Intel Wants YOUR Linux Questions, Feedback

[chuckula]

On the desktop I use discrete graphics from that other company that isn't spelled with 3-letters, but I use good ol' fashioned 4500HD graphics on a core 2 notebook and they do pretty nicely with KDE. I even do HD audio + video out over HDMI to my TV and it works out of the box on a composited desktop.

My question to you is more related to future graphics. I know you can't go into detail about the capabilities of IB and Haswell, but I was wondering about: 1. If you can give any predictions about how Wayland will develop alongside Intel products in the future, and 2. If you have any idea about getting QuickSync support in the existing Sandy Bridge systems working under Linux (If QuickSync is unrelated to your work then I apologize for being off-topic).

[DaemonFC]

Those drivers are developed by a different team, within a different group, in a different way, with different goals and are completely different from our Gen drivers... so it wouldn't be fair for me to answer anything on their behalf.

It's unfortunate that Intel decides to package a 32-bit only blob that only works with kernels and X servers that are several major versions behind, and buries it on their Downloads site. Then when you do go to download it, you also find Windows executables in the bundle.

Those PowerVR blobs reek, it has made me suggest AMD systems to people simply so they'll know that it works on mobile systems with anything but Vista7: Crippleware Edition.


Seriously, how are you supposed to know what you're buying when Intel has a nasty habit of pairing Atom CPUs with PowerVR SGX crap and doesn't provide anything to differentiate itself from real Intel graphics chipsets? Your company ought to be ashamed of itself, not only for the PowerVR nightmare, but for knowingly putting something in that only really works with a version of Windows Microsoft gives out for free but cripples to the point that the only thing the user can do with it is buy a more expensive edition.

[Jorophose]

What is the state of libva support for the Ironlake chipsets? What kernel started support for it? What does support depend on? What's the future of libva products at Intel? (are all new chips going to get it?) what about quicksync on linux?

What about Ironlake's 3D graphics? I bought a dell laptop that came with Ubuntu 10.04, but so far it seems to barely have any OpenGL support (i can play some simple games, but I can only use compositing with Xfce4, which makes me think something isn't quite up).

Otherwise, been happy with the Intel drivers, except for the i810 drivers. but I retired my i810 device last year, so...

[allquixotic]

I've got an i965-based ThinkPad laptop I'm getting ready to End-of-Life. I think its GPU is supported about as well as it's ever gonna be on Linux, which is to say, not well (but there isn't all that much hardware there to utilize, anyway).

But I remember the days when I had this laptop when EXA was new... before KMS, before DRI2, before UXA, way before SNA... even the 2D performance was slow as a slug, and even the most trivial 3D would cause random graphical corruption and kernel lockups. Enduring years of this while trying to use the laptop for things like taking notes in college and getting actual work done left a very bad taste in my mouth about Intel hardware and Linux support. It will take a completely 180 degree experience from this to change my mind on the quality of Intel products, and especially their Linux support.

I usually buy new laptops when the underlying platform is brand new, to maximize the time I'll have the machine while it's still new. With that knowledge, and the knowledge that I'd like to run GNU/Linux as my primary operating system, what are the chances that I can buy an Ivy Bridge based ThinkPad right out of the product launch gate and enjoy such cutting-edge features as working 3d compositing, 2D without visually-perceivable slow rendering, and perhaps even light OpenGL 2.1 games? Stuff like Trine or Second Life, not like Unigine Heaven.

[rsking84]

First of all, it's awesome to see Intel putting such development effort into open-source drivers. My experience in the linux world has been mostly frustrating as regards official driver support, so thank you!

Most of the news lately has been about Sandy/Ivy bridge support. I have Ironlake graphics.

- What is the status of OpenGL3 support for Ironlake in Mesa 8.0?
- Is any attention being paid to making SNA acceleration more stable on Ironlake?
- What other significant improvements or changes can Ironlake users expect?
- I have been working for a year to get WebGL working properly on my machine. Apparently Chromium will not support Mesa >7.9, while Firefox 9 blacklists my driver for unknown reasons. I can override the blacklist in FF, but performance is too poor to be useful. Is there anything that can be done on the Intel / driver side to improve WebGl support in these browers?
- What is the relationship between OpenGL 3, 4, etc. support and WebGL?

Thanks again.

[rusty]

Will we see a proper kernel support for core i7 920 and above ?

new kernels (starting from 2.6.36 I belive) panic when overclocking core i7 9xx.
also these 2.6.36 and above kernes don't show the multiplier i.e. cat /proc/cpuinfo

I have recompiled a kernel with different setting and can provide a working kernel config for i7 920 if needed.
However, my kernel still doesn't show the multiplier, it recognizes the overclocking.

Thanks

[rafirafi]

Thank for giving us the opportunity to ask.

va api for 4500DH with h264 support, would be nice to have it or to know if it's off.
sna acceleration is mature enough to use with this generation of chips ?

opencl for sandy bridge gpu ( but if it's comes with ivy bridge it's fine enough) or just knowing if it's never going to happen in this world.

gpu encoding for sandy bridge(or later) with va api, well I mean if there is any way to use or test it?

gpu passthrough for intel gpu (ivy bridge or after) with kvm while using a discrete card for main desktop... what I'm dreaming ? Just to know if it's been work on would be nice.

[elanthis]

If Batman used Linux, which distro would he use, and what CPU series is used in the Batcomputer?

[GreekGeek]

Hi Intel spokes-geek,

please do enable this switch in laptop motherboard bios as a matter of standard operation procedure, so that Linux/BSD/Unix users do not have to put up with inferior (stop frowning, you know the nVidia is better! ;-) ), intel graphics. I actually want to use the superior chips, not the fall-back low power "stuff...."

You can start, pretty please, with the Gateway NV57H series? :-D

Please do the right thing, by Linux/BSD/Unix users. There is more to life, than the cash cow, of Windows zombies.

Kind Regards,
GreekGeek :-)

[oneman]

Its highly unlikely that sandy bridge can accelerate h264 encoding beyond what is currently possible with x264, even if it can nudge by, the quality will not be up to par. Its not accelerating x264, its essentially an alternative to x264.