A Reusable DRM Module To Be Worked On For "Underserved" Graphics Hardware

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 31 May 2018 at 12:38 PM EDT. 4 Comments
HARDWARE
While Kevin Brace of the OpenChrome project as the lead and only developer left working on this open-source VIA driver stack has restarted the discussion towards mainlining the OpenChrome DRM/KMS driver, he has decided to take a break from that for a few weeks and to focus on developing a "reusable DRM module" to help other vintage/obscure graphics hardware.

Brace announced he is planning to take a brief break from the OpenChrome project due to working extensively on the Direct Rendering Manager driver the past two and a half years while being the only active developer on the project.

But what's interesting is that he plans on devoting more time to "develop a reusable DRM module for the underserved graphics stacks."


Assuming this "reusable DRM module" pans out, it will be interesting to see what it encompasses. Over the years have been various proposals about having a "VESA" or "generic" KMS/DRM driver or other kernel driver based fallback approach for vintage graphics hardware, but nothing concrete has come about let alone mainlined in the Linux kernel.

We'll keep you posted if anything of interest materializes for helping the underserved graphics hardware on Linux.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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