2018 Brings A New Linux X.Org Display Driver Update For The ATI RAGE 128

Last month I wrote about a new attempt at improving the ATI RAGE 128 X.Org driver... Yes, for the for the Rage graphics cards from the late 90's in the days of AGP and PCI where core/memory clock speeds were commonly in the double digits... If you are a hobbyist fond of these vintage graphics cards and are still running with these OpenGL 1.1~1.2 capable GPUs, there is a new X.Org driver update.

Kevin Brace who for the last few years has been working on the VIA DRM/KMS driver and recently decided to focus some attention on the aging xf86-video-r128 DDX driver, he released version 6.11.0 of this open-source driver on Friday. This continues with the RAGE 128 X.Org driver just being a user-space mode-setting solution and he has not any working DRM/KMS driver yet as the modern kernel-based display driver approach -- for that he's voiced ideas about a possible reusable DRM driver that could be adopted by the "under-served" driver stacks.

There are about 40 changes in the xf86-video-r128 6.11.0 driver release, but many of the changes are focused on build system updates and most of Kevin's work so far appears just focused on code restructuring and formatting. But there are some fixes for the RAGE 128 Pro display support and other fixes.

So should you wish to reminice over the once great ATI RAGE series, there is now the 6.11.0 driver available for download to pair with a modern X.Org Server. But good luck running a modern composited Linux desktop or most modern desktop applications with the hardware.