DRM/KMS Driver Published For Snapdragon Graphics

[phoronix]

Phoronix: DRM/KMS Driver Published For Snapdragon Graphics

Rob Clark has expanded his Freedreno efforts from just being a reverse-engineered user-space (Gallium3D) graphics driver for Qualcomm's Adreno/Snapdragon hardware. Rob has now written his own DRM/KMS kernel driver for dealing with the Snapdragon graphics hardware...

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

[Kivada]

Ok, so what is the fastest ARM hardware with fully backed drivers and can boot a standard distro instead of Google crap like Android or ChromeOS?

[scionicspectre]

Ok, so what is the fastest ARM hardware with fully backed drivers and can boot a standard distro instead of Google crap like Android or ChromeOS?

I would very much like to know this as well, since there is more and more news of these improvements but almost no common use for them. I know it's just around the corner, but it would be nice to know what commercially available products to expect a good experience with.

[przemoli]

I would very much like to know this as well, since there is more and more news of these improvements but almost no common use for them. I know it's just around the corner, but it would be nice to know what commercially available products to expect a good experience with.

Android. Google Chrome....

Companies wont pick FLOSS drivers UNLESS they show real benefits.

[blackiwid]

Ok, so what is the fastest ARM hardware with fully backed drivers and can boot a standard distro instead of Google crap like Android or ChromeOS?

you did not specialy ask about "free drivers" only about working... fast... that makes the answer more difficult... I guess It would be to use or wait for mir or waylands android-driver wrapper and use this. And because neighter mir is productive-ready nor wayland and there are as far I know no non-free mesa drivers for X for android that is the one site of the answer.

If you want a working system now I think this adreano drivers here is the best you can get, correct me if I am wrong and there are some propriatary drivers that are better. you can get such hardware as example with a LG Nexus 4, and install on it as example a fedora:

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTM4NDY

or you could get a board or something with that gpu and use a normal arm-installer of a distro I guess.

[curaga]

Nothing has fully backed drivers if you include the 3d chip.

[d2kx]

If I am not mistaken, the best chance to use ARM hardware would be to use one of the upcoming Ubuntu releases with XMir/Mir and Android drivers.

[robclark]

If I am not mistaken, the best chance to use ARM hardware would be to use one of the upcoming Ubuntu releases with XMir/Mir and Android drivers.

although that doesn't help too much anyone who wants to run (real) linux ;-)

[danboid]

Best ARM Linux GPU

If you want decent GPU support under ARM Linux, the Nexus 4 plus Rob's driver is one of the best bets right now, as has already been mentioned but thats not 'official'.

The only official and fully supported ARM Linux drivers I'm aware of are Nvidia's for their Kayla platform but I'd imagine it will be kept closed.

For good FLOSS drivers w/ 3D accel there are the Lima drivers which have been shown running Q3 at full speed but apparently ARM (who own the Mali tech) don't approve, prob as they know the Lima drivers are shaping up to be better than their closed drivers. Also, I doubt Mali has enough balls to be certified for GLES 3, which Nvidia will be more than good enough for.

EDIT

Oh yeah, there is also the Vivante GPUs as used in imx.6 socs - I've heard they've got a working, fully featured driver too but I don't know the details.

EDIT 2

If you want a Mali device, most of the 'Google TV' mini Android computers use these GPUs and you can easily buy one for less than $50. Search for Picuntu and its offshoot distro home://io , which has the Lima drivers included.

[scionicspectre]

Thanks, danboid, for answering the question clearly to the best of your knowledge, without nitpicking the question itself. I'll have to look into what Picuntu can do, since every guide I've seen requires a lot of fidgeting to get the drivers up and running, almost always with a modified graphics stack.