Quick poll. Should we add the nvidia drivers to the ISO for 19.10?
As part of 19.04, there is a toggle checkbox in the installer which if selected, will download from the internet the appropriate nvidia driver and install it for you - assuming you have nvidia graphics!
At 19.10 Ubuntu & Ubuntu Mate will now be installing the two main nvidia drivers on the ISO - so users who do not have internet connectivity can still install the nvidia drivers.
The ISO will increase by 114MB if we include the nvidia drivers.
So the question - should we include nvidia drivers on our 19.10 ISO?
No - do not include the nvidia drivers as part of the ISO
Yes - include the nvidia drivers as part of the ISO
That’s not how I would have « formulated » the idea proprietary drivers usually show better performances and provide features nouveau won’t. They also may have their own bugs…
Proprietary ( nvidia ) drivers are useful when :
â‹… you have an nvidia graphic card which is not supported by nouveau,
⋅ you have intensive needs in graphical area ( heavy image and video editing, 3D think Blender, games… )
⋅ GPU specific features are requested…
Regarding nvidia driver inclusion into ISO, well why not, it will ease life of nvidia hardware owners, and if it’s « legally » allowed.
This move may enforce the need for a minimal Budgie ISO aside ( only budgie environment without nvidia blob ).
Just remind it’s not open-source, so bugs found in these proprietary drivers can’t be fixed by Canonical / Ubuntu community. You have to trust the vendor.
The fan on my GT730 card screams with the open source driver so installing the proprietary driver during installation saves an installation and reboot step.
A driver’s problem I had recently was getting a black screen instead of a login screen after installing the nvidia proprietary driver. If I had chosen the proprietary driver during installation, would the result (of the black screen) have been the same? I mean, if the nvidia driver would be part the ISO file, could I make a wrong choice (not working graphics driver) during the installation and end up with non-working system?
Way back when I was playing the role of deb maintainer and contributing to a distro we went this route. Nvidia Proprietary drivers caused more than a few headaches. Nvidia wasn’t the best at considering deb integration or playing well with others and small differences in individual systems caused complex errors that were often extremely hard to diagnose (example: a needle in a haystack config difference threw Nvidia off and were hard to find, Nvidia not too helpful messaging-wise, etc.). The distro’s I worked on Sid based and that contributed but as an end user, there is nothing less acceptable than booting into my fresh install and getting a black screen. This was several years ago, perhaps Ubuntu and Nvidia co-operate better than before, perhaps my knowledge is obsolete but I did want to explain my no vote.
As a distro, you do have to find a happy medium between new install ease and usability. You also need to keep focused on who you are. You have a really super distro here that seems to be focused on providing a lite-weight, beautiful, rock solid distro that doesn’t have a large footprint. From there users can configure what they do or don’t want. That is my sense or your core mission, I could be wrong.
For me personally there are some things I install every time I do a fresh install (qBittorent, Geany, Nvidia drivers, gMusic Browser, etc) but I wouldn’t choose Budgie for those items, I select a distro that I can download quickly, get up quickly and configure to my tastes with as little effort as possible and will stay solid after the install. Budgie does that magnificently.
I don’t see how adding the Nvidia Drivers fits with your mission or niche. It’s an easy trap to fall into, to try to be more and appeal to more people, distros expand infinitely. Sometimes less is more.
Apologies for the long post, love what you have done here and with or without Nvidia drivers can’t see me leaving.
Since nouveau did work for me out of the box, and I had (black-screen-) problems with nvidia driver, I suppose that adding the nvidia driver to ISO file could possibly bring more harm than good.
If someone could make a bad choice during the installation process (like choosing the wrong driver) and end up (like me) with a black screen, my thinking is that this could really damage the reputation of the distro.
Many linux users have experience and can help themselves, but I have some friends that love using linux distros, but don’t have any deeper knowledge and don’t want to mess with the terminal or do trouble shooting.
Those benefit from the tendency that the installation of most linux distros is ever more easy and seamless, doesn’t necessarily need further configuration, and and you can use the OS like a “plug-and-play” device.
Maybe adding the nvidia driver to the ISO could scare away many users from using Ubuntu Budgie (what would really be a shame) when it compromised the installation process. Like @statmonkey well points out: “There is nothing less acceptable than booting into my fresh install and getting a black screen.”. Instead of a “killer-distro”, you would have a “distro-killer”.
I have previously marked “yes” in the poll, but after some thinking, I would reconsider.
Due to some hardware changes I decided to do a clean install. The install process for disco went flawlessly including it picking up and offering me a choice of Nvidia drivers. I can’t see what you would want to change or what issue this would solve. Beautiful install, quick and very intuitive as it is.
proprietary drivers usually show better performances and provide features nouveau won’t. They also may have their own bugs…