[Intel-gfx] Intel 2011Q4 graphics package

Alan W. Irwin irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca
Tue Dec 6 20:58:02 CET 2011


On 2011-12-06 09:14-0200 Eugeni Dodonov wrote:

> 2011/12/6 Alan W. Irwin <irwin at beluga.phys.uvic.ca>
>       On 2011-12-05 23:03-0200 Eugeni Dodonov wrote:
>
>             Hi,
>              
>             We’d like to announce Intel 2011Q4 graphics package, focused on performance and stability improvements in the
>             Intel Linux Graphics
>             stack.
>              
>             Please check http://intellinuxgraphics.org/2011Q4.html for the recommended stack, list of new features and
>             known issues.
>
>             I'd also like to thank all the developers, community, our users and testers for helping us to improve the
>             drivers. Thanks a lot for all
>             your work, help and support!
>
>             And as usual, if you find any new issues, please let as know by filing bugs following the
>             http://intellinuxgraphics.org/how_to_report_bug.html guidelines.
>
>             Thanks,
>             Eugeni Dodonov
>             Intel Open Source Technology Center
> 
> 
> Hi Eugeni:
> 
> My primary interest in Intel graphics is I just want something that is
> completely stable for a mostly 2D desktop with the ability to play
> some low-end 3D games.  Thus, I have been reasonably content with what
> I get from Debian stable for my g33 graphics hardware, but I would
> like to upgrade to Debian testing for a number of reasons.  However,
> what's been holding me back from that upgrade is concern that g33 has
> not been validated for a while by the Intel team (e.g., no mention of
> g33 for your first quarterly release this year).
> 
> Therefore, I was very glad to see g33 mentioned as one of the
> validated platforms both for this release and also for the 3rd
> quarterly release this year so my hopes that g33 will work with no big
> issues for Debian testing are much higher than they were. However,
> testing results for only some (Pineview 32-bit, and
> Sandybridge/Ivybridge for 64-bit) of your validated platforms are
> linked at the above URL.  Is there a link you can give me for the g33
> test results (preferably 64 bit)?
> 
> 
> Hi Alan,
> 
> for g33, it is not being the main focus of the release validation and testing lately, so it receives limited validation, checking for
> regressions mostly.
> 
> However, for all the kernel/mesa/drm/2d releases, the expectation is for it to work in a "no regressions" mode. It should be similar to
> pineview for most test cases and workloads.
> 
> Having said that, we do intend to provide a good support for it. So if you observe any new issues or bugs which are not previously
> filled in our bugzilla, please, let us know. Even if we do not focus on full validation and testing for it as part of the stack
> release, we still do intend to have a good level of functionality for it. So if there are stability or regression issues, or its
> functionality under Debian testing is somehow worse than with Debian stable, we'd like to know about it.
>

Thanks to you and Gordon for your up-front replies.  I am disappointed
you currently have such limited resources for release validation, and
for your Linux customer's sake I hope you can convince Intel to
give you some additional limited resources (man-hours and hardware) to make
that validation effort more comprehensive.  After all, the Intel
X stack is being constantly developed to handle new hardware and fix
bugs for old hardware, and without release testing for a wider variety
of hardware some regressions are inevitably going to creep in for
hardware that currently has limited release validation or no release
validation at all.  Thus, the inevitable result of your currently
limited resources for release validation is concerned Linux customers
like me who are forced to be extremely cautious about software
"upgrades".  That is a characteristic historically associated with
Windows users, and we don't want that to become the norm for Linux
users as well!

That said, I will try to help you out where I can. This g33 computer
is used by two people simultaneously in a home office (one directly
and one via an X terminal) as a production box so it will take a while
before we can find a convenient time to upgrade to Debian testing, but
when we do so (probably one or two months from now) I will get back to
you with an upgrade report (whether positive or negative) for the g33
graphics of that principal box.  If all goes well for that upgrade, we
also plan to upgrade the nettop computer we use for the X-terminal
from Debian stable to Debian testing and give you a similar upgrade
report for the 945GM/GMS/GME graphics of that system which are
somewhat older than the g33 graphics of our principal box.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________



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