8 ms·

* clean-room M1 GPU driver created by (seemingly) one dev in a matter of months * an excellent POC of Rust drivers on Linux * the dev live-streamed almost eve

* clean-room M1 GPU driver created by (seemingly) one dev in a matter of months * an excellent POC of Rust drivers on Linux * the dev live-streamed almost every minute of development * the dev is a virtual anime girl So far I'm LOVING 2022.

modshatereality 4y ago
Well that's bad news for anyone hoping this driver would ever be upstreamed, linux requires real identity for participation.
gpm 4y ago
> by (seemingly) one dev I think Alyssa Rosenzweig and Asahi Lina both did pretty substantial work on this?
- dottedmag 4y ago
  GPU driver is mostly by Alyssa, DCP (display controller) is mostly by Lina.
- kelnos 4y ago
  I believe Rosenzweig was responsible for the user-space bits; this post is about the kernel driver, which (as I understand it) was done entirely by Asahi Lina. (Both of them deserve a ton of praise, of course.)
  - nicoburns 4y ago
    I'm pretty sure this post is about both bits. I don't think you can pass that test suite without both bits.
    - entropicdrifter 4y ago
      It was passing that test suite when being run as of their XDC talk 10 days ago using only Alyssa's bit. This update shows that when using both bits combined it now passes with the same level of conformance. At least that's my understanding of it. You're right in that this is about both bits working together, but the person you're replying to is right in the sense that this particular update is showing specifically an update in Lina's bit.
  - daniel-cussen 4y ago
- nicce 4y ago
  It is impressive. I remember reading something related to new abstractions in chip level. The most of the GPU drivers are actually on some specific chip and it works similarly regardless of the OS. Kernel developers actually develop against this new abtraction layer and not directly against GPU. Does someone has more information about this, or was this nonsense?
  - humanwhosits 4y ago
    It means that the drivers likely have a giant 'firmware' which is really just a closed source driver loaded into the chip, but with a nicer api for the kernel to program against
- outworlder 4y ago
  That's even acknowledged in the tweet thread.
- sorenjan 4y ago
  Aren't they the same person though? I've only seen small parts of a presentation, this vtuber stuff is not for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSJG5xGZfU&t=21330s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSJG5xGZfU&t=21330s
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - comex 4y ago
    They are not.
  - gpm 4y ago
    You're literally linking to a youtube video where 10 seconds later Alyssa is saying "this should all be sufficient proof that I'm not Lina"... and Lina engaged in an interactive Q&A while Alyssa stood around demonstrably not the person responding.
  - atdrummond 4y ago
    IF Lina had to be an extant member of the Asahi Linux project, it is much more likely that she would be Hector (marcan); Lina and marcan had identical dev environments when she first started making videos and Lina’s introduction to the Asahi Linux YouTube community was her “hacking” one of Hector’s streams. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=effHrj0qmwk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=effHrj0qmwk) Ultimately, though, does it matter at all?
    - cyber_kinetist 4y ago
      Lina was first introduced as an April Fools joke from marcan, but after the positive response from the audience he (or now she?) probably just decided to go why not and stick with the alternate identity. But as you’ve said, it really doesn’t matter. (Kudos from marcan trying as much as possible to keep the illusion /s: https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1582930401118806016?s=46&t=qCaH_ebLNdaUkkaEHz0-Ug https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1582930401118806016?s=46...)
- dylan604 4y ago
  one "anime" girl, 2 "anime" girls, 10 dev bros, I don't really care at this point. Color me impressed at the skillz required to make this to the point it is in the time it is. Way past anything I might dream about doing myself. So many kudos to any/all involved male/female/other doesn't matter in the slightest for the possibility to use the hardware to whatever I want.
robert_foss 4y ago
Mesa lets OpenGL(ES) drivers to share a lot of code. This doesn't take anything away from this achievement however.
rvz 4y ago
- apetresc 4y ago
  - rvz 4y ago
    That isn't proof of anything. It is a denial.
  - least 4y ago
    It doesn't matter if Asahi Lina is an avatar of Marcan or not and you're free to discourage people from speculating, especially since it does not seem that Asahi Lina wishes to disclose her real identity. That does not mean that what you've provided is proof, however.
- tpush 4y ago
  I don't think it really matters who's behind Lina.
foobarian 4y ago
Having seen some of Rosenzweig's work and talks, I would say "twenty devs".
- pas 4y ago
  interesting! can you share some details?
  - skavi 4y ago
    I think they are implying Rosenzweig is as capable as 20 devs.
    - 64StarFox64 4y ago
      Even 10x engineers are getting hit by inflation!
      - ansonhoyt 4y ago
        I think more code with fewer devs is deflationary. "As productivity increases, the cost of goods decreases." [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation
        odo1242 4y ago
        It's the value of the productivity itself that's decreasing (i.e. undergoing inflation)
jancsika 4y ago
> the dev live-streamed almost every minute of development Is there an archive of this dev work?
- tbodt 4y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/AsahiLina https://www.youtube.com/AsahiLina
  - amadvance 4y ago
    The key moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cNeFtGM3k&t=35595s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cNeFtGM3k&t=35595s
    - leetbulb 4y ago
      I love the "it works!" rush!
mlindner 4y ago
- nicoburns 4y ago
  Well of course nobody is an actual virtual anime girl.
  - mlindner 4y ago
    Yeah but it makes the voice too high to listen to comfortably.
    - prmoustache 4y ago
      Her video content is just unwatchable. Too bad as there are probably interesting bits inside.
      - kccqzy 4y ago
        This is such a westernized perspective. If you were Japanese or if you just grew up watching anime you'll find those videos perfectly watchable.
        lvass 4y ago
        I grew up watching anime and that's not the case. It's far too cacophonous to me, anime does not sound like that.
        Cyberdog 4y ago
        What a bizarre comment. Do you really think Japanese people and anime fans find heavily-roboticized voices peasant to listen to for long periods of time?
        mlindner 4y ago
        If I was Japanese I'd be watching content in Japanese.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mdp2021 4y ago
> So far I'm LOVING 2022 Stoical irony. Edit: Look: you can be excited by some tech advance, but no - 2022 remains part of an ongoing global disaster. The above quoted sentence is hardly manageable. The best it deserves is to be read like some twisted humour.
- mechanical_bear 4y ago
  “Ongoing global disaster” Life is good and only getting better :- Not sure where this “global disaster”, but then again I’m not a Doomer.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - bruce343434 4y ago
    > Life is good and only getting better Is it?
    - mechanical_bear 4y ago
      Yes. Unequivocally, yes. Get out of the doom echo chambers.
      - mdp2021 4y ago
        There is no need for echo chambers, Bear: you can just look directly. And no, our assessment does not conclude the same. If one wants to be optimistic, good; celebratory with awareness, with some maturity, well good then; but "locked in a box", no: this is public.
- a1369209993 4y ago
  > 2022 remains part of an ongoing global disaster. Which of the several dozen currently ongoing global disasters are you referring to, and, bluntly, why should we care?
keepquestioning 4y ago
Can someone explain the virtual thing? Who's running this operation.
- arlort 4y ago
  The dev is Asahi Lina (I presume a pseudonym https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi ) and when she livestreams the coding sessions instead of a video feed there's an avatar (an animated anime girl) and the voice is modulated to fit the part as well A random stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVQWo0kh9Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVQWo0kh9Q
Teknoman117 4y ago
> * the dev is a virtual anime girl Who had "skilled Linux kernel vtuber writes reverse engineered drivers for Apple hardware" on their 2022 bingo cards?

