AMD Publishes Open-Source "ATI Evergreen" Driver

Several readers have written to tell us that AMD has published their code to support the Radeon HD 5000 "Evergreen" graphics cards on Linux in an open-source driver. Unfortunately the driver isn't quite as complete as some might hope. The current offering doesn't promise 2D (EXA) acceleration or 3D support. "The DDX driver supports mode-setting on the Evergreen/R800 series GPUs with VGA and DVI connectors while the DisplayPort connectivity is still not working right, according to AMD's Alex Deucher who had written most of this code. These new AMD graphics cards have been around since September while there was no open-source support at that time. In December just before Christmas there was Evergreen Shader documentation that was made publicly available and around that time it was confirmed via our forums that initial VGA mode-setting was working with Evergreen internally on unreleased code. Since then the digital connector support has been added in and this code has finally cleared AMD's legal review. The revised target was to publish this code by FOSDEM, which is this weekend so AMD did hit the target this time."

Comments

0D

[sammcj]

Yay, no 2D or 3D support! I wonder, in what dimension does this driver work?

Re:So what does it do?

[nxtw]

Then explain why my printer doesn't work on Windows 7, when it works in XP, VIsta, OSX and Ubuntu? Out of the box in two of those four(I'll let you guess which).

I said graphics, not printer.

I would also like you to explain why my 4 year old Dell laptop doesn't let me pick the appropraite resolution in Windows 7, when it will in XP, Vista and Ubuntu.

I'm not your tech support.

Re:So what does it do?

[Nimey]

O RLY?

Explain why my non-Aero i855 laptop doesn't work, or why a 915 won't either.

I submit that you're full of shit.

Re:So what does it do?

[nxtw]

Explain why my non-Aero i855 laptop doesn't work, or why a 915 won't either.

I am not your tech support.

It sucks that you can't get your hardware working, but your anecdote does not change that Windows 7 supports drivers using the 2000/XP interface.

Re:So what does it do?

[drinkypoo]

For varying definitions of "working". As an ATI user I must say, the propietary driver is the single worst piece of software I've ever had the displeasure to run on my Linux system, and the only thing besides faulty RAM and a dying HDD to ever cause Linux (yes, the kernel, not just X) lock up on me.

ATI drivers have been causing me crashes in various operating systems since they brought out the Mach32. Their subflavors of the Mach64 caused me crashes in Windows NT 3.51, and Solaris x86 2.5.1. The catalyst drivers were amazingly foul and had a footprint I would never have believed had I not installed many, many drivers trying to get their driver to stop cratering Windows XP. ATI has never been able to develop a worthy driver, and their donation of OSS drivers is worse than useless, as they can use it as an excuse not to release the full specifications necessary to develop full functionality without their "help".

I'd prefer to have a fully Open+Free Linux system, but until someone makes that feasible, I'll be sticking with nVidia.