Another New KMS Graphics Driver Tips Up

[Qaridarium]

I've said this a few times over the years so hopefully this won't come as a surprise, but I wouldn't be buying high end cards yet if I was only planning on using them with the open source drivers, even if I could magically run the Intel open source stack on AMD or NVidia hardware.

this makes me sad :-( for Linux only low-end...

they always push open-source in the low-end corner.

thats just a crime!

[airlied]

@bridgman

do you really think that the intel (classic) mesa codebase shares much with the other gallium based drivers?

Yes it shares quite a lot of code, the whole GLSL compiler, the mesa GL API layer, the mesa GL->driver interface code.

Dave.

[mjg59]

- flicker free boot
- faster VT switch
- kernel errors visible if X hangs

Now, which of these is important in a server?

Userspace modesetting is incompatible with UEFI Secure Boot, so if you want to run X on a server using it then KMS is the only option.

[bridgman]

this makes me sad :-( for Linux only low-end... they always push open-source in the low-end corner.

It shouldn't make you sad. Besides, midrange cards are actually a better fit than low end cards. I think you've said this yourself in the past as well.

Optimizing a driver to take full advantage of high end hardware without getting bottlenecked on CPU usage is a *lot* of work, doesn't significantly benefit users of low end and midrange hardware, and adds a lot of complexity to the stack which makes it harder to maintain for everyone. Doesn't mean it won't happen, just that it doesn't seem like a smart thing to spend a lot of time until the more broadly useful areas have been addressed.

thats just a crime!

Sure it's a crime, like when you take the elevator to the 50th floor you have to go past the 25th floor on the way. Criminal.

[curaga]

Userspace modesetting is incompatible with UEFI Secure Boot, so if you want to run X on a server using it then KMS is the only option.

Huh, why is that?

[mjg59]

Huh, why is that?

Because letting userspace have direct access to PCI devices means userspace could DMA arbitrary data over the kernel and firmware, compromising the security.

[curaga]

Ah, you're talking about it used positively No wonder that didn't come to mind.

In the usual case Secure Boot is a swearword and it's just wanted out of the way, then the kernel can do what it wants.