Radeon driver in linux libre

[Rubén Rodríguez Pérez]

Hello to everyone.

First I will introduce myself: I'm a GNU hacker from Spain, and also the
Trisquel GNU/linux project leader, a free distro that uses linux-libre.

I'm reviewing the linux-libre list of changes, to see if any of them can
be done by removing the non-free parts instead of the whole files. As
many drivers cover several devices, some of them may work. The one I'm
currently reviewing is the ATI radeon (and r128) driver.

I've read at the Debian wiki that Alexandre already analyzed this files.
Do you know if someone tried to make the driver run without the CP
microcode? I've read at the phoronix forums that CP stands for Command
Processor, and that it is essentially a parser:
http://www.phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8427&page=3

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.

Regards,
Ruben