FreeBSD Is Slowly But Surely Trying To Catch Up With Linux Graphics Drivers
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As most Phoronix readers know, the graphics drivers found in FreeBSD badly lag behind the Linux graphics drivers -- it wasn't until FreeBSD 9.1 that Intel KMS support came and with FreeBSD 10.0 is when Radeon support landed just a number of months ago. However, the code snapshots used are already sharply out-of-date. During Jean-Sébastien's talk today in Bordeaux, he covered their challenges and the progress their making in porting these graphics drivers to FreeBSD from Linux.
Some takeaways from the presentation include:
- The Intel i915 code is soon to be updated and the DRM device-independent code from Linux 3.8 is ready -- yes, about ten releases behind upstream.
- With the upcoming FreeBSD 10.1 there is hardware context support for the Intel DRM driver.
- The FreeBSD 10.1 graphics stack in FreeBSD Ports include X.Org Server 1.12, xf86-video-intel 2.21, and xf86-video-ati 7.x. With their new Xorg stack they're now using Mesa 9.1 rather than Mesa 7.6.
- FreeBSD has just two developers in the kernel and two developers in Ports relating to their graphics code. Of these developers there is a lack of X11 expertise and understanding the graphics hardware, including low confidence in some of their changes.
- Future work includes finishing to sync DRM/drivers from Linux 3.8, sync from the Linux 3.10 kernel changes when time allows, implement DMA-BUF and PRIME support, and to import Nouveau when time permits.
- FreeBSD also wants to land libgbm and Clover support for GPGPU.
- Additionally, to potentially allow a root-less X Server by coming up with a workable alternative to systemd's logind that's needed for the root-less server.
- Wayland packaging is still planned for FreeBSD.
Find out more about the FreeBSD graphics stack via the PDF slides from XDC2014 Bordeaux.
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