Radeon driver in linux libre

[Ufa]

Hello Rubén,

Is there any update on this matter?

I am an ATi user, and wasn't aware that I lost my 3D accel in linux-libre.

Regards




On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:45 PM, Rubén Rodríguez Pérez <ruben at es.gnu.org>wrote:

> >> Someone at this forum said that this parser can be avoided via a (less
> >> powerfull) MMIO method, thus providing 3D support for ATI cards in the
> >> linux-libre kernel, which would be great. I'll ask this person about it.
> >
> > Hmm, interesting, I hadn't realized that.  This would indeed be awesome.
> >
>
> I've got a response from John Bridgman, AMD's responsible for GNU/Linux
> drivers, and it seems that whithout the microcode we can only achieve 2D
> (and partial 3D) acceleration, but just for old cards. New cards need the
> firmware for both 2D and 3D routines, and even Xv extensions. I'm not sure
> if it's worth maintaining a deblobed driver, as those cards are usable
> without DRM anyway (with no acceleration). An additional response from
> Alex Deucher (xorg.org developer) confirms the technical difficulties.
>
> Mr Bridgman also ask's me why embedded firmware is ok for us while the
> same binary in a file is not.
>
> I think a correct answer is this:
> If the firmware is invisibly burned inside the hardware in a way I cannot
> access to it, then I don't need a software license to use my video card.
> If I need to get and use a file from a software provider (the card
> vendor), then it's fine as long as its license respects my freedom.
>
> As my response can be taken as GNU's one, I prefer to ask you before
> replying to him.
>
> I think it would be nice to convince them about this issue, is a tiny
> piece of code that will render the driver non free, thus forcing us to
> give AMD not credit for their freedom efforts.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> linux-libre mailing list
> linux-libre at fsfla.org
> http://www.fsfla.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linux-libre
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/attachments/20090202/db48394d/attachment.htm