[Bug 171] Review Request: rpmfusion-config-display - tool to manage proprietary graphic drivers

[RPM Fusion Bugzilla]

http://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=171





--- Comment #13 from Stewart Adam <s.adam at diffingo.com>  2009-01-04 19:43:29 ---
Created an attachment (id=70)
 --> (http://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/attachment.cgi?id=70)
Mockup of new interface

(In reply to comment #12)
> - why is this tool called "Proprietary GPU Driver Configuration"? I'd say it
> should just be something more general like "Graphics Drivers Configuration", as
> the tool should just chose between the available drivers (some of them might be
> proprietary, others not)
Proprietary GPU Driver Configuration was just the first thing that came to
mind, as I wanted to avoid confusion with "Display Configuration" which is
system-config-display... But I think Graphics Driver Configuration is distinct
enough to avoid confusion, so I'll change it to that.

> - if started on intel hardware (where no other driver is available) the tools
> should just state something like "There is only one driver for your hardware
> that is enabled by default" 
Will do.

> - is the whole "Hardware Information" section (in the upper 1/3 of the GUI)
> really needed? 99% of our users likely have just one card; my intel graphics is
> shows as two graphic cards, which is confusing (I assume the same will happen
> with some AMD cards, as they have two entries in the pci list). 
I originally put this section there so that users could see the recommended
driver for any given GPU on their system. It could be removed entirely, but if
the user does have two different cards installed, we might encounter some bugs
(r-c-d will have to assume that the user wants to use the first detected
card)... But that's nowhere near the majority of the cases. Those users can
always use the CLI interface anyhow, which supports --list-gpus and --set-gpu.

> I'd say the section should just get removed and the tool should just do the
> right thing: Select the proper driver automatically -- mixing different
> proprietary drivers (different ones from Nvidia or AMD and Nvidia) isn't
> supported in any case
This gets a bit more complicated, as users may want to switch between nVidia
variants for different reasons (for example, like when that KDE slowness bug
was present in the 177 series driver). I'd prefer to keep the variant selection
in there if possible with the the "autoselect" button enabled by default.

> - The "driver configuration" in the lower 1/3 of the GUI should be IMHO removed
> as well -- it's redundant with the stuff in the middle
I hadn't thought of making the open-source drivers selectable in the list
instead of adding enable/disable buttons... That would make the interface much
more simple (see attached mockup).

> - Why display the kernel-version? That is irrelevant for most users
Now that F10 masks boot messages by default, it'll be hard for users to catch
the initscript's warnings if they're missing a kmod. We'll either need to have
a way for users to check the driver status, or document how to do it from the
CLI.


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