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VIA Secretly Has A Working Gallium3D Driver

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  • #21
    Originally posted by Sonadow View Post
    I had a look at the VIA binary driver; it's strictly Ubuntu-only. All the paths are hardcoded to those found in Ubuntu and Ubuntu-based distributions:



    Haven't downloaded the source code from VIA's portal yet but judging by how small the source zipfile is (less than 2mb) im a bit dubious about whether it contains the full stack, and whether it can even compile on a non-Ubuntu system.
    That is Debian multiarch, not just *buntu.

    And it still is quite possible to change the paths in the script, so it would be more appropriate to test with
    Code:
    find -name '*.so*' |xargs strings | grep /lib.*86.*-linux-gnu
    ...which could still be fixed with chrpath or the like, FWIW.


    For those who are worried about whether it can be used in later releases: source code is preferable, but ISTR that one argument for dropping the old drivers was that Mesa 7.11 binary drivers could be used with newer Mesa.


    And the reason that AMD and Nvidia don't use Gallium is that they have drivers written--why would you re-write a "working" driver just so you use a framework for making writing drivers easier?
    Nvidia uses the same codebase for all drivers, and I think AMD shares a bit; that gets harder with two different frameworks.

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    • #22
      Originally posted by Ibidem View Post
      That is Debian multiarch, not just *buntu.

      And it still is quite possible to change the paths in the script, so it would be more appropriate to test with
      Code:
      find -name '*.so*' |xargs strings | grep /lib.*86.*-linux-gnu
      ...which could still be fixed with chrpath or the like, FWIW.


      For those who are worried about whether it can be used in later releases: source code is preferable, but ISTR that one argument for dropping the old drivers was that Mesa 7.11 binary drivers could be used with newer Mesa.


      And the reason that AMD and Nvidia don't use Gallium is that they have drivers written--why would you re-write a "working" driver just so you use a framework for making writing drivers easier?
      Nvidia uses the same codebase for all drivers, and I think AMD shares a bit; that gets harder with two different frameworks.
      There is source code available (which I have mentioned in my previous post) , but I have not tried, and neither am I willing to try, to compile it, simply because I don't have VIA hardware and I'm not keen on chasing down any possible errors (in the end I'm just a user, not a developer or a packager or a QC personnel). Plus I have already sounded out my concerns that with a source package as small as 1.4MB I highly doubt it contains all the stuff needed to build a full 2D and 3D driver.

      Anyone else with more expertise can go ahead and try though.

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      • #23
        Originally posted by AJenbo View Post
        So having the driver work in 13.04 doesn't mater to you?
        No, it doesn't, because I don't use Ubuntu and even if I did, I'd just add a repository so it'd work. Besides, we've waited long enough to get any 3D acceleration out of VIA so having some eventually is better than none.

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        • #24
          Originally posted by schmidtbag View Post
          No, it doesn't, because I don't use Ubuntu and even if I did, I'd just add a repository so it'd work. Besides, we've waited long enough to get any 3D acceleration out of VIA so having some eventually is better than none.
          Well the current driver is targeted at 12.10, so why do you care about it at all. But do feel free to replace Ubuntu with Xorg versions in my quote instead. Yes having something at all is nice, but I still care that it is a short sighted solution.

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          • #25
            And who in his right mind has still bought VIA hardware in this decade?

            (I know I have, but i explicitely said "in his right mind" - and i stopped caring about VIA ever since, except for an occasional stab and for further completing my massive collection of VIA devices)

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            • #26
              Originally posted by libv View Post
              I know I have, but i explicitely said "in his right mind"
              I made sure to avoid it when i was building an information kiosk... but then i got a GMA 3650 for the secound one, douh!

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              • #27
                Originally posted by libv View Post
                And who in his right mind has still bought VIA hardware in this decade?

                (I know I have, but i explicitely said "in his right mind" - and i stopped caring about VIA ever since, except for an occasional stab and for further completing my massive collection of VIA devices)
                sometimes you don't buy hardware, sometimes you are given hardware to work with and don't really have much say on the brands.



                I have a bunch of 2005 laptops with VIA will only bother cleaning them up if it's possible to use these drivers with lubuntu 13.04 otherwise eh why bother


                P.S. : "secretly" wtf secretly??? it's on their fucking site main support page under linux drivers how the fuck is hat secret?

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                • #28
                  Originally posted by Pallidus View Post


                  P.S. : "secretly" wtf secretly??? it's on their fucking site main support page under linux drivers how the fuck is hat secret?
                  Yeah Agree
                  Its probly just Michael trying to make it more exclusive so he gets more page hits:P

                  Btw have you tried Lubuntu on any of the laptops yet?

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                  • #29
                    the 'secretly' is more 'I didn't care to check so if teroedni from the forums had not said it was available I would have never found out'


                    Originally posted by teroedni View Post
                    Btw have you tried Lubuntu on any of the laptops yet?

                    not yet, frankly... I'm unsure about if the laptops are worth opening them up/cleaning/thermal paste etc etc... they are amd's at 1.8ghz from 2006, I saw fedora 16 on one and it defaults to gnome classic but runs pretty well


                    better than my old HP pentium IV 3ghz with 1g ram that drags because of radeon gfx.

                    say what you will about via at least they support their old hardware...

                    btw tero how hard was it to compile the driver for 12.10?

                    would it be possible to use the 12.10 driver on lubuntu 13.04? that would sell me on cleaning these laptops

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                    • #30
                      Originally posted by Pallidus View Post
                      better than my old HP pentium IV 3ghz with 1g ram that drags because of radeon gfx.
                      Do you have laptop with P4 or desktop? What card?
                      Its nice to compare, because I have P4 desktop with 845 IGP and it works very good.

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