DragonFlyBSD Intel Graphics Driver Caught Up To Linux 4.1

[phoronix]

Phoronix: DragonFlyBSD Intel Graphics Driver Caught Up To Linux 4.1

The DragonFlyBSD Intel DRM graphics driver sure is getting close to catching up against the upstream Intel Linux graphics driver with the mainline kernel...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=DragonFly-Intel-Linux-4.1

[rabcor]

Linux 4.1 is plenty impressive.

[philcostin]

Pardon my ignorance here, but if the code is coming from the Linux kernel, which is licensed under GPL, how does it end up BSD licensed in DragonFly? Is the origin of the intel code MIT / BSD, or is it actually coming from the Linux kernel source?

[BlueJayofEvil]

Pardon my ignorance here, but if the code is coming from the Linux kernel, which is licensed under GPL, how does it end up BSD licensed in DragonFly? Is the origin of the intel code MIT / BSD, or is it actually coming from the Linux kernel source?

We port to the BSDs modern graphics card drivers that have already or are in the process of being written for Linux. Fortunately for the BSDs the source code that is the basis of these drivers, userland hosted in git repositories accessible from freedesktop.org, and even the part that is now residing in the Linux kernel, is mostly licensed under terms compatible with the MIT X License, and therefore can be directly ported to the BSDs without licensing issues.

Source: https://www.dragonflybsd.org/docs/developer/GEMdrmKMS/

[bridgman]

Right. Most of the graphics stack, including kernel drivers, is published under the X11 license (sometimes called MIT, similar to 2-clause BSD). There are a few exceptions but they tend to be in Linux-specific areas rather than HW-specific areas.

Whenever you see a module license term along the lines of "GPL with additional rights" that usually means X11-ish.

It's a very good question BTW...

[h**2]

It's a very good question BTW...

Well actually it didn't really become part of the linux kernel until "recently". IIRC the drm et cetera used to be all in xorg / xf86 repo and the kernel interface was more or less constant so there wasn't even any need for "porting" to the BSDs, because it was just the same code. It changed when they started doing KMS...

[philcostin]

I see, thanks...

I had suspected that it was pretty much along those lines (the code is freedesktop.org X11 / MIT to begin with) - but the wording of this article made me question that again for a while:

"François Tigeot continues leading the charge in making the Intel graphics driver on DragonFlyBSD that's ported over from the Linux kernel almost up to par with upstream."