AMD Releases New Catalyst Linux Legacy Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMD Releases New Catalyst Linux Legacy Driver

While owners of ATI/AMD Radeon HD 5000/6000/7000 series graphics cards have already had a Catalyst 12.6 Linux driver -- which many Linux users found to be disappointing -- today AMD has released a Catalyst 12.6 "Legacy" Linux driver for those using the older generations of Radeon hardware...

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

[schmidtbag]

I feel like AMD should just add the last few missing features in the legacy drivers and make sure its compatible with the latest kernels and xservers. I don't blame them for not wanting to keep up with it, but I find it unacceptable to stop working on something with blatant missing features. Either that or they need to hire more open source developers.

[entropy]

I welcome this move. I use the FOSS driver on HD 4850 but it's nice to have
the option to use the binary driver for some time until the FOSS further matures.
In particular users with mobile variants of those chips actually still _need_ this support.

Nevertheless, the notes seem to be Windows centric:

The reason for the shift in support policy is largely due to the fact that the AMD Radeon HD 2000, AMD Radeon HD 3000,
and AMD Radeon HD 4000 Series have been optimized to their maximum potential from a performance and feature perspective.

From a feature perspective?

How is the UVD support coming along?
Is L5.1 officially supported now?

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Is L5.1 officially supported now?

sudo amdconfig --set-pcs-u32=MCIL,HWUVD_H264Level51Support,1

[TobiSGD]

Any notes which kernel versions are supported? Anyways, now I can get back to Slackware current on my laptop, yeah.
Edit: Why isn't it mentioned at all in the article that this is a Beta, not a Release version?

[Dukenukemx]

I don't use Linux as my main OS. For the moment that would be Windows 7. I do have a linux box that I use, and that has a Radeon 4670 in it. It would suck balls if that graphics card would suddenly become a problem. I use a Radeon 6750 on my Windows machine for gaming and I'm not about to dual boot. I hate it.

[e8hffff]

Good to get an update. i still haven't purchased a new GFX card as the market is yet to give the option I need, and to compare. As in I'm not playing any demanding games. The rival is yet to release a new card to compare to AMD's, before purchase. and there is time to wait for price reductions in all that.

If this driver fixes problems with Everquest then I will simply go out and update with AMD, other wise I want to try out Nvidia but their price and performace needs to compete with AMD. Nvidia is yet to release a mid-range new card.

[ChemicalBrother]

Man, Phoronix. At least say, this is a beta driver...

[Fenrin]

is there already a link to the legacy driver of Catalyst 12.6?

If I choose my graphic card series and OS at ati.amd.com it ask me for a username and password and then I get "401 UNAUTHORIZED"

[e8hffff]

Note you get a "Testing use only" transparent image in the bottom right corner!