Libdrm 2.4.71 Released, Adds Etnaviv, AMDGPU SI Support

The latest version of the Mesa DRM library (libdrm) is now available and it's a fairly important release.

First off, libdrm 2.4.71 is the first version to include Etnaviv DRM support. Etnaviv libdrm support was added a few weeks ago to interface with the Etnaviv DRM driver that's been part of the mainline Linux kernel the past few releases as reverse-engineered, open-source Vivante GPU support. With now having the libdrm support, the next step is to merge the Gallium3D driver.

Rob Clark who released libdrm 2.4.71 today noted that he was motivated to do this release in hoping the Etnaviv Gallium3D driver will be merged in time for the Mesa 12.1/13.0 release expected by month's end. Now that the libdrm prerequisite has landed in released form, hopefully we'll see Etnaviv Gallium3D merged to mainline Mesa in the days ahead.

Also important to this libdrm release is that it adds Southern Islands (GCN 1.0) support to the AMDGPU-specific libdrm code. The AMDGPU SI experimental support is being added to the Linux 4.9 kernel and the Mesa changes have already landed too, but keep in mind this AMDGPU SI support is hidden behind a compile-time switch until it's stabilized. On Tuesday I'll have some AMDGPU vs. Radeon GCN 1.0/1.1 benchmarks from the DRM-Next code.

Libdrm 2.4.71 also has a few other AMDGPU/Radeon updates and other fixes. More details via the release announcement.