VIA OpenChrome X.Org Driver Getting Ready For First Release In Over Two Years

Written by Michael Larabel in Hardware on 14 February 2016 at 07:12 PM EST. 6 Comments
HARDWARE
With a new developer stepping up to the plate, it's looking like the OpenChrome DDX driver will see its first release in more than two and a half years.

For those still relying upon the OpenChrome X.Org driver for VIA x86 graphics hardware support, Kevin Brace is hoping to soon release a new version. Kevin started a new mailing list thread to encourage interested VIA hardware enthusiasts to begin testing the latest driver code and reporting their feedback.

OpenChrome still has a number of bugs ranging from no mouse cursor on some Lubuntu releases, LVDS flat panel issues, ACPI S3 resume instability, the screen going blank during boot, and "random junk" appearing on the screen.

Unfortunately, the OpenChrome VIA KMS/DRM driver still isn't mainlined with that developer no longer actively working on the project. Kevin working on the xf86-video-openchrome driver can't even figure out how to make use of the OpenChrome KMS driver so there's nothing happening on that front but all of the mode-setting is still with this long-running DDX driver. There's also been nothing to report on sadly either with an OpenChrome/VIA Gallium3D driver, which looks like that and potentially the DRM/KMS driver will not be mainlined prior to VIA x86 hardware becoming extinct.
Related News
About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

Popular News This Week