Nouveau: X Render, RandR 1.2, FB, KMS Suspend Done

A week ago we shared a status update on the Nouveau driver to clarify an earlier posting that the Nouveau driver is not dead. In the past few days though the Nouveau Wiki Feature Matrix was updated to reflect the latest changes in this open-source, third-party NVIDIA graphics driver.

According to the feature matrix, RandR 1.2, NouveauFB, X Render, and Suspend in a KMS environment is now supported across the spectrum of NVIDIA GPUs that are implemented within this driver: the NV04/05, NV10, NV20, NV30, NV40, and NV50 series. X Render was previously supported on earlier NVIDIA GPU generations, but now with the NV50 series the status has changed from being a work-in-progress to being "done". The RandR 1.2, kernel-based mode-setting, NouveauFB, and KMS Suspend features were previously a "W.I.P." across all NVIDIA GPUs, but this too is all now marked off as completed. This is not to say though that the code is all 100% stable and bug-free, but that the feature is now implemented in the Nouveau driver stack.

When it comes to areas of work still left for the Nouveau driver, the Gallium3D driver is still a ways out from being fully implemented, TV-Out is still lacking for NV50 hardware, and there is no power savings support for any NVIDIA graphics card at this time. Other advanced features like any multi-card / Scalable Link Interface support also has yet to be addressed. Hopefully though with the RandR 1.2, X Render, and kernel mode-setting support getting primed, that we will be seeing the Nouveau DRM portion enter the mainline Linux kernel (at least as a staging driver) in the not too distant future. For those wanting to try out the latest Nouveau bits now, much of the latest code has entered Fedora 12.