At Phoronix we are pleased to announce the creation of
Phorogit. This site is a free software repository using the Git version control system. Phorogit is now the home to the
fglrx-packaging scripts. For those that use the official ATI Linux driver installer and generate distribution packages using the
--buildpkg command, that process relies upon scripts created by distribution maintainers on ATI's closed Linux beta program. Compared to the past where you'd have to wait at least a month for a new driver release to come out in order to get these updated scripts, they will now be freely available at anytime and developed openly. In fact, the packaging scripts for the next ATI driver release (8.43) are already available. The
fglrx-packaging repository is where the Debian, Fedora, Mandriva, Red Flag, Slackware, SuSE, and Ubuntu maintainers will be hosting their fglrx installer code. This is also the location where AMD will be pulling the scripts from for each of their driver releases.
In the past there's been bugs (kernel compatibility, x86_64 issues, etc) that have arose after the monthly driver release where you've either had to fix the problem yourself or wait for the next driver to come, but now you can get these updated scripts very easily. In the near future there will even be scripts to automate this process for the end-user. Package maintainers could also include
firegl_public patches to add new Linux kernel support even after the driver has shipped.
Phorogit is currently considered beta and there will be more tweaking and changes that will go on as time progresses to make it more end-user friendly. More information to come soon.
