# legacy nVidia on FreeBSD 12.2



## multix (Nov 23, 2020)

Hi all,
I have a laptop with a legacy nVidia in a laptop (so well, can't change it) I just installed 12.2 on.
I have another laptop with a similar card, running 12.1 and the legacy drivers "fine" so I fear an update!!!

first, I tried using nvidia-drivers-304 as said here: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/howto-setup-xorg-with-nvidias-driver.52311/ using "nvidia" and not "nvidia-modesetting" given the old version.
With this I have several issues
* wired ethernet disappears if nvidia kernel module is loaded at start
* driver ABI does not match Xorg, so i added "ignoreABI" in xorg as server flags
* even with fiddling with various options in xorg.conf generated by nvidia-xconfig get only bad artefacts on screen (the green logo shortly appears, then just bars and a blinking cursor, need to reset the machine)

It seems to me that without an update from nVidia (a courtesy for these older cards) it is a no-go. I see a bug about this.

second, as some suggestions say, use the old nv driver, which should support my 7300 card! Any luck on using it?
Here I see garbage on the screen (like "wrong sync") and even some blocky pixels that move as a mouse, but there are no errors and I can actually switch-consoles, kill X... so unusable, but somehow working. I tried forcing 1440x900 resolution, but no help.
If I disable Accel (Option=NoAccel) I get instead a blacksscreen and a crash.

Last attempt is to use the vesa driver, but it doesn't find a suitable 1440x900 mode. Xorg crashes then again

Other operating systems suggest nuouveau, but it was removed from FreeBSD. So I see dim solutions ....

Any chance in helping me out with at least the  old nv driver? or vesa?


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## multix (Nov 23, 2020)

Bug report


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## drhowarddrfine (Nov 23, 2020)

Nvidia shows the last update from them is 11.0-RELEASE.

Don't mess with xorg.conf. Just install the driver and let FreeBSD detect your hardware. See where that stands.

There is also this.


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