support for latest (radeon) hardware (was: Re: Xorg plans for F10?)

[Thorsten Leemhuis]

On 23.01.2009 16:35, Matej Cepl wrote:
> On 2009-01-23, 04:31 GMT, Orion Poplawski wrote:
>> Are there any plans to get ati driver 6.10 into F10?  I'm getting pretty
>> lousy results with 6.9 in F10 on my RV370, but promising results with 6.10
>> and Xorg server 1.5.99.  It doesn't work with 1.5.3 though it installs
>> without any rpm/dependency issues.  Anything on the wiki about current
>> Xorg plans?
> I asked about that our X guys, and airlied (our ATI magician 
> in-house) told me that a) there is not that much difference 
> between 6.9 and 6.10,

I compared radeon.xinf from 6.9 and 6.10 and found a few important cards 
that 6.10 supports, but 6.9 does not:

"""
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d0000944Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4850
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d0000944Bsv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4850 X2
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d0000945Asv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4870
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d00009490sv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI RV730XT [Radeon HD 4670]
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d00009498sv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI RV730 PRO [Radeon HD 4650]
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d00009540sv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI Radeon HD 4550
>> alias pcivideo:v00001002d0000954Fsv*sd*bc*sc*i* radeon # ATI Radeon HD 4350
"""

E.g. most of the models from the current 4xxx series. I'd call that a 
big difference between 6.9 and 6.10 and a very good reason to get 6.10 
(or the parts of the code that make those cards work) into F10 as 
update, as those cards are quite popular these days. Sure, users can

* configure xorg-x11-drv-radeonhd to get their hardware running
* switch to rawhide to get it running
* rebuild the srpm from rawhide to get it running.
* switch to another distro that has more up2date drivers
* wait till F11 comes out

But those options are all bad IMHO. Especially the option "wait till F11 
comes out", because letting users out in the cold without drivers for up 
multiple month sounds stupid to me when those drivers exist already -- 
especially as new graphic card series come out every 6 to 12 months, 
which means we'll run into the same problem quite soon again.

 > [...]

CU
knurd