Howdy,
This is just a note about the current state of affairs with proprietary 
drivers in SL5.  This isn't to bash any vendor or start any debate, it's 
just to give information.  These results are as of last week, May 25, 2007.
I will admit to being wrong.  So if someone has either a reasonable fix, 
or proof to the contrary, please let me know.

ATI
For older releases (SL3 and SL4) ATI's proprietary driver compile and 
installation program works quite well.  It can be used in graphical or 
text mode.
For SL5 the driver does not compile.  That isn't readily apparent 
because the error flashes by so fast.  But when you try to use the ati 
drivers, they aren't there.
As far as I can tell, the world in general know about this, and 
hopefully ATI is doing something about it.  So, if you have an ATI based 
system, and are relying on the ATI drivers for some fancy stuff, be sure 
to check and make sure ATI has finolly gotten a working driver ready 
before you upgrade to SL5.

NVIDIA
NVidia now has different proprietary drivers.  Some work with the older 
cards, some with the bleeding edge cards.  So nowdays you need to check 
which card you have to determine which driver to install.  The quickest 
way that I know of (there probrubly is others) is to go to their driver 
download page, select the family of cards that I have (do a lspci to see 
which you have) and then see which driver it has me download.
I can only speak for their 9755 driver, I haven't tested any others. 
But I believe this driver covers the most cards.
The installer is the same nvidia compiler and installer.
On SL3 and SL4 the driver builds and installs correctly for the normal 
kernels.
On SL5 the driver builds and installs correctly for the normal kernel.
On SL5 the driver does NOT build for the xen kernel.  It specifically 
tells you that it will not build for a xen kernel.
So the end conclusion, nvidia's drivers are still working good for 
normal kernels.  But they will not even compile for the xen kernels.

Troy
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Troy Dawson  [log in to unmask]  (630)840-6468
Fermilab  ComputingDivision/LCSI/CSI DSS Group
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