According new release notes for driver 177.80 from nVidia (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/177.80/README/appendix-a.html) support for GeForce FX 5 series droped. But legacy 173.14.x support it (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/173.14.12/README/appendix-a.html) Now section "Driver Compatibility" should look like this: GeForce 9, 8, 7, 6 - latest GeForce 5 - 173.14.x GeForce 4, 3 - 96.43.x Older NV2 cards - 71.86.x
Despite the lack of an update to the legacy drivers page at http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html, this is indeed true (tested with an FX5200 under x86). After masking the relevant packages, it works fine with the legacy 173.14.x drivers. The nvidia-drivers eclass knows about this new restriction (although because it only tells ewarn and not elog, most people will miss the message. That's a different bug though) and supplies the relevant package mask as >=x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-177.0.0 The first 177 series drivers have just arrived in x86 stable, so this will now be hitting all the stable users with old cards.
Fixed in CVS.
