A 2018 Autumn Linux Driver Update For The ATI RAGE 128 Series

The open-source display driver for supporting these graphics cards where 32MB of SDRAM was suitable, 250 nm fabrication was standard, and core clocks around 100MHz were competitive is still being maintained... Two decades after the release of the ATI RAGE series, the open-source Linux driver continues seeing some activity and in fact a new driver release.

The lone independent driver contributor ushering along the RAGE driver (xf86-video-r128) is Kevin Brace who started working on the VIA OpenChrome open-source driver in recent years and for the past number of months recently shifted focus to the classic RAGE driver. He released the xf86-video-r128 6.12.0 driver today to address two build failures. Besides addressing build problems, he also began writing some of the XAA/EXA 2D acceleration code. He did note of the changes to the 2D acceleration code paths, "It is always possible that I can mess up the code, but it appears that the code is working correctly."

The RAGE Linux driver support continues centered on this xf86-video-r128 X.Org driver with user-space mode-setting. He has talked about developing a reusable KMS/DRM module of sorts but so far it has not materialized.

Should you still have an interest in the ATI RAGE series driver support in 2018, the complete list of changes can be found via the xf86-video-r128 6.12 announcement.