Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2021 11:05:59 +0100 From: Stefan Blachmann <sblachmann@gmail.com> To: Jason Bacon <bacon4000@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Call for Foundation-supported Project Ideas Message-ID: <CACc-My0Fu8yORoi8DW9dCL8EgmmRodH9YdMwNeFDybmDWpCRXQ@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <CACc-My1jjd=7rSpEA8rg6y_Qq=ebL-WsTZdhv40Zs=F=XfZqyg@mail.gmail.com> References: <861r36xzpe.fsf@phe.ftfl.ca> <CAOtMX2gh98wbQ48S51QwpYfrnexpVb4vL%2BFVuxgLnT1otYjuAQ@mail.gmail.com> <bc3ba6502d5c5776f44304ff7878a5eb@bsdforge.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.2111240056470.68830@ai.fobar.qr> <d45757d9-b5ca-e1c7-5a1c-18159227de17@gmail.com> <CACc-My1jjd=7rSpEA8rg6y_Qq=ebL-WsTZdhv40Zs=F=XfZqyg@mail.gmail.com>
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Port nouveau to FreeBSD. Reason: There are ongoing changes in the xorg API which break older proprietary Nvidia cards' legacy drivers. In addition, Nvidia plans to drop/discontinue support for their 390 driver in 2022. Nvidia already stopped support releases for their 340 and older drivers so that a lot of Nvidia graphics cards can no longer be used on FreeBSD already or will be unusable very soon. https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3142/~/support-timeframes-for-unix-legacy-gpu-releases On 11/24/21, Stefan Blachmann <sblachmann@gmail.com> wrote: > Proposal: > Clean up the xorg graphics card/driver list and remove these ones that > do no longer work. > > Explanation: > > On 11/24/21, Jason Bacon <bacon4000@gmail.com> wrote: >> One hurdle I've not yet been able to conquer is automatic GPU >> configuration. The best I've been able to do so far is an interactive >> script that requires some rather technical decisions from the users: >> >> It would be really nice is we could replace this with a simple, maybe >> even automated tool to configure a working Xorg setup on most common >> hardware. Wouldn't matter to me if it falls back on scfb or vesa in >> many cases, as long as it's easy to use and produces a working desktop. >> >> Bonus points for not requiring a reboot to properly activate the DRM >> module. >> >> I wouldn't obsess about making it work on *all* hardware off-the-bat. I >> think it would be more fruitful to first develop a system that works >> *really* well on the most common hardware. Then we have a product that >> people will want, which will help recruit the people we'll need to work >> on expanding hardware support. > > I have done this already. > My script does autodetect and autoconfigure *all* graphics cards/chips > for which are drivers available in FreeBSD. > It also works with multiple graphics cards, autodetecting whether they > can work together or not (when drivers cannot coexist). > The script is not yet ready for release, as autoconfiguring multi-head > configurations (eg multi-monitor configurations either with multiple > GPU outputs and/or multiple graphics cards) is still WIP. > (If you are interested in this topic anyway, please either mail me > directly or open a separate discussion thread.) > > However, the problem is that some drivers can no longer work because > libxaa.so (and maybe other xorg libs, too) has been removed upstream > 10 years ago already. > See this for more info: > https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=257417 > > This is the background of my proposal: > - Test all graphics drivers on real hardware whether they are still > functional in currently-supported FreeBSD releases > - Remove all those drivers that can no longer work because xorg > upstream dropped support. > - Feed back to xorg upstrean so they can obsolete/remove these now > useless drivers. > > I'd certainly be more motivated to do this if it is being sponsored, > as I have already collected most (except for a few very rare and > expensive AGP graphics cards) of the hardware in question. > Because, 1. it needs some money to obtain these lacking (past > high-end, mainly workstation usage) cards, and 2. it takes some time > to walk through them and test every and each of these. >
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