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Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 7:53 am
by wacco
Big news, and great timing since we've had some discussions here recently about vesa/gfx support in all our little projects...
...Via went open source! Woohoo!
So that basicly means we got some great examples of how the via chipsets work (they also released the network source, but that more-or-less already worked anyway) and the mpeg2 acceleration for my..ehh...everybody's epia board!
The big news:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/12 ... en_source/
The la-grande source:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?PageID=2&Type=4
Can't wait 'till I can get low and dirty with this stuff...
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 8:11 am
by DruG5t0r3
_very_ interesting, they even have source code for the're ethernet cards (not that it wasn't available before under the linux kernel source-tree)
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:00 am
by Dex4u
Its time like this, when i envy C programmers
, Great news.
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 11:13 am
by Candy
Why envy C programmers? If there's one thing that is very common with C and higher level languages it's having dozens of ways to do something, so people will do it in that many ways. We need to rewrite it just like you so it fits.
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 12:39 pm
by Dex4u
@Candy, its not so much, the rewriting, its the reading of the C code.
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 1:14 pm
by Candy
Been busy with it for a few hours now, it's still very illegible to me too. However, on the comments I think it works for all savages, including the S3 savage3d and the savage4 / savage2000. No certainty though, no savage here to test it with.
Gonna make a central repository for this information somewhere? Somebody set up a savage-driver-wiki?
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Wed Apr 13, 2005 3:29 pm
by B.E
It would be great to see ATI do the same thing
Re:Via makes video drivers opensource!
Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2005 1:56 pm
by wacco
I'd like to add that there are certain patches released from via to get specific apps working under linux with full hardware acceleration.
So basicly, get that projects' specific source, patch it with the via patch, and see how it now suddenly uses full hardware acceleration...
...I think. My internetconnection at home is /still/ not fixed and here at work I'm very limited to do any actual work (okay... that sounds weird)
Therefor, I still don't have a clue how 'bad' the actual code is, and/but since my linux device driver interface knowledge is a little *cough* rusty too, this sounds like a better start in understanding how everything works.
Anyway, the link you've all been waiting for:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?Pa ... icleID=376
And:
http://www.viaarena.com/default.aspx?Pa ... DCatType=1
That could be cle266 specific btw, haven't really looked into it. If you want to be sure, go to the 'grande source link', then source, integrated graphics, select one, top right it says 'useful information', and stop drooling, start working with it!
Hth & HH
