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Intel GPU Driver Tries To Rip Out FBDEV Support

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  • Intel GPU Driver Tries To Rip Out FBDEV Support

    Phoronix: Intel GPU Driver Tries To Rip Out FBDEV Support

    Intel's Daniel Vetter is attempting for the Intel DRM graphics driver to remove support for its FBDEV frame-buffer layer with a new patch-set entitled "fbdev no more!", but will this finally usher in the killing of the Linux kernel's FBDEV subsystem?..

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    What does it mean though? Does it mean no hi res console? No console decorations?

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    • #3
      no fbdev? how would Weston work in VirtualBox?

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      • #4
        Originally posted by nerdopolis View Post
        no fbdev? how would Weston work in VirtualBox?
        VirtualBox gets off its ass and makes a proper KMS driver like VMWare is working on/did

        EDIT: Oh hey, guess they are. http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTAxOTk Shouldn't be an issue then.
        Last edited by Ericg; 17 June 2013, 06:28 PM.
        All opinions are my own not those of my employer if you know who they are.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by duby229 View Post
          What does it mean though? Does it mean no hi res console? No console decorations?
          Does anyone really use console decorations? And high res is still supported, you just do a straight up DRM console instead of FBDEV console (See KMSCon)
          All opinions are my own not those of my employer if you know who they are.

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          • #6
            I love this. Now nVidia's property drivers will be forced to either target kmdcon's fbdev since the kernel's is being deprecated, or get rewriten to use the kernel's own Mode Setting (KMS) instead of the driver's
            Finally, I'll get to have decent resolutions on my linux console :P

            I suppose AMD will also need to clean up some of it's Catalyst code now...

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            • #7
              I've had to use virtual terminals as a fallback in situations where I've bricked my video drivers. It would sure be nice to retain high-res VTs if DRM is not working. Does anyone know if that ability will be removed as part of the process?

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              • #8
                Originally posted by MaxToTheMax View Post
                I've had to use virtual terminals as a fallback in situations where I've bricked my video drivers. It would sure be nice to retain high-res VTs if DRM is not working. Does anyone know if that ability will be removed as part of the process?
                I presume you mean kernel DRM, not the userspace side of DRM?
                If so, you never had high resolution VTs without kernel DRM, unless you use a straight framebuffer (unaccelerated) driver, whether native or VESA/VGA.

                If you mean the userspace DRM interface, the short answer is yes:
                Originally posted by Daniel Vetter
                Of course a general purpose distro propably wants David's kmscon for any
                fallbacks needs and a system compositor to ditch the VT subsystem - atm my
                machine here runs with the dummy console so that VT switching between different
                X sessions still works ;-)
                The longer answer is that the in-kernel accelerated graphics drivers all use DRM, the kernel VT emulation currently uses fbcon in graphics mode, and fbcon currently needs a framebuffer; no one wants to maintain the VT emulation, so "drmcon.ko" will probably not happen.

                Now, I'll try to avoid a system without fbdev, even if it means not updating to a new kernel; for me, it would break Links2 and fbi, and it would spell the end for fbvnc, etc. Say what you will about "x is broken, you shouldn't use it": it works for me, and I can use a graphical browser without needing to fire up X.
                ...

                Oh, the patches aren't quite what they're advertised as. They make fbdev support optional, by stubbing out all the hooks when you don't select DRM_I915_FBDEV. Which means that all of the analysis above is only true for CONFIG_DRM_I915_FBDEV=n.

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                • #9
                  Hmmm..that's sucks. Browsing with links2, watching videos with mplayer and even playing SLD games (fb is the only true way to use ScummVM) on the console weekends was always pretty fun
                  And FBDEV is a pretty nice fallback option in case of X failure too

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                  • #10
                    What?

                    Did I understand correctly? They are completely ditching the VT subsystem without providing any equivalent replacement? Certainly this can't be.

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