ARM Publishes New Universal Linux Graphics Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: ARM Publishes New Universal Linux Graphics Driver

ARM has published a new open-source X.Org DDX Linux graphics driver while working to enable support for their next-generation ARM Mali T6xx graphics core...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTEwNDU

[uid313]

Kernel driver

Cool.

How about a universal ARM kernel drive, so it can work with Wayland?

By the way, this is pretty awesome for Ubuntu on Android.

[e8hffff]

Hopefully this news make it much easier to release Ubuntu's Arm builds on Arm based devices. I'm specifically interested in Allwinner A10 being fully supported so that Ubuntu runs on Ainol tablets and XBMC can run on say the Mele A2000.

[plonoma]

"...with the device-specific bits being in the respective DRM driver and OpenGLES/EGL library."

In the driver okay But in the OpenGL ES and EGL library?
(I really hope this is just the functions for the device naming and the usual stuff.)

[libv]

Cool.

How about a universal ARM kernel drive, so it can work with Wayland?

By the way, this is pretty awesome for Ubuntu on Android.

Hopefully this news make it much easier to release Ubuntu's Arm builds on Arm based devices. I'm specifically interested in Allwinner A10 being fully supported so that Ubuntu runs on Ainol tablets and XBMC can run on say the Mele A2000.

This code will not give you free 2d or 3d acceleration. I am not sure to what extent the Samsung Exynos has a blitter and to what extent it has been made free. And as for free 3d support... Well... Arm is not delivering it, but others are, luckily.

[Adarion]

There is a lot of stuff going on lately that is not really driving an actual piece of hardware, right?
Umm. I no likey.

I'd rather see the real driver operating the very hardware completely. I mean, I can have modesetting with xf86-video-vesa. But to actually work with your hardware you need some 2d/3d acceleration. I hope this will also come along the pipeline.
Especially in the embedded sector it's still a real pain. All that imagination tech stuff... Last year TI people were having a lecture on Berlin Linux Days and they praised the great powers of their media platform ... until I asked them about all that img-tec chips used on these beagleboards and the driver problems.

I hate it when people try to sell me stuff that won't work in the end. I hope we won't have another VIA-like story again.
I wonder why big vendors (e.g. google with Android) is so lax with the driver issues.

[libv]

Actually, the VIA story is about a lack of clue and a vastly dwindling marketshare, and in the end, lack of resources for investing into decent driver or, for that matter, hardware development. VIA is irrelevant in every single way at this time, and there is simply no hope. There are quite a few other histories out there where the vendor is actively malign or not in control of the less well-meaning parts of its organization, and where the hardware actually is quite relevant still.

[e8hffff]

This code will not give you free 2d or 3d acceleration. I am not sure to what extent the Samsung Exynos has a blitter and to what extent it has been made free. And as for free 3d support... Well... Arm is not delivering it, but others are, luckily.

Why does Arm need to be so restrictive about support for their graphics chip blocks. Simply release proprietary Linux drivers or give the open source community the details on how to control the chip. Wow, they may even spur on sales...

[sabriah]

Cool.

How about a universal ARM kernel drive, so it can work with Wayland?

By the way, this is pretty awesome for Ubuntu on Android.

Even cooler, Linux on ARM-based phones, like the sadly killed Nokia N900.

[daniels]

Cool.

How about a universal ARM kernel drive, so it can work with Wayland?

By the way, this is pretty awesome for Ubuntu on Android.

It's only one half of the, er, picture. On the desktop, you have a fully integrated display controller, where your Intel/AMD/NVIDIA GPU does both your 3D acceleration as well as communicating with the actual display and scanning out the pixels. In the embedded market, every SoC (TI OMAP, Qualcomm, etc) other than the NVIDIA Tegra has their own display block, so ARM can only deliver the 3D acceleration part. The vendors still need to provide the driver for the display controller.