modshatereality 4y ago

Well that's bad news for anyone hoping this driver would ever be upstreamed, linux requires real identity for participation.

gpm 4y ago

> by (seemingly) one dev I think Alyssa Rosenzweig and Asahi Lina both did pretty substantial work on this?

dottedmag 4y ago
GPU driver is mostly by Alyssa, DCP (display controller) is mostly by Lina.
kelnos 4y ago
I believe Rosenzweig was responsible for the user-space bits; this post is about the kernel driver, which (as I understand it) was done entirely by Asahi Lina. (Both of them deserve a ton of praise, of course.)
- nicoburns 4y ago
  I'm pretty sure this post is about both bits. I don't think you can pass that test suite without both bits.
  - entropicdrifter 4y ago
    It was passing that test suite when being run as of their XDC talk 10 days ago using only Alyssa's bit. This update shows that when using both bits combined it now passes with the same level of conformance. At least that's my understanding of it. You're right in that this is about both bits working together, but the person you're replying to is right in the sense that this particular update is showing specifically an update in Lina's bit.
- daniel-cussen 4y ago
nicce 4y ago
It is impressive. I remember reading something related to new abstractions in chip level. The most of the GPU drivers are actually on some specific chip and it works similarly regardless of the OS. Kernel developers actually develop against this new abtraction layer and not directly against GPU. Does someone has more information about this, or was this nonsense?
- humanwhosits 4y ago
  It means that the drivers likely have a giant 'firmware' which is really just a closed source driver loaded into the chip, but with a nicer api for the kernel to program against
outworlder 4y ago
That's even acknowledged in the tweet thread.
sorenjan 4y ago
Aren't they the same person though? I've only seen small parts of a presentation, this vtuber stuff is not for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSJG5xGZfU&t=21330s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSJG5xGZfU&t=21330s
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- comex 4y ago
  They are not.
- gpm 4y ago
  You're literally linking to a youtube video where 10 seconds later Alyssa is saying "this should all be sufficient proof that I'm not Lina"... and Lina engaged in an interactive Q&A while Alyssa stood around demonstrably not the person responding.
- atdrummond 4y ago
  IF Lina had to be an extant member of the Asahi Linux project, it is much more likely that she would be Hector (marcan); Lina and marcan had identical dev environments when she first started making videos and Lina’s introduction to the Asahi Linux YouTube community was her “hacking” one of Hector’s streams. (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=effHrj0qmwk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=effHrj0qmwk) Ultimately, though, does it matter at all?
  - cyber_kinetist 4y ago
    Lina was first introduced as an April Fools joke from marcan, but after the positive response from the audience he (or now she?) probably just decided to go why not and stick with the alternate identity. But as you’ve said, it really doesn’t matter. (Kudos from marcan trying as much as possible to keep the illusion /s: https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1582930401118806016?s=46&t=qCaH_ebLNdaUkkaEHz0-Ug https://twitter.com/marcan42/status/1582930401118806016?s=46...)
dylan604 4y ago
one "anime" girl, 2 "anime" girls, 10 dev bros, I don't really care at this point. Color me impressed at the skillz required to make this to the point it is in the time it is. Way past anything I might dream about doing myself. So many kudos to any/all involved male/female/other doesn't matter in the slightest for the possibility to use the hardware to whatever I want.

