Fixes Already Queue Up For Graphics Drivers In Linux 4.3

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Fixes Already Queue Up For Graphics Drivers In Linux 4.3

It was just a week ago that the big DRM pull request was mailed in for the Linux 4.3 kernel and now some fixes for the DRM drivers have already been sent in...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.3-DRM-Fixes-1

[Idonotexist]

I suppose this may be as good a place as any to ask: What precisely are i915 and i965, and what is the difference between them both?

[AJenbo]

In the kernel space the i915 driver supports all Intel graphics chips from the i915 up to i965. The i965 supports all the new chips. In Mesa (userspace) there is just a single driver (i915) that supports all of the chips. There are of cause older chips that are supported by the i810 and i740 drivers respectively.

i740 = first gen
i810 = secound gen
i915 = third gen
i965 = forth (and up) gen

[Gusar]

I suppose this may be as good a place as any to ask: What precisely are i915 and i965, and what is the difference between them both?

i915 and i965 are Intel GPUs. The difference between them is the generation - i915 is gen3, i965 is gen4, so third and fourth generation Intel GPUs. But I think what you're actually asking about is the mesa drivers with those names. The i915 mesa driver provides 3D acceleration for gen2 and gen3 GPUs, while the i965 mesa driver provides 3D acceleration for gen4 and all later generations. If you're asking about kernel drivers, there's just one - i915, and it supports GPUs starting with gen2. Yeah, it's a bit confusing . For example, why does a driver named after the third generation support gen2 GPUs?

AJenbo: You got it exactly backwards, it's the kernel that only has one driver (i915), while mesa has two (i915 and i965). Also, there is no i740 driver, the i810 driver supports both i810 and i740 (both are gen1, the difference is that i810 is an integrated GPU, while i740 is a discrete graphics card for the AGP slot).


Your table is wrong too. It's like this:

i740 and i810 = gen1
i845, i855 and i865 = gen2
i915 (GMA 900), i945 (GMA 950) and GMA 3150 = gen3
i965 (GMA [X]3000) = gen4
GMA X3100 and GMA [X]4500 = gen4.5
Ironlake = gen5
Sandy Bridge = gen6
Ivy Bridge and Baytrail = gen7
Haswell = gen7.5
Broadwell and CherryView/Braswell = gen8
Skylake and Broxton = gen9

[Idonotexist]

Gusar Thank you so much for that clarification: I think I understand now. What I was seeing in lsmod is the i915 kernel driver, and after some digging in the System Monitor I see that glxgears does indeed dynamically load the i965 DRI shared library userland driver for my modern Intel iGPU.

So it's naming confusion: Kernel-land and userland drivers being popularly referred to by the same name.

[Gusar]

So it's naming confusion: Kernel-land and userland drivers being popularly referred to by the same name.

Yeah. AMD-land is quite fun too - there the kernel drivers are radeon and amdgpu, mesa drivers are radeon (supports r100 chips), r200, r300, r600 and radeonsi.
In Nvidia-land the kernel driver is nouveau, mesa drivers are nouveau_vieux (for up to and including Geforce4) and nouveau (for Geforce 5/FX and newer). Fun fact - nouveau_vieux means new_old