First Release Of The New Mode-Setting Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: First Release Of The New Mode-Setting Driver

David Airlie officially released the first version of the xf86-video-modesetting DDX driver this week. The xf86-video-modesetting driver is a generic KMS X.Org driver that will work with any kernel mode-setting DRM driver in Linux, but only provides shadow frame-buffer support...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTA1ODc

[curaga]

I'm curious, is there an advantage to running this over KMS FB compared to fbdev on KMS FB?

Sure it's one layer less, but still sw accel.

[FireBurn]

I'm not 100% sure but I think this new DDX driver allows you to change the resolution using XRandr which I don't think you can do using fbdev

[curaga]

That's a good point. Even though KMS FB can change the res, I don't think anyone's written a tool to do that, the console is always at max res (barring the bootcode, IIRC).

[DeepDayze]

That's a good point. Even though KMS FB can change the res, I don't think anyone's written a tool to do that, the console is always at max res (barring the bootcode, IIRC).

Setting the res other than the native one could and should be done with a kernel boot option, eg. screen=1280x1024. No boot option will just simply set the max res allowed by the monitor

[curaga]

Yes, and there's a clear lack of a tool, command-line xrandr so to say.

[DeepDayze]

This driver should also be useful as a framework for developing drivers for new graphics chips that may come out in the future

[uid313]

I am curious to know if this driver could be improved and how.

Is it possible to add any type of acceleration to it?

[uid313]

How is this any different from softpipe / llvmpipe?

[DeepDayze]

I am curious to know if this driver could be improved and how.

Is it possible to add any type of acceleration to it?

I'm sure it is possible to add some degree of acceleration to it, depending on the hardware its driving. Perhaps older cards can be used with it