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Date:      Thu, 8 Jan 2015 19:59:12 +0000 (UTC)
From:      Benjamin Kaduk <bjk@FreeBSD.org>
To:        doc-committers@freebsd.org, svn-doc-all@freebsd.org, svn-doc-head@freebsd.org
Subject:   svn commit: r46173 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status
Message-ID:  <201501081959.t08JxCnC067130@svn.freebsd.org>

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Author: bjk
Date: Thu Jan  8 19:59:11 2015
New Revision: 46173
URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/46173

Log:
  Add report from the graphics team
  
  Approved by:	hrs (mentor, blanket)

Modified:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml

Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml
==============================================================================
--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml	Thu Jan  8 19:40:36 2015	(r46172)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2014-10-2014-12.xml	Thu Jan  8 19:59:11 2015	(r46173)
@@ -1045,4 +1045,91 @@
     </help>
   </project>
 
+  <project cat='ports'>
+    <title>The Graphics stack on FreeBSD</title>
+
+    <contact>
+      <person>
+	<name>FreeBSD Graphics team</name>
+	<email>freebsd-x11@FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+    </contact>
+
+    <links>
+      <url href="https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics">Graphics stack roadmap and supported hardware matrix</url>
+      <url href="http://blogs.freebsdish.org/graphics/">Graphics stack team blog</url>
+      <url href="https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-ports-graphics">Ports development tree on GitHub</url>
+    </links>
+
+    <body>
+      <p>Mesa was upgraded to 10.3, then 10.4 for FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE and
+	11-CURRENT.  We test release candidates and therefore this port is
+	now usually updated shortly after a new release.  Mesa 10.x brings
+	huge improvements in terms of OpenGL standards support, performance
+	and stability, especially for Radeon owners.  Mesa 9.1 is kept for
+	FreeBSD 9.x, but we have plans to fix this; see below.</p>
+
+      <p><tt>graphics/gbm</tt> and <tt>devel/libclc</tt> are new ports used
+	by Mesa to implement OpenCL.  The next step is to finish the port for
+	Mesa's libOpenCL.so, named Clover.  This will permit users to run
+	OpenCL programs on Radeon GPUs for now.</p>
+
+      <p>xserver was upgraded from 1.12 to 1.14.  This is the last version
+	of xserver supporting Mesa 9.1.  Changes are described in an article
+	on the blog.  The most noticeable one is probably the switch from
+	the input device detection back-end based on HAL to the one based on
+	devd. hald(8) is still required by many desktop environments, but
+	the X.Org server itself is free from it.</p>
+
+      <p>xserver was the last port supporting the <tt>WITH_NEW_XORG</tt>
+	knob.  The knob is now completely removed. This was the occasion to
+	add <tt>WITH_NEW_XORG</tt> and <tt>WITH_KMS</tt> to the list of
+	deprecated knobs to help people clean up their <tt>make.conf</tt>.
+	At the same time, the new-xorg alternate pkg repository was
+	deprecated.</p>
+
+      <p>After discussion, two patent-encumbered options were enabled by
+	default:</p>
+      <ul>
+	<li><tt>TEXTURE_FLOAT</tt> in graphics/dri, which allows Mesa to
+	  advertise the support for OpenGL 3.0+;</li>
+	<li><tt>LCD_FILTERING</tt> in print/freetype2, which enables the
+	  subpixel rendering engine, improving font anti-aliasing.</li>
+      </ul>
+      <p>These two packages now provide a better user experience
+	out-of-the-box.  Users who are uncomfortable with the options may
+	unset them and rebuild the ports.  There is no need to rebuild
+	anything else.</p>
+
+      <p>On the kernel side, Tijl Coosemans added AGP support back to the
+	TTM memory manager and therefore to the Radeon driver.  His work was
+	merged back to stable/10 and will be available in FreeBSD
+	10.2-RELEASE.</p>
+
+      <p>We migrated our Ports development tree to Git and GitHub.  Tracking
+	changes in the official Ports tree and preparing patches is way
+	easier.  Furthermore, we can accept pull requests. All reasons behind
+	this change are detailed on the blog and the workf-low is described
+	on the wiki.</p>
+
+      <p>The XDC 2014 (X Developer's Conference) was a great conference.
+	Reviving the relationship with the developers of the graphics
+	stack was a success! A report is available on the blog.</p>
+
+      <p>Our next items on the roadmap are:</p>
+      <ol>
+	<li>Provide FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE's i915 driver to FreeBSD 9.x users
+	  through a new port.  This is a work in progress, but it would allow
+	  us to remove Mesa 9.1 and make Mesa 10.4 available everywhere.</li>
+	<li>Once Mesa 9.1 is gone, we can update xserver to 1.16.</li>
+      </ol>
+    </body>
+
+    <help>
+      <task>
+	<p>See the "Graphics" wiki page for up-to-date information.</p>
+      </task>
+    </help>
+  </project>
+
 </report>



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