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Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

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Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#41

Post by maeln »

Zardoz84 wrote: post #38
maeln wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I whish they would go the same way that AMD did, but I doubt we will see it any time soon. The thing is, AMD/ATI lost the software war against NVidia for quite a while now. AMD didn't have much to lose by open-sourcing their driver. And the AMD proprietary driver on Linux where always a mess, whereas NVidia at least "work" (even though they just refuse to play well with the linux env...). Now, with NVidia diving more…

The last time that I checked AMDGPU experience is far superior that NVIDIA proprietary drivers.

Since they started to seriously open-source their driver and work with the Linux maintainer, definitely.

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#43

Post by simcop2387 »

ddtaylor wrote: post #6

This should help a bit with the wave of new Pi-based emulation boards that are being used.

Won't affect any raspberry pi based systems. the Broadcom chip there isn't Mali based. For that you need a VC4/V3D chip driver, but that's also being developed. https://anholt.github.io/twivc4/2018/10/30/twiv/

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#45

Post by jplayer01 »

q3k wrote: post #31
grw_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forget where I read this, but I recall that due to patent situation it's practically impossible to build a GPU without infringing on some patent or another. By keeping drivers closed source it's possible to maintain deniability- if ARM released open source GPU drivers it would be trivial for rights-holders to look at the implementation and see what they can sue for. It's not impossible to do this with blob drivers,…

I don't buy this. See: AMD and Intel both have open source drivers.

I'm not sure what there is to buy. Just because AMD or Intel managed to do this doesn't mean it's any easier or cheaper for nVidia or Arm. AMD actually has been sued before over this kind of thing. Why not just save yourself the trouble and effort of making an entirely legal and safe open source implementation when you can just keep trucking with closed source?

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#46

Post by makomk »

djsumdog wrote: post #30
kbumsik wrote: post #12

I don't know much about ARM SoC ecosystems for Linux, but am I correct if I take this as a direct ARM Mali version of Nouveau, or it's slightly different? I'm very surprised that ARM, the company that should provide proper software references for its ecosystem, is not open source friendly.

There is no actual ARM platform, like in the case of a PC. (Intel x86/64 is not a platform. You can find an x86 compatible chip in a PS4, but it's missing all of the critical components that let it boot like a PC. See the Fail0ver video on PS4 kernel hacking for more info). ARM chips are just System-on-Chips with random pins soldered to random shit and broken, non-upstreamable kernels that are only released after a p…

This is actually useful though - it's not a full equivalent of Noveau because it doesn't include video output support of any kind and that tends to be vendor-specific hardware, but people have already got the necessary video out support for a bunch of cheap hardware with ARM Mali GPUs into mainline Linux and this was the missing link for full accelerated graphics support.

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#48

Post by StudentStuff »

mgamache wrote: post #42

Does this support hardware video encoding (h264)? There are a lot of SBCs with Mali GPUs that could use video encoding support.

H.264 and H.265 decoding is handled by the VPU, and there was already a successful kickstarter to add mainline support for that: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bootlin/allwinner-vpu-s...

Ditto for the HDMI PHY, you can spin up Xorg with a fully libre stack on nearly any of the Allwinner boards from OrangePi, FriendlyARM, etc. The Mali GPU is really only useful for OpenGL ES (aka video games).

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#49

Post by sigmaris »

mgamache wrote: post #42

Does this support hardware video encoding (h264)? There are a lot of SBCs with Mali GPUs that could use video encoding support.

Generally the SoCs used will have a separate video encoder IP-block that's not part of the Mali GPU. For example the "Cedar" video engine on Allwinner SoCs, Rockchip's VPU, Samsung's Multi-Function Codec, Qualcomm's Venus.

Re: Open source Mali GPU drivers merged

#50

Post by rjsw »

stefan_ wrote: post #33
q3k wrote: post #13

The fact that ARM has not made their Mali drivers open source is a joke. There's no excuse, same for Nvidia.

Strictly speaking the kernel drivers for the ARM Malis are all open-source and GPL licensed (they need to be, since their customers want to ship Linux to consumers). They are also entirely useless without the userland software that is doing all the actual work. The kernel drivers are just glorified task and memory managers.

It would be nice if they had been dual-licenced like the radeon, intel and nouveau kernel drivers.

I thought that the Lima and Panfrost projects included an open-source userland component too.

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