robert_foss 4y ago

Mesa lets OpenGL(ES) drivers to share a lot of code. This doesn't take anything away from this achievement however.

rvz 4y ago

apetresc 4y ago
- rvz 4y ago
  That isn't proof of anything. It is a denial.
- least 4y ago
  It doesn't matter if Asahi Lina is an avatar of Marcan or not and you're free to discourage people from speculating, especially since it does not seem that Asahi Lina wishes to disclose her real identity. That does not mean that what you've provided is proof, however.
tpush 4y ago
I don't think it really matters who's behind Lina.

foobarian 4y ago

Having seen some of Rosenzweig's work and talks, I would say "twenty devs".

pas 4y ago
interesting! can you share some details?
- skavi 4y ago
  I think they are implying Rosenzweig is as capable as 20 devs.
  - 64StarFox64 4y ago
    Even 10x engineers are getting hit by inflation!
    - ansonhoyt 4y ago
      I think more code with fewer devs is deflationary. "As productivity increases, the cost of goods decreases." [1] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deflation
      - odo1242 4y ago
        It's the value of the productivity itself that's decreasing (i.e. undergoing inflation)

jancsika 4y ago

> the dev live-streamed almost every minute of development Is there an archive of this dev work?

tbodt 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/AsahiLina https://www.youtube.com/AsahiLina
- amadvance 4y ago
  The key moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cNeFtGM3k&t=35595s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7cNeFtGM3k&t=35595s
  - leetbulb 4y ago
    I love the "it works!" rush!

mlindner 4y ago

nicoburns 4y ago
Well of course nobody is an actual virtual anime girl.
- mlindner 4y ago
  Yeah but it makes the voice too high to listen to comfortably.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    Her video content is just unwatchable. Too bad as there are probably interesting bits inside.
    - kccqzy 4y ago
      This is such a westernized perspective. If you were Japanese or if you just grew up watching anime you'll find those videos perfectly watchable.
      - lvass 4y ago
        I grew up watching anime and that's not the case. It's far too cacophonous to me, anime does not sound like that.
      - Cyberdog 4y ago
        What a bizarre comment. Do you really think Japanese people and anime fans find heavily-roboticized voices peasant to listen to for long periods of time?
      - mlindner 4y ago
        If I was Japanese I'd be watching content in Japanese.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mdp2021 4y ago

> So far I'm LOVING 2022 Stoical irony. Edit: Look: you can be excited by some tech advance, but no - 2022 remains part of an ongoing global disaster. The above quoted sentence is hardly manageable. The best it deserves is to be read like some twisted humour.

mechanical_bear 4y ago
“Ongoing global disaster” Life is good and only getting better :- Not sure where this “global disaster”, but then again I’m not a Doomer.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- bruce343434 4y ago
  > Life is good and only getting better Is it?
  - mechanical_bear 4y ago
    Yes. Unequivocally, yes. Get out of the doom echo chambers.
    - mdp2021 4y ago
      There is no need for echo chambers, Bear: you can just look directly. And no, our assessment does not conclude the same. If one wants to be optimistic, good; celebratory with awareness, with some maturity, well good then; but "locked in a box", no: this is public.
a1369209993 4y ago
> 2022 remains part of an ongoing global disaster. Which of the several dozen currently ongoing global disasters are you referring to, and, bluntly, why should we care?

keepquestioning 4y ago

Can someone explain the virtual thing? Who's running this operation.

arlort 4y ago
The dev is Asahi Lina (I presume a pseudonym https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi https://twitter.com/LinaAsahi ) and when she livestreams the coding sessions instead of a video feed there's an avatar (an animated anime girl) and the voice is modulated to fit the part as well A random stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVQWo0kh9Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbVQWo0kh9Q

Teknoman117 4y ago

> * the dev is a virtual anime girl Who had "skilled Linux kernel vtuber writes reverse engineered drivers for Apple hardware" on their 2022 bingo cards?