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support for first generation UVD blocks (RV6xx, RS780, RS880 and RV790)

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  • #21
    A possible hack fix

    Originally posted by pchristy View Post
    ANY support - open source or not - would be welcome! And as for it being an "older part", I had only just bought it - in a newly released laptop - when support was withdrawn! Indeed, the laptop was so newly released that I had to hunt around to find anyone who had one in stock! I thought I was buying something that was "future proof" for a good few years! How much further wrong could I have been!

    The hardware is absolutely perfect for my needs. I don't want a touch screen - this is for video work and I don't want grubby fingerprints all over the screen. I DO want HD video and HDMI support in a compact unit. The hardware is perfectly capable of this. Your software is not! At least, not in a stable, modern form. There is no software under windoze that meets my needs - and anyway, I have no wish to make the world's richest man even richer at my expense! Linux fits the bill perfectly. The only thing that doesn't is the AMD drivers - open-source or otherwise!

    I'm sorry if I sound angry, but I definitely feel that I've been sold a pup. And as the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!"

    --
    Pete
    Here's what I would do:

    1: install the distro I wanted to use
    2: install the kernel and the X server (all of it) from the last distro the legacy driver supported
    3: install the legacy driver supported by that X server

    There are surprisingly few packages with versioned dependancies on X or the kernel, so this just might work. Do this from a clean install or if you are hacking a running system take a dd snapshot of your OS partition first, and make sure you can work from console to screw around with xorg.conf and that sort of thing. You are basically forking the disto to rebuild it around a
    known good driver

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    • #22
      @Luke
      Instead of using dd, it is probably better to use rsync to copy the system partition. I have used such a setup for a long time.
      After a modification of /etc/fstab it is possible to flawlessly boot such a copy (preferably typing in raw GRUB commands).

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      • #23
        Please understand AMD. They have got limited resources. The hardware was not designed to be supported by an open source driver.
        Yet, AMD has a great Linux support that is steadily getting better.

        UVD is not so critical because usually the CPU is powerful enough to decode HD video on demand.

        In my laptop I have a Radeon HD 3450 and am quite satisfied with AMD support.

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        • #25
          Finally, support for first generation UVD blocks is released.
          I would like to thank all the people involved in this development.
          Now, I only have to wait for my distro to get a 3.18 kernel... which is also going to take a while.
          And finally my (not so old) hardware will be supported.

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          • #26
            If you're on Ubuntu and don't want to build yourself, you can try the latest drm-intel-next kernel from here, and the Oibaf PPA.
            Until Oibaf updates his firmware package, you'll have to copy it manually (before installing the kernel).
            On my old PC with HD3650 AGP running 14.04.1 LTS, I could see CPU reduce from 65% down to 15% playing a 1080p H.264 with mpv and even mplayer/smplayer (but could not make VLC work, though).

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            • #27
              Well, Fabio was quick and linux-firmware is already updated with the necessary uvd binaries, so no need to manually copy them anymore
              Note: Phoronix disabled editing forum posts some time ago, so check the main PPA page (https://launchpad.net/%7Eoibaf/+archive/graphics-drivers/) for updated

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              • #28
                Thanks but running LMDE here , will have to wait I guess.

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