Radeon Kernel Driver Deprecates UMS Mode-Setting

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Radeon Kernel Driver Deprecates UMS Mode-Setting

The open-source AMD Radeon Linux graphics stack has been deprecating the user-space mode-setting (UMS) code for a while and is now finally making the kernel-space mode-setting (KMS) support the default Radeon interface for the Linux kernel...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTI2ODA

[oibaf]

Does libdrm still have UMS support?

[zoomblab]

This change will likely come for the Linux 3.9

This is an aspect of open source drivers that I hate. From the user perspective, having to change the kernel version in order to update the drivers is crazy. Why? Because compiling the kernel from source is something no sane user will ever do. Even in the case of packaged updates from distribution, different kernels bring in regressions and incompatibilities. Do I have to update the windows kernel to update my drivers? No.

[Ancurio]

This is an aspect of open source drivers that I hate. From the user perspective, having to change the kernel version in order to update the drivers is crazy. Why? Because compiling the kernel from source is something no sane user will ever do. Even in the case of packaged updates from distribution, different kernels bring in regressions and incompatibilities. Do I have to update the windows kernel to update my drivers? No.

How would you even know if the windows kernel was updated behind your back?

[Rexilion]

This is an aspect of open source drivers that I hate. From the user perspective, having to change the kernel version in order to update the drivers is crazy. Why? Because compiling the kernel from source is something no sane user will ever do. Even in the case of packaged updates from distribution, different kernels bring in regressions and incompatibilities. Do I have to update the windows kernel to update my drivers? No.

That is why it is a good reason you can choose between systems.

Windows XP gave us trouble once we installed SP2. The LAN card would handle at most 5 packets and then it stalled. Where do you report a bug for such an old system? We had to wait till SP3 for this to be fixed. In the meantime you are vulnerable to all sorts of stuff and cannot use anything that requires SP2+.

I don't study computer science or anything related like that. However, I did manage to help out the nouveau and wireless devs by bisecting. Git is not rocket science.

Furthermore, Linux kernel policy is to allow backwards compatibility. You could take a distro that has v3.9 and put v3.4 on it and off you go. v3.4 is still supported with security updates.

And of course there is also Mac. But there, the price is (to me) not worth the additional quality.

[curaga]

Do I have to update the windows kernel to update my drivers? No.

Not as often, but you do. "This driver requires at least SP3"

[zoomblab]

Windows XP gave us trouble once we installed SP2. The LAN card would handle at most 5 packets and then it stalled. Where do you report a bug for such an old system? We had to wait till SP3 for this to be fixed. In the meantime you are vulnerable to all sorts of stuff and cannot use anything that requires SP2+.

That is exactly what I mean. Regressions are dreadful on any system, although they appear a lot more often on open source. The point is that you could choose to stay with Windows XP SP1 and still get driver updates for the rest of the OS lifetime (10+ years).

[curaga]

You can't, perhaps you missed my post right above yours

[Rexilion]

That is exactly what I mean. Regressions are dreadful on any system, although they appear a lot more often on open source. The point is that you could choose to stay with Windows XP SP1 and still get driver updates for the rest of the OS lifetime (10+ years).

Windows XP SP1 is unsupported since october 10 2006. However, your point has some validity though as Windows XP as an operating system as a whole still has *some* support.

I'm going to bring up the fact that nouveau is an nVidia driver written from scratch and still under heavy development. The alternative is the proprietary nVidia driver which is also fine by me or the nv driver which is not supported anymore.

Other kernel drivers such as sata_nv, forcedeth, nv_tco, many USB and several audio drivers never regressed on me since they were declared stable.

I had issue's with b43 and rt2860 especially since they were under development as well. But for the b43 I can say that it functions way better now than it did under Vista which was 'supported' and carried the latest updates at the time. As a sidenote, Vista kind of failed miserably. I was not even an early adapter but still got screwed over by MicroSuck. And you can get screwed by Linux as well, definitly. But you have, again to my opinion, more power to do something about it. Either get it fixed or downgrade your kernel. Both systems cost personal time to 'fix', but Linux did not cost me money.

FWIW, I Never used the rt2860 under Windows though.

[agd5f]

Note that this patch doesn't remove any functionality. It just marks UMS as deprecated which is a warning to people to wean themselves off of UMS over the next few years.