Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:07:25 -0700 From: Chris <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com> To: Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com> Cc: FreeBSD X11 <x11@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: deprecation of drm-legacy-kmod Message-ID: <836d7a2f1f77a8d9c273a6935327924a@bsdforge.com> In-Reply-To: <CANCZdfqZADozi-uBOEz8zJuUmRdNi9%2B8ryzzsJObhuEE3RqjFg@mail.gmail.com> References: <e770c456-c6fa-924c-0f1e-1d69ce80846f@freebsd.org> <caefaea84e701f966bc3b5dd9a0d7bef@bsdforge.com> <CANCZdfqZADozi-uBOEz8zJuUmRdNi9%2B8ryzzsJObhuEE3RqjFg@mail.gmail.com>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 2020-08-27 17:07, Warner Losh wrote: > On Thu, Aug 27, 2020 at 11:28 AM Chris <bsd-lists@bsdforge.com> wrote: > >> On 2020-08-24 15:21, Niclas Zeising wrote: >> > [ cross posted across several mailing lists, please respect reply-to ] >> > >> > Hi! >> > >> > It is time to deprecate drm-legacy-kmod, since it is taking too much >> time to >> > maintain and are holding off changes in other areas. >> > >> > drm-legacy-kmod was created to aid in the transition to the LinuxKPI >> based >> > graphics drivers, at a time when the new drivers only supported amd64. >> > Since >> > then, the new drivers have been updated to support more architectures >> and >> > more >> > GPUs, and the burden of maintaining drm-legacy-kmod has increased. It >> > became >> > apparent with the update of xorg-server to 1.20 that drm-legacy-kmod is >> too >> > old to >> > work with certain aspects of the graphics stack, and it is also holding >> back >> > changes in areas of the FreeBSD base system such as VM scaling and >> > optimization. >> > The VM locking protocol needs to be changed, and to port those changes >> to >> > these >> > drivers would require extensive reworking of its use of the FreeBSD VM >> > subsystem. >> > This means it is time for it to go. >> > >> > The driver will remain for a transition period. For FreeBSD 13-CURRENT, >> > this will >> > be fairly short, as there are changes to FreeBSD base that breaks the >> > drivers. >> > For FreeBSD 12, the driver will remain a bit longer, to ease in >> transition. >> > On >> > FreeBSD 12, there is also the option of using the graphics drivers in >> base, >> > although those are supported on a best-effort basis only. >> If this were pulled today. What are the ramifications? IOW what (A)GPUs >> would >> no longer be available for use on FreeBSD? Does one need to join a Linux >> Graphics >> list to find out what's currently supported? If so. What version of the >> Linux >> kernel? >> > > The ramifications are three fold. > > (1) There's some truly ancient graphics hardware that won't be supported > anymore. However they still work on stable 11 and stable 12. > (2) Improvements to the scaling of VM system can proceed forward. > (3) Efforts can be focused on the 5.4 Linux port that's in progress and > testing in -current. I was actually more concerned for what hardware would no longer be supported. That is; what (specific) hardware was now off the table as a result of this change. Not really a concern for my own hardware -- I stay relatively current. But rather for current, and future customers. I guess I just assumed that the "legacy" branch was specific to specific video cards, and processors, and that someone knew what they were. Thank you for taking the time to reply, Warner. --Chris > > For most people, though, this doesn't matter. It's not used by default and > you have to specifically opt into using it. > > Warner
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?836d7a2f1f77a8d9c273a6935327924a>