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SteamOS Has Its Own Graphics Compositor

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  • #11
    Originally posted by e8hffff View Post
    The big question is, is it a media player too, so that people can replace their XBMC or Media PC's that are stationed at their TV's. If not Value/SteamOS has made a big mistake.
    It would take an awful lot of effort to replace something like XBMC. That's a lot of code. It would be better to just have an option to switch between the two interfaces. Though I do understand that Valve wants to get into the media services stuff eventually.

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    • #12
      This required UEFI support... what does that mean?

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      • #13
        Originally posted by johnc View Post
        This required UEFI support... what does that mean?
        UEFI=Unified Extensible Firmware Interface

        Means that the motherboard needs to support a BIOS wrapper to upstage older PC compatibility and deliver new BIOS era.

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        • #14
          SteamOS appears to be using linux 3.10 - PREEMPT_RT_FULL (unsurprisingly) with a heavy amount of patching (282 patches for -rt in the 'all' architectures/folder, alone). The kernel is also using aufs and they seem to be sitting on some bug fixes for upstream on top of that.

          Some of the -rt related hacks they are using i have seen (in one case, i am using the same patch for ntrig)... It looks like they have gone to a lot of effort getting the kernel just right for their needs.

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          • #15
            Originally posted by johnc View Post
            It would take an awful lot of effort to replace something like XBMC. That's a lot of code. It would be better to just have an option to switch between the two interfaces. Though I do understand that Valve wants to get into the media services stuff eventually.
            Note sure if I agree. It maybe as simple as installing libav/ffmpeg and having the controls in the interface to link to the files.
            Last edited by e8hffff; 13 December 2013, 09:49 PM.

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            • #16
              Originally posted by blackout23 View Post
              So it's basically a modified xcompmgr. Nothing fancy.
              Who cares if it's fancy if it's fast, functional, and reasonably secure?

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              • #17
                Originally posted by ninez View Post
                SteamOS appears to be using linux 3.10 - PREEMPT_RT_FULL (unsurprisingly) with a heavy amount of patching (282 patches for -rt in the 'all' architectures/folder, alone). The kernel is also using aufs and they seem to be sitting on some bug fixes for upstream on top of that.

                Some of the -rt related hacks they are using i have seen (in one case, i am using the same patch for ntrig)... It looks like they have gone to a lot of effort getting the kernel just right for their needs.
                I haven't yet got into Linux Kernel hacking, but why would Value use an older kernel when the latest versions have had so much adage. It's not as if they are running a critical infrastructure outfit.
                Last edited by e8hffff; 13 December 2013, 09:50 PM.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by e8hffff View Post
                  I haven't yet got into Linux Kernel hacking, but why would Value use an older kernel when the latest versions have had so much adage. It's not as if they are running a critical infrastructure outfit.
                  Because they need stability, so they are using a LTS kernel.

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                  • #19
                    Originally posted by iniudan View Post
                    Because they need stability, so they are using a LTS kernel.
                    I think it would have been easier to use say 3.12 Kernel and then if they find a bug then fix it for the whole community, rather than spend countless months backtracking/porting fixes for old code.

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                    • #20
                      Originally posted by e8hffff View Post
                      I think it would have been easier to use say 3.12 Kernel and then if they find a bug then fix it for the whole community, rather than spend countless months backtracking/porting fixes for old code.
                      Well, you may think that, but that is very uninformed... 3.12 has some weird issues with pstates (on PREEMPT_RT_FULL anyway), nohz is a bit flacky (again on -rt) and aside from that, as someone else pointed out to you - 3.10 is an LTS release... Lastly, as far as using the 'newest kernel' - 3.10 is still fairly new and linux-rt only tracks every 'even' number release; 3.0, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6, etc - So i think Valve has made the right selection, in this case...

                      and it doesn't appear that they have done a whole bunch of backporting from newer kernels, but it does look like they are sitting on some fixes though - while other patches are listed as being submitted to XYZ mailing list for review...

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