Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 9th Sep 2009 22:29 UTC, submitted by lemur2
Open source 3D graphics drivers for ATI R600 garphics cards has been submitted to the kernel-next tree for possible inclusion in the Linux kernel 2.6.32. "David Airlie has pushed a horde of new code into his drm-next Git tree, which is what will get pulled into the Linux 2.6.32 kernel once the merge window is open. Most prominently, this new DRM code brings support for kernel mode-setting with R600 class hardware as well as 3D support."
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RE[7]: Things are Still a Mess
by lemur2 on Thu 10th Sep 2009 13:05
in reply to "RE[6]: Things are Still a Mess"
Member since:2007-02-17
"Nope. Just plain no. Shun binary drivers. We now have specifications for, and open source drivers for, fully-funtional competitive-performance ATI cards.
And STILL the open-source drivers for older ATi cards lack all kinds of features whereas the nVidia's binary-only drivers for similarly old hardware support all their features and work just peachy. "
You can blather all you want about open-source superiority, but I have only been let down by the open-source ATi and nVidia drivers.
How can you have been let down by the open source ATI driver (the one built from the specifications) when it hasn't been released yet? It won't be generally available until distributions include kernel 2.6.32. Only this week kernel 2.6.31 was released.
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NzUyMA
Any open source driver for ATI cards you have seen so far has been built by reverse-engineering. Not from specs. This is also true (and still is) for any open source nvidia driver. This is ALWAYS going to be disappointing.
Fixed now though, for Intel cards and for recent (R600 or later) ATI cards. These are both built from specs. The Intel drivers are written by Intel, and released as open source. The ATI drivers are not however written by ATI ... ATI instead released the specs to open source developers. The drivers for these when they become available will be fully functional. And fixable. And "debuggable". The ATI cards are far better performing than the Intel cards.
Nvidia cards won't be anywhere near this race.
Edited 2009-09-10 13:21 UTC
Member since:
2006-02-15
A binary driver fails with the first kernel update.
Actually, it usually just gets recompiled at boot. Atleast on my Mandriva it does.
Nope. Just plain no. Shun binary drivers. We now have specifications for, and open source drivers for, fully-funtional competitive-performance ATI cards.
And STILL the open-source drivers for older ATi cards lack all kinds of features whereas the nVidia's binary-only drivers for similarly old hardware support all their features and work just peachy.
You can blather all you want about open-source superiority, but I have only been let down by the open-source ATi and nVidia drivers.