Bug 127520

> Status:
> - initial installation via YOU already works (use you.suse.de for testing)

Currently broken due to restrictions of the new ATI webserver. Use 

  http://www.ati.com/online/403/leech.asp

to see what will happen. We're currently discussing this issue with ATI.

Matthew, just to keep you up-to-date.

The new drivers, 8.18.8, are out, this looks like a minor upgrade. Are the problems now fixed? Will we get a installer script with you? And if, when?

Adding Roland to Cc. Roland, this keeps you up-to-date. Sorry, I can't make any promises when this will happen. 

(Sorry, thought that I am already in the CC).
If I can provide help in any way, please tell me.

What I can say: it works nice, without any problems. I generated the SUSE rpm out of the *.run binary, installed kernel-dev, installed the rpm, and run sax2. Although sax2 said the 3d is not marked, it works now with 3d support.

Permanent download URLs considered being very STABLE by ATI.

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/dlmdownloads.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-8.19.10-i386.run
https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/dlmdownloads.ati.com/drivers/linux/64bit/ati-driver-installer-8.19.10-x86_64.run

Anyway, we'll try to redirect them, but we need to make sure that no non-ATI Referer headers are added by redirecting, because only ATI referers or none at all are accepted.

Susanne should be aware of this as well. For all the others not involved in the kernel update process in general. This mechanism has turned out to be more complex than I (and maybe all of us) thought. :-( Unfortunately you can't expect a solution still for SUSE 10.0, but we hope to see the mechanism in place for (open)SUSE 10.1 Beta1 for testing. For now use my ATI installer HOWTO to install the driver.

  --> http://www.suse.de/~sndirsch/ati-installer-HOWTO.html

What about the following idea: Ask both nVidia and ATI if the code for the kernel modules could be integrated into the default kernel. While I understand that the driver itself should be closed-source, the source of the kernel module doesn´t reveal anything about the hardware. So IMHO it could be included. This would have the benefits that (1) the drivers work when doing a kernel upgrade (the kernel module should support all recent drivers and not only one version) and (2) everything you need to download the driver is the driver itself and (3) you don´t need an installer which compiles the kernel module
This would be a real benefit for all linux distributions, not only for SuSE. Since KDE4 will most likely need the proprietary drivers and the installers are not suitable for newbies to linux this is IMHO important to have an easy option to install the driver. The way SuSE does this for nvidia should become the standard way for linux.

Michael, I wonder if you're joking or simply don't know what you're talking of ...

*** Bug 148266 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

We will not ship any non GPL kernel modules and not offer any download solution
via YOU.

Most developers of the kernel community consider non-GPL kernel
modules to be infringing on their copyright. Novell does respect this
position, and will no longer distribute non-GPL kernel modules as part of
future products. Novell is working with vendors to find alternative
ways to provide the functionality that was previously only available
with non-GPL kernel modules. 

I understand this strategy for OpenSuse - but what about the retail version? Also, downloading via YOU does not mean that these components are part of the product - it is merely a convenient way to install them, which has always been a big advantage of Suse Linux.

The principal in #22 is universal, we will not ship non-GPL kernel drivers with future products like SUSE Linux 10.1 - either FTP or Retail.

I know that downloading does not legally make it part of the product but we decided to not do it.

I have to rephrase the last sentence, I meant to imply "downloading via YOU":

I know that downloading via YOU does not ...