svn commit: r49856 - head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status

Sun Jan 15 04:50:20 UTC 2017

Author: bjk
Date: Sun Jan 15 04:50:19 2017
New Revision: 49856
URL: https://svnweb.freebsd.org/changeset/doc/49856

Log:
  Add 2016Q4 Graphics entry from Matthew Macy

Modified:
  head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-10-2016-12.xml

Modified: head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-10-2016-12.xml
==============================================================================

--- head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-10-2016-12.xml	Sun Jan 15 02:55:29 2017	(r49855)
+++ head/en_US.ISO8859-1/htdocs/news/status/report-2016-10-2016-12.xml	Sun Jan 15 04:50:19 2017	(r49856)
@@ -1099,4 +1099,73 @@
 	The &os; Foundation
     </sponsor>
   </project>
+
+  <project cat='proj'>
+    <title>The Graphics Stack on &os;</title>
+
+    <contact>
+      <person>
+	<name>&os; Graphics Team</name>
+	<email>FreeBSD-x11 at FreeBSD.org</email>
+      </person>
+
+      <person>
+	<name>
+	  <given>Matthew</given>
+	  <common>Macy</common>
+	</name>
+	<email>mmacy at nextbsd.org</email>
+      </person>
+    </contact>
+
+    <links>
+      <url href="https://wiki.FreeBSD.org/Graphics">Graphics Stack Roadmap and Supported Hardware Matrix</url>
+      <url href="https://github.com/FreeBSDDesktop/freebsd-base-graphics">GitHub Repository</url>
+      <url href="https://github.com/FreeBSD/freebsd-ports-graphics">Ports Development Repository</url>
+      <url href="https://github.com/FreeBSDDesktop/libudev-devd">Fork of libudevd-devd Shim</url>
+      <url href="https://planet.FreeBSD.org/graphics">Graphics Team Blog</url>
+    </links>
+
+    <body>
+      <p>Good progress on graphics support was made during the weeks
+	around Christmas and the new year with the import of Linux's 4.9
+	DRM for <tt>i915</tt> and <tt>amdgpu</tt> into the drm-next
+	branch of the github repository. The <tt>amdgpu</tt> KMS
+	driver is already somewhat usable, with a few major known issues
+	remaining.  It now supports GPUs as far back as Southern Islands
+	and up to Polaris.  The 4.9 update also appears to have fixed a
+	regression in <tt>i915</tt> that was introduced by the 4.8 merge
+	late this past summer.  The drm-next branch now supports the
+	Intel integrated graphics unit up to Kaby Lake CPUs.  To
+	facilitate out-of-the-box support on CURRENT, most of the
+	branch-local VM changes were reverted and the graphics fault
+	routines converted to use pg_populate.  This new interface is the
+	source of a couple of regressions causing panics on i915 and
+	severe artifacts with amdgpu on integrated GPUs.  Mark Johnston
+	(markj@) has volunteered to analyze these issues.  Please show
+	your support and encouragement to Mark for helping to move this
+	project towards the finish line.</p>
+
+      <p>The xserver-mesa-next-udev branch was created for the ports
+	development repository, and holds Mesa 13.0 and fixes for
+	newer AMD GPUs.  It uses a fork of the libudev-devd shim, also
+	bringing Mesa closer to Linux upstream.  I plan to keep
+	updating <tt>drm</tt> and <tt>amdgpu</tt> (for use on my
+	desktop and potentially longer term for GPGPU computations) as
+	well as work with Mark to address the existing bugs in
+	<tt>i915</tt> (assuming that two new porters are approved).
+	However, the Linux <tt>i915</tt> developers seems to
+	aggressively explore the space of possible implementations and
+	use of Linux internal APIs, making it prohibitively time
+	consuming to track upstream.  I am helping someone to learn the
+	ropes of how to replay a subset of changes from a Linux
+	release into &os; in the hope that he will take over the
+	mantle of drm-next <tt>i915</tt> maintainer.  Assuming the
+	issues listed above are addressed, a port of the linuxkpi,
+	DRM, and KMS drivers for use on standard amd64 CURRENT
+	installations is planned.  Together with upgrades to the
+	relevant graphics ports, this will provide experimental
+	support for new AMD and Intel GPUs.</p>
+    </body>
+  </project>
 </report>
