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The hurdle Noveau is facing is that some things, like reclocking, need firmware loaded onto the card. The firmware is not in non-volatile memory on the hardware, but a file shipped with drivers, the one shipped with proprietary drivers is not redistributable and if you wanted to make your own, it needs to be signed by Nvidia anyway.

That's pretty much game over for Noveau, and it is not due to difficulties in figuring out registers and NV ISA.



The reclocking never really worked well on chips that were older than this signing requirement either.

But that's a bit besides the point :)


Why would you make your FW blobs be non-redistributable? An FW blob has only the purpose of running your hardware for your customers.

I can understand preventing FW patching, maybe. But redistributing the manufacturer's genuine FW, why not?




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