoft, or the drive vendors. It's not uncommon for PC experts to tell people to update their drivers, but I wonder if these people ever look for updates themselves.
Here's another example: I've got a Samsung SyncMaster 170MP LCD monitor that I've been using for going on five years now. It's a great little monitor (though at 17 inches diagonal it wasn't considered "little" when I bought it). Unfortunately, when I upgraded to Vista, I noticed some minor pixel swimming. As PC nuisances go, the dancing pixels are trivial--they're apparent only where a dark window edge meets a light one--but I'd rather they stopped their shuffling.
I just visited the support section of Samsung's site only to find that the company doesn't offer a Vista version of the driver for this model. Nor could I find one at any of the many sites that specialize in device-driver downloads. So I guess I'll have to put up with the pixel sizzle until I collect enough loose change to buy a new Vista-ready monitor.
Rules for avoiding hardware obsolescence
1) Don't upgrade your operating system. If the OS didn't come with the hardware, there's a great chance that an update will render some of your PC's components unusable.
2) Don't expect hardware vendors to support the products you buy from them more than a year after the purchase. In fact, you can't count on much help from them at all after the standard warranties expire. You may get troubleshooting help from other users of the products, however.
3) Before you buy any hardware, find out when it was originally released. I believe all PC components should come with a freshness date. About a year ago I bought a Linksys router that was reviewed favorably by several independent tech sites--when it was originally released 18 months earlier. In the interim, it was found to require a firmware update, but I didn't find out about its outdated firmware until I spent a day and a half trying unsuccessfully to install it on my home network. (After I downloaded the update, it worked without a hitch.)
4) Be careful when you mix and match old and new hardware and software. Replacing the hard drive on your trusty-but-ancient PC with an enormous-capacity drive that spins twice as fast as the old one will work only if the system is capable of supporting the faster speed and higher capacity. You may find it's more efficient to spend the money as part of the cost of a new PC.
5) When all else fails, bug the vendor. Send an e-mail to the company's support address (but don't bother calling the toll-free support number unless you have lots and lots of time on your hands). Detail the problem, and ask for a solution. Just don't expect to be offered one. However, if enough people complain about the same problem, the chances improve that the vendor will actually do something useful, even if it's simply to offer a discount on a replacement.
Wednesday: The first steps toward a New Year's resolution to compute in a Microsoft-less (and Apple-less) world.
The first part of this posting on dealing with software crashes covered preventing the leakage of personal information, portable applications, and controlling the programs that run automatically when Windows starts up. Here we look at dumps, event logs, and disk checking, but first, we pick up on the topic of drivers.
Driver Verifier
In Windows, the term "driver" refers to software used by the operating system to control the hardware in the computer. Each piece of hardware (sound, video, printer) has an associated driver program.
The last topic in the previous posting was an airplane analogy to illustrate the potential for problems with Windows drivers. They run alongside the most critical parts of Windows itself and a bug in the driver can crash Windows.
Considering this, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft has a utility program designed to weed out bugs in drivers. The program is called Driver Verifier, and it is included in all recent versions of Windows (Windows 2000 and later).
Driver Verifier does extra checking on the actions of drivers, while they are running, looking for potential problems. Think of it as super-debugging mode. Quoting Microsoft: "Driver Verifier monitors kernel-mode drivers and graphics drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system. It can subject the drivers to a variety of stresses and tests to find improper behavior."
I bring this up because it can be a useful thing for debugging. When working with a tech-support person, ask them if drivers are a possible cause of the software problem you are experiencing (video drivers were a suspect in the problem described in The Wall Street Journal story). If so, then ask if Drive Verifier would be helpful. If nothing else, use Driver Verifier to gauge the reaction of the person assisting you.
There is a performance cost to the extra error checking Windows does on the drivers being verified. If verification is turned on for all drivers, Windows may be noticeably slower. Hopefully, the tech-support person can limit the verifying to a small number of drivers.
But, every PC has a different set of drivers. Fortunately, Driver Verifier can list the installed drivers, their version number, and the company that produced them. To run it, open a Command Prompt window (aka DOS window) and type "verifier" without the quotes. You can then close the Command Prompt window. In Vista, a security dialog will ask for permission.
I suggest starting with the radio button that displays existing settings. If this is the first time Driver Verifier has been used, there should be no drivers listed in the right side of the resulting window.
This window also shows different types of tests that will all be set to "No" initially. Windows XP offers eight types of verification tests; Vista has a few more.
Click the back button, turn on the radio button to create standard settings, and then click the Next button. If you "Select driver names from a list," you can see all the installed drivers.
Unless you are a serious Windows techie, driver verifier does not produce any output that is of use to you. It is best used when working with assistance from professional tech support.
Minidumps
Another thing to look for when Windows software crashes is a minidump--a snapshot of the state of the system at the time of the failure.
Dumps can be invaluable to a tech-support person. I spent many years doing technical support and can attest that verbal descriptions of a problem over the phone are not much to go on. Dumps and event logs (the next topic) give a picture of the problem that no person can.
Windows dumps are only useful to someone familiar with the internal working of the operating system. Normal users can't even look at the contents of a dump, Windows does not include the necessary program (Dumpchk.exe) to format it.
