Chapter 1. Introduction

About the NVIDIA Accelerated FreeBSD Graphics Driver

The NVIDIA Accelerated FreeBSD Graphics Driver brings accelerated 2D functionality and high-performance OpenGL support to FreeBSD x86_64 with the use of NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs).

These drivers provide optimized hardware acceleration for OpenGL and X applications and support nearly all recent NVIDIA GPU products (see Appendix A, Supported NVIDIA GPU Products for a complete list of supported GPUs).

About this Document

This document provides instructions for the installation and use of the NVIDIA Accelerated FreeBSD Graphics Driver. Chapter 3, Installing the NVIDIA Driver, Chapter 5, Using Linux Compatibility Support and Chapter 6, Configuring X for the NVIDIA Driver walk the user through the process of downloading, installing and configuring the driver. Chapter 7, Frequently Asked Questions addresses frequently asked questions about the installation process, and Chapter 8, Common Problems provides solutions to common problems. The remaining chapters include details on different features of the NVIDIA FreeBSD Driver. Frequently asked questions about specific tasks are included in the relevant chapters.

About the Audience

It is assumed that the user and reader of this document has at least a basic understanding of FreeBSD techniques and terminology. However, new FreeBSD users can refer to Appendix G, Tips for New FreeBSD Users for details on parts of the installation process.

Additional Information

In case additional information is required, Chapter 28, NVIDIA Contact Info and Additional Resources provides contact information for NVIDIA FreeBSD driver resources, as well as a brief listing of external resources.