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AMD's opensource lies exposed

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  • I'm off to play OpenArena and Doom3 on the drivers which do not exist, because AMD didn't deliver specs, or fund their development

    I'll wrap my head around the fact that they don't exist after I'm finished shooting.

    See you later!

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    • Does anyone get the point, that completly free amd-graphics-drivers do not exist?
      For propper work, they need firmware, which is not opensource, it's a binary blob in the kernel.

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      • I'm off to play OpenArena and Doom3
        Good luck shooting with 30 FPS you won't have much. Also try doom3 with an r500 card and see the 2-3 fps. BTW don't forget to visit unigine tropics and heaven with your r600 with open source drivers. Oh fglrx runs them? OK then have fun with your tearing or tripple buffer low memory choices and webgl-video accel supportlessness...

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        • Originally posted by towo2099 View Post
          Does anyone get the point, that completly free amd-graphics-drivers do not exist?
          For propper work, they need firmware, which is not opensource, it's a binary blob in the kernel.
          Actually no, it's a binary file whose contents are loaded into the hardware by free driver code in the kernel.
          Test signature

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          • But this firmware it's not free, so is not included in any free GNU/Linux distribution, even Debian does not ship it anymore.

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            • Originally posted by towo2099 View Post
              But this firmware it's not free, so is not included in any free GNU/Linux distribution, even Debian does not ship it anymore.
              Sure, but it's not part of the drivers and it doesn't make the drivers any less free. Some GPU vendors burn the microcode into the chip, others load it at power-up.

              If the microcode was burned into the chip so you couldn't see it being loaded, would that somehow make the drivers more free ?
              Test signature

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              • Originally posted by glxextxexlg View Post
                Good luck shooting with 30 FPS you won't have much.
                locked to the refresh rate (60fps) at 1920x1080. On the cheapest r700 budget card on the market.

                That's enough for me!

                I'd rather have Unigine tech demos not working than have KDE and gvim not working, thank you very much Mr. WorkraFt!

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                • Originally posted by towo2099 View Post
                  But this firmware it's not free, so is not included in any free GNU/Linux distribution, even Debian does not ship it anymore.
                  Your CPU runs closed firmware too, as does every piece of hardware in your computer, starting from the BIOS.

                  It's unfortunate, but by your logic, nothing is free.

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                  • Then let me ask in other way, why is that firmware not in the chip?
                    So the user needs to activate the non-free repo, if such repo exist, that he can use the "free" driver.

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                    • Originally posted by towo2099 View Post
                      Then let me ask in other way, why is that firmware not in the chip?
                      It runs on the chip.

                      The reason why it is uploaded by the drivers is that it makes it possible to fix errors after you release the hardware. Just update the microcode.

                      If you burn the microcode onto the chip, you would have to replace the entire 300$ GPU if there is a bug in the microcode.

                      Yeah, it sucks. But your Intel processor and your motherboard chipset and pretty much everything else in your computer runs unfree microcode too. It's just not as obvious.

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