Minidumps are small (88K) so sending them to tech support should not be a problem. If you're not asked to look for, or provide, a dump, it would make me wonder how capable the support person is.
By default, Windows XP writes dumps to folder C:\WINDOWS\Minidump. If this folder is empty on your computer, consider yourself lucky.
You can control a number of dump-related options. To do so in Windows XP, start at the Control Panel, then System, then the Advanced tab, and finally click on the Settings button in the start-up and recovery section.
In the system failure section (the bottom half of the resulting window, shown above), I suggest enabling the option to write an event to the system log and turning off the option of automatic restart.
In the write debugging information section, "small memory dump 64K" is the default and should be fine. Only if a tech-support person says this small/minidump doesn't provide enough information, would I chose one of the other options.
The small dump directory defaults to %SystemRoot%\Minidump, which normally translates to C:\WINDOWS\Minidump. There is no need to change it.
Minidumps have a file type of .DMP. The format of the filename is MiniMMDDYY-99 where the last two numbers are a sequence number. For example, Mini110407-01.dmp is the first dump taken on November 4, 2007.
Event Logs
Event logs provide a history of problems and thus can be very helpful in debugging software problems.
To look at the event logs in Windows XP, start at the Control Panel, select Administrative Tools, then Event Viewer. There are at least three different logs: Application, Security, and System. Each log is separate file. To determine the filename and location, right-click on the name of the log, get the Properties, and look for the "Log name." By default, the Application, Security, and System log files are respectively:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\AppEvent.Evt
C:\WINDOWS\System32\config\SecEvent.Evt
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\SysEvent.Evt
A tech-support person should be interested in some, if not all of these files. Event logs shouldn't be that big; in XP they max out at 512K by default.
Check Disk
A corrupted file system may play a part in any software failure. One of the first steps to take when dealing with a software crash should be to run the Windows Check Disk utility.
To do so, open My Computer and get the properties of the C disk. Then go to the Tools tab and click on the Check Now button. This opens a windows with two Check Disk options; I suggest turning on both options. When you click the Start button, Windows will say it can't check a disk that's in use and ask if you want to schedule the checking for the next restart. Say yes and then restart Windows.
Checking a disk can take a long time and Windows does not stop when it's done to let you view any messages. But there is no need to watch the thing run since a summary of the disk checking is written to the Application log. Just after Windows starts up, look at the top of the Application log (where the most recent events should be) for an event with a source of "Winlogon" and a type of "Information." Double-click on it to see the results of the disk check. In my experience, minor inconsistencies are the rule rather than the exception.
May your Minidump folder be forever empty.
Sometimes calling tech support can be a real pain--like when you can't get a hard-to-obtain printer that was just reported stolen to work for you.
That's apparently the experience of Timothy Scott Short, who was arrested earlier this month after allegedly stealing a computer and printer used for producing driver's licenses and then calling Digimarc's tech support line a couple of times seeking software for the same model printer, according to a report from IDG. Short was charged with felony possession of "document-making implements" in connection with the October 5 theft of a PC and Digimarc printer used to print driver's licenses for the Missouri Department of Revenue.
However, the stolen PC has a lock that prevents its unauthorized use and its key was stored elsewhere, according to the department's director. Without the software on the PC, the printer won't print licenses. Needless to say that this is not the kind of printer you can pick up at CompUSA.
Two days after the theft, Digimarc's tech help line got a call from someone named "Scott" who wanted to buy software for the same model of printer that was stolen from the Missouri office building, IDG said. The tech staff tipped off the Secret Service, who listened to a recording of the caller's voice and recognized it as Short's from another, unrelated investigation, IDG reported. The caller also gave Digimarc a contact phone number that was used in the previous Short investigation.
A Secret Service agent said the printer's only use is the manufacture of licenses, and added that the personal information for as many as 500 Missouri residents was on the PC, IDG reported.
Short faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
Here's some welcome news from Novell: it is paying for an engineer's time to write free (as in cost) open-source (as in transparency and freedom) Linux device drivers for those who release the hardware specs of their devices. From the developer's blog:
Yes, that's right, the Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. No longer do you have to suffer through all of the different examples in the Linux Device Driver Kit, or pick through the thousands of example drivers in the Linux kernel source tree trying to determine which one is the closest to what you need to do.
... Read more
ATI, the graphics chip business Advanced Micro Devices acquired, is planning to release new graphics drivers for Linux, and the move should provide a much-needed performance boost and a new open-source approach, one expert said Wednesday.
"The performance overall for the past sixteen months has been stagnant," said Michael Larabel, who runs the Phoronix site to monitor Linux graphics performance. He tested the driver and said the new 8.41 version will be available within the next week. "The new driver delivers massive performance improvements."
That's handy for the graphics wonks who want fancy 3D-graphics desktop effects through software such as AIGLX, Beryl and Compiz. Drivers let operating systems communicate with hardware, but with ATI's proprietary drivers, open-source programmers have been beholden to ATI.
Perhaps more significantly, AMD could be following Intel's open-source graphics driver. "In the near future, AMD will be making an announcement about accelerating efforts within the open-source community," Larabel said. Depending on how far AMD goes, that could make Nvidia the odd man out when it comes to staying proprietary.
AMD plans to make an announcement Thursday regarding "open-source drivers for their graphics cards," according to press invitation Wednesday, but the invitation offered no further details.
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