OpenChrome Picks Up New VIA Support, But Still Lags

The xf86-video-openchrome driver has seen its first proper release in quite a while. The xf86-video-openchrome 0.2.905 release has support for new hardware and features.

The OpenChrome driver is rarely worked on today by the small open-source VIA community, but the new 0.2.905 release that's now available introduces VX900 support, VX855 X-Video support, X.Org Server 1.12 compatibility, and assorted bug-fixes/tweaks.

The VIA VX900 offers DX9-class graphics and a hardware-based HD video decoder (the "VIA ChromotionHD 2.0" engine) for this chipset that was introduced two years ago. While the VX900 is finally seeing OpenChrome support, this release is just for mode-setting and 2D without any X-Video support. Obviously, like the other VIA hardware, there isn't any proper open-source 3D driver. The VX855 that now has X-Video support was VIA's chipset from 2009.

This latest OpenChrome DDX release also still lacks compatibility with the OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver that James Simmons has single-handedly been working on for more than a year without the support of VIA Technologies. The OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver still has yet to be integrated in the mainline Linux kernel.

Also still M.I.A. is VIA's open-source present(s), VN1000 chipset support (a late-2010 chipset that offers DX10-class graphics), and various other features.

For anyone needing this latest xf86-video-openchrome driver, the announcement can be found on the mailing list.