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Tags:
drivers
nvidia
kernel
xorg
nouveau
Link:
🔍 See Original Answer on Ask Ubuntu ⧉ 🔗
URL:
https://askubuntu.com/q/1009652
Title:
What is the difference between graphics drivers in the kernel, and graphics drivers for Xorg?
ID:
/2018/02/25/What-is-the-difference-between-graphics-drivers-in-the-kernel_-and-graphics-drivers-for-Xorg_
Created:
February 25, 2018
Edited: February 25, 2018
Upload:
September 15, 2024
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Difference between two files
Differences can be found on many levels. For this limited answer the size differences and application differences are described.
Size differences
$ ll /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 221200 Jul 6 2017 /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nouveau_drv.so
$ ll /lib/modules/4.14.20-041420-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3646510 Feb 16 15:53 /lib/modules/4.14.20-041420-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau/nouveau.ko
The kernel Nouveau module is 16 times larger than the Xorg driver. This implies the kernel module does a lot more.
There are additional Xorg drivers some systems (especially laptops) will have:
In Debian the 2D graphics drivers for the X.Org Server are packaged
individually and called xserver-xorg-video-*.[7] After installation
the 2D graphics driver-file is found under
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/. The package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
installs nouveau_drv.so with a size of 215 KiB, the proprietary Nvidia
GeForce driver installs a 8 MiB-sized file called nvidia_drv.so …
The nvidia_drv.so is 37 times larger than nouveau_drv.so.
Application differences
The kernel Nouveau module is a .ko file and the Xorg driver is a .drv.so file type. This question asks what the difference is between the two file types. The best answer (IMO) states:
In laymen terms:
Kernel modules (ko) run in kernel space, user modules (so) run in user
space.Kernel spaces facilitate (or not) access to a variety of functions
that user space does not.Kernel modules are always executed in kernel space and if buggy or
erroneous, can freeze the system.User space is “protected” and a buggy module or app is less likely to
crash the system.