<div class="gmail_quote">Hello Rubén,<br><br>Is there any update on this matter?<br><br>I am an ATi user, and wasn't aware that I lost my 3D accel in linux-libre.<br><br>Regards<div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 6:45 PM, Rubén Rodríguez Pérez <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ruben@es.gnu.org" target="_blank">ruben@es.gnu.org</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div>>> Someone at this forum said that this parser can be avoided via a (less<br>
>> powerfull) MMIO method, thus providing 3D support for ATI cards in the<br>
>> linux-libre kernel, which would be great. I'll ask this person about it.<br>
><br>
> Hmm, interesting, I hadn't realized that. This would indeed be awesome.<br>
><br>
<br>
</div>I've got a response from John Bridgman, AMD's responsible for GNU/Linux<br>
drivers, and it seems that whithout the microcode we can only achieve 2D<br>
(and partial 3D) acceleration, but just for old cards. New cards need the<br>
firmware for both 2D and 3D routines, and even Xv extensions. I'm not sure<br>
if it's worth maintaining a deblobed driver, as those cards are usable<br>
without DRM anyway (with no acceleration). An additional response from<br>
Alex Deucher (<a href="http://xorg.org" target="_blank">xorg.org</a> developer) confirms the technical difficulties.<br>
<br>
Mr Bridgman also ask's me why embedded firmware is ok for us while the<br>
same binary in a file is not.<br>
<br>
I think a correct answer is this:<br>
If the firmware is invisibly burned inside the hardware in a way I cannot<br>
access to it, then I don't need a software license to use my video card.<br>
If I need to get and use a file from a software provider (the card<br>
vendor), then it's fine as long as its license respects my freedom.<br>
<br>
As my response can be taken as GNU's one, I prefer to ask you before<br>
replying to him.<br>
<br>
I think it would be nice to convince them about this issue, is a tiny<br>
piece of code that will render the driver non free, thus forcing us to<br>
give AMD not credit for their freedom efforts.<br>
<div><div></div><div><br>
<br>
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