Slackware doesn't start X by default. If the nouveau module doesn't require KMS, it is even better when it is only loaded on demand.

Of course the real problem lies upstream: There is a driver that claims supporting hardware, so Xorg doesn't fall back to VESA. And there is no way I know of to tell Xorg to prefer VESA to nouveau without breaking autodetection of any other hardware.

According to nVidia's documentation, this is all we need in /etc/modprobe.d:
The latter stops the module from unconditionally modesetting the console, when it's loaded manually.

That's good enough for people wanting to use the blob or vesa, though in the latter case they will get the infamous message "(EE) [drm] failed to open device" in their X log, but that can be considered as a minor inconvenience.

But then you will have to instruct people preferring nouveau to remove the line "nouveau modeset=0" otherwise they won't be able to use it at all.

Amazingly, sometimes nVidias 'new hardware' is actually new, not rebranded. (sorry, offtopic, but I'm really unimpressed with how much nVidia is doing that these days...along with several different hardware versions with the same GPU branding).

nVidia quite often doesnt have linux support with its closed binary drivers from day 1 of release of any given card.

Nouveau not supporting new hardware for a while untill after release is something that could be fixed fairly easily, but we are back to 'nVidia doesnt give half a damn about open source'.

nVidia most certainly DOESNT support 15 year old hardware properly.

You might have been fooled by nVidia still releasing stuff like 'updated' 71.XX drivers for linux (for vanta/riva/TNT/TNT2/GF1/GF3 cards). Guess what, even though they release newer drivers, they are not updated to work with newer xorg versions.......which makes them basicly useless.

96.XX (GF2-GF4) is going the same way. I havent checked if the newest release of the 96.XX drivers work with the newest xorg vesion....even if it does there was well over a year where the 96.XX drivers did not support the currect xorg versions. Even 173.XX (GF-FX) has long periods where its not supporting the newest xorg versions either.

That is right i have this card: RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro and i have tried to get this drivers: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.13-pkg1.run NVIDIA-Linux-x86-71.86.15-pkg1.run to work with my card but no go, i never understand why but here is the answer.

There are other video cards besides nvida and radeon, GNU/Linux users should look for them and avoid all the thouble. Who here have tried any other?
What about Matrox? Cirrus?

I really feel we are stuck on this because we have been only buying this kind of products, so we got ourselves in this situation, some manufacturers just stop making alternatives because we dont buy their products, check this: http://www.3dlabs.com/content/legacy/
We really should stop support corporations like nvidia and look for alternatives. If we want a change then we have to make it happen.

Regards

That happens, especially above the 50 bucks low-end segment.

And sometimes they add support for GPUs not released to the market yet. For day 1 just get the latest Beta driver and you're fine. They make Linux drivers for their professional customers, who usually are not early-adopters.