A Revived Linux Driver To Be Attempted For The ATI RAGE 128

[rene]

Why?


This relates to other recent threads which highlight the energy put into legacy hardware. Id rather see the energy put into modern hardware.

First of all vintage hardware is simpler, much easier to learn and code for. Often also better documented with more open specs. Also people love maintaining their collection pieces such as G4 Cubes or Sgi Octanes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU_RV8uoTIo also people work on this as their hobby and spare time. They do what the love and enjoy. If you like to better support newer hardware, nobody is stopping you, just do it! ;-)

[pmorph]

Well, those were some of the latest ATI cards preceding the radeon. At the time when the thought of ATI ever being a serious contender in the business sounded like a sad joke to most people. These cards deserve a driver, already for the historical value, to remind the cynics within us that things can change.

[Tomin]

I've got one of these. I don't know why would I want to use DDX or DRM with it, but faster framebuffer would be nice. I think that currently it slows down booting because the texts are written so slow. The card is there just to provide a text console. I use it because I had empty PCI slots and it consumes very little power at least when I compared it to the other cards I had available. Also the fact that it is fanless is nice.

[coder]

I've got one of these. I don't know why would I want to use DDX or DRM with it, but faster framebuffer would be nice. I think that currently it slows down booting because the texts are written so slow. The card is there just to provide a text console.

I'm not sure that will benefit. I have much newer and faster cards that bog down in the same way - I think it might be using some VESA display mode.

it consumes very little power at least when I compared it to the other cards I had available. Also the fact that it is fanless is nice.

I keep around an AMD HD 5450 for the same reason. The same GPU was sold as HD 6350, HD 7350, HD 8350, and R5 210. You can find 'em dirt cheap. At idle, it allegedly burns just 6 W. Good for things like servers that you might want to connect to a high-res monitor.

[nanonyme]

Cool, I will also try to find the ppc/mac radeon AGP regression that is plaguing some machines such as my G4 Cube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYx9X92iQHM

Linux always had worse support for PPC32 AGP GPU's than x86 even when AGP was mainstream. Afaik differences between PPC32 AGP and x86 AGP were drastic and PPC32 AGP wasn't really popular enough to get drivers with all the hardware quirks fixed.

[coder]

Rage 128 PCI was my first 3D card.

It's worth searching for some screen shots of games at the time, to remind yourself just how primitive 3D was, back then. I think it was their last generation without programmable shaders.

[nanonyme]

I've got one of these. I don't know why would I want to use DDX or DRM with it, but faster framebuffer would be nice. I think that currently it slows down booting because the texts are written so slow. The card is there just to provide a text console. I use it because I had empty PCI slots and it consumes very little power at least when I compared it to the other cards I had available. Also the fact that it is fanless is nice.

You mean actual VT? I wouldn't hold my breath on performance improvements there.

[aht0]

Why?


This relates to other recent threads which highlight the energy put into legacy hardware. Id rather see the energy put into modern hardware.

His energy, his to decide what to do with it. If you want to see energy put into modern hardware, feel free to use yours.

I have one of the old legacy ATI cards. If there is a PCI slot and I need a "console-GPU" it's a go-to card. It consumes some watts of energy and does not need cooling. Even the simplest of PCIe x1 graphics cards grab up to 20 watts and have heatsinks. These cards still have their uses.

[kpedersen]

Why?
This relates to other recent threads which highlight the energy put into legacy hardware. Id rather see the energy put into modern hardware.

I can't help but feel that if the open-source community were ever going to take their lives into their own hands and start creating their own hardware, the very old chips will be the best place to start. The more knowledge and support we have for them now will put us in the best position for then.

Basically, there is no point having fantastic open-source driver support for the most modern card that we can only use on locked down Windows, Android, iOS anyway (yes, this will almost certainly happen (I predict around 2025?) unless FOSS can start generating hardware).

[nanonyme]

I can't help but feel that if the open-source community were ever going to take their lives into their own hands and start creating their own hardware, the very old chips will be the best place to start. The more knowledge and support we have for them now will put us in the best position for then.

Basically, there is no point having fantastic driver support for the most modern card that we can only use on Windows, Android, iOS anyway (yes, this will almost certainly happen (I predict around 2025?) unless FOSS can start generating hardware).

Maybe old but not *that* old. I'd say hardware older than what r600 driver handles (ballpark of ten years old) is not really useful for modern world purposes.