27 ms·

Sorry but I don't follow this very closely. As a rpi user, what does this mean for me?

teekert 11y ago
Good question, as a fellow rpi user I didn't have the feeling we were lacking a Graphics Driver... Apparently now it is in the Kernel, instead of outside of it. It may just make maintenance of rpi distro's easier as the kernel includes the Graphics Driver there is no need to get it separately.
- justinsaccount 11y ago
  Pretty sure you were lacking a fully open graphics driver. The issue with a closed graphics driver is that while it generally works now, it may not work in a few years when the manufacturer decides to stop supporting it. See for example Five Years Later, Intel Poulsbo Is Still A Linux Mess https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA
  - josteink 11y ago
    > Pretty sure you were lacking a fully open graphics driver. Keyword being open. I suspect most Rpi users just download some IMG-file from the internet, load it up on a SD-card, and run that as is. Very few will have any involvement with the Rpi hardware at source-code level, or will try to build or tweak their own images.
    - JupiterMoon 11y ago
      Does this mean that one of the binary blobs will be gone from the Rpi image now?
      - mrsteveman1 11y ago
        EDIT: Ah I see you're saying "is there one fewer blob" not "is there still a blob at all". I don't think that's the case here yet, but perhaps someone more familiar with the driver can comment on whether that will be the case at some point. As far as I understand it, the Raspberry Pi still needs a binary blob due to the way it boots[0]. The blob is actually loaded into the VPU first before the main processor is even running. > The most important thing you should know is that the RaspberryPi is a strange beast where the ARM CPU is the not main CPU - it's only a co-processor to the VideoCore GPU. When the RaspberryPi starts, a GPU blob is read from the SD card to the L2 cache and executed. This code then brings up all the important peripherals (RAM, clocks etc) and starts the ARM CPU. Then the 2nd stage bootloader or some operating system itself can be run on ARM CPU. [0] https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/7122/level-of-hackability-of-raspberry-pi/7126#7126 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/7122/level-o...

Good question, as a fellow rpi user I didn't have the feeling we were lacking a Graphics Driver... Apparently now it is in the Kernel, instead of outside of it. It may just make maintenance of rpi distro's easier as the kernel includes the Graphics Driver there is no need to get it separately.

justinsaccount 11y ago
Pretty sure you were lacking a fully open graphics driver. The issue with a closed graphics driver is that while it generally works now, it may not work in a few years when the manufacturer decides to stop supporting it. See for example Five Years Later, Intel Poulsbo Is Still A Linux Mess https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTMyODA
- josteink 11y ago
  > Pretty sure you were lacking a fully open graphics driver. Keyword being open. I suspect most Rpi users just download some IMG-file from the internet, load it up on a SD-card, and run that as is. Very few will have any involvement with the Rpi hardware at source-code level, or will try to build or tweak their own images.
  - JupiterMoon 11y ago
    Does this mean that one of the binary blobs will be gone from the Rpi image now?
    - mrsteveman1 11y ago
      EDIT: Ah I see you're saying "is there one fewer blob" not "is there still a blob at all". I don't think that's the case here yet, but perhaps someone more familiar with the driver can comment on whether that will be the case at some point. As far as I understand it, the Raspberry Pi still needs a binary blob due to the way it boots[0]. The blob is actually loaded into the VPU first before the main processor is even running. > The most important thing you should know is that the RaspberryPi is a strange beast where the ARM CPU is the not main CPU - it's only a co-processor to the VideoCore GPU. When the RaspberryPi starts, a GPU blob is read from the SD card to the L2 cache and executed. This code then brings up all the important peripherals (RAM, clocks etc) and starts the ARM CPU. Then the 2nd stage bootloader or some operating system itself can be run on ARM CPU. [0] https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/7122/level-of-hackability-of-raspberry-pi/7126#7126 https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/7122/level-o...