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Intel Can't Ship Their Own Driver With Their MeeGo OS

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  • #11
    Small correction

    "The Intel Poulsbo DRM was open-source, but it was rejected from the mainline Linux kernel since the user-space X.Org Poulsbo driver remained a binary blob."

    Small correction - the basic X driver itself is not in fact a binary blob. Interestingly, you can actually get basic 2D functionality on the GMA 500 using entirely F/OSS components; you only need the kernel module and the X driver, both of which are open. The binary blobs are psb-firmware and xpsb-glx, which are required for 3D acceleration and vaapi video playback acceleration functionality.

    (I think this may not have been entirely understood by the kernel folks when they were considering whether or not to merge the kernel module, but it doesn't change the fact that both kernel module and X driver are messily maintained. Or, these days, apparently not maintained at all).

    I'm losing track of how many GMA 500 / GMA 600 drivers Intel actually has, now. I think it's at least 3, possibly 4. This thread makes for hilarious / tragic reading:

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    • #12
      Originally posted by ishu View Post
      Does the graphics driver need to be bundled w/ MeeGo? Generally the graphics driver is not bundled with OS. MeeGo is open source software and EMGD is not so the licensing terms and availability are different for each.
      Would you really choose to buy a phone or MP3 player which requires you to first download video drivers before you can use it?

      Proprietary drivers are OK for home users installing on a laptop, but for embedded systems if the driver can't be shipped with the device, then it's useless.

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      • #13
        Originally posted by cician View Post
        They could ship it with Linux only if it was GPLd or am I missing something? Unless they made it clear somehow that it is not a part of the whole but some software compilation of sort, which I don't see possible for the out-of-the-box driver.
        I was always wondering how OEMs could legally distribute their blobs with Linux powered devices (NVidia, imgtec etc.). Did I overstimate/misunderstand GPL?
        This has nothing to do with the GPL. The required parts (=kernel components) are already GPLed.
        The Linux kernel maintainers just won't accept GPL driver code that's only usable with non-FOSS userspace components.

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        • #14
          Wow, so its starting to look like EMGD is a bust... unless anyone can convince intel to hand it over under NDA and then, uhm.... their server may get hacked into

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          • #15
            Originally posted by Qaridarium
            i only buy amd hardware ;-) real opensource solution not a joke like intel
            Maybe lets talk about these Z1X0 and Z4X0 accelerator cores AMD used to make ...

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            • #16
              Originally posted by Recluse View Post
              Maybe lets talk about these Z1X0 and Z4X0 accelerator cores AMD used to make ...
              Ah... But you couldn't directly buy those, and there was at least some rumblings of maybe doing the same thing with them that they did with the Radeon lineup...just before they sold the division to Qualcomm.

              I would not use that as a counter-example here...

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              • #17
                Originally posted by KAMiKAZOW View Post
                This has nothing to do with the GPL. The required parts (=kernel components) are already GPLed.
                The Linux kernel maintainers just won't accept GPL driver code that's only usable with non-FOSS userspace components.
                Oh, that's not the problem. Like all distributions, they're not going to ship vanilla Liunx from kernel.org or the git tree. They're going to configure it to suit them, add a few patches that they feel need to be in the mix...

                Intel could ship MeeGo with the DRM portion just fine per the terms of the GPL.

                It's the other part, the userspace blobs for 3D that're the problem here.

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                • #18
                  Originally posted by Recluse View Post
                  Maybe lets talk about these Z1X0 and Z4X0 accelerator cores AMD used to make ...
                  I've always wondered about the 4x0's.... they are apparently based on the xenos chip used in xbox360, which is based mostly on R500 with some R600 features thrown in for fun.... so bringing open source drivers to the 4x0 may not be such a monstrous undertaking as you suggest. The reason AMD *hasn't* is because they are no longer RESPONSIBLE for it.

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                  • #19
                    2nd generation atoms don't use this poulsbo mess anymore. D510, D520, D450... are using NM10 Express Chipset with GMA 3150 integrated graphics which is totally supported by intel OSS drivers.

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                    • #20
                      Originally posted by Jimbo View Post
                      2nd generation atoms don't use this poulsbo mess anymore. D510, D520, D450... are using NM10 Express Chipset with GMA 3150 integrated graphics which is totally supported by intel OSS drivers.
                      That's partially correct; and completely irrelevant to the discussion at hand. The chipset distinction is not 1st/second generation; but based on the intended use. The first generation atoms intended by intel for desktop/laptop computers (N2xx/N3xx) supported a standard chipset (i945) with an intel GPU. The ones intended for small embedded systems (Z5xx) used Polubso with a 3rd party GPU. The same distinction is present with the 2nd generation. Those intended for desktop/laptops have an intel GPU (NM10), while those intended for embedded systems (smartphone/tablets) are using a GPU from Imagination Technologies that doesn't have an intel written driver. The scope of the problems caused by this one is probably a bit more limited though; because the langwell chipset lacks PCI support (power consumption) it can't run windows. This means it's unlikely to end up in many mass market netbooks. Pure linux netbooks are still possible but unless it gets much better battery life (which Intel's unwillingless to comment on non-idle power consumption makes me doubt) the mass market sales needed to finance the design costs aren't likely to be there.

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