[Openchrome-devel] Volunteer for testing/development on OpenChrome

[Kevin Brace]

Hi Shamori,

At this point, I do not really have much need for testing the OpenChrome graphics stack, but I definitely will like to add more personnel resources to the development side since I have been doing this practically by myself for the past 3 years.
Just for your information, it has been my observation that not too many people can stick around long enough to develop software code for free.
Nowadays, most Linux developers are paid developers employed by RedHat, VMware, Canonical, SUSE, Valve, Intel, AMD, NVIDIA (mostly closed source), Samsung, etc., and as a result, I think it is getting rarer and rarer to get an independent developer to work on FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) code, especially for an extended period of time.
    Anyway, here is the TODO list for the OpenChrome Project.

OpenChrome DRM:

- Replace James Simmons written OpenChrome IOCTL code with a newly written one


OpenChrome DDX:nt 

- Support EXA 2D acceleration when OpenChrome DRM is in use (currently unaccelerated)


OpenChrome VDPAU:

- Write video acceleration code for OpenChrome


OpenChrome Gallium3D:

- Write 3D acceleration code for OpenChrome


OpenChrome DDX's EXA acceleration, OpenChrome VDPAU, and OpenChrome Gallium3D all require replacing the OpenChrome IOCTL code for memory management with newly rewritten one.
OpenChrome DRM itself is likely headed for a Linux mainline inclusion by the end of year (end of 2H2018) if the DRM maintainer accepts the code.
If not, I will say by the end of 1H2019 (due to the need to implement additional features to please the DRM maintainer).
    If you are ready to join the development, these two tutorials explain how to compile OpenChrome DDX and DRM.

DDX:
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/openchrome-devel/2016-February/001753.html

DRM:
https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/openchrome-devel/2017-November/003505.html


For DDX, if you happened to have an Ubuntu based distribution with HWE (Hardware Enablement) activated, replace "xserver-xorg-video-openchrome" with "xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-hwe-xx.04" where xx is 16 (for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS based distribution) or 18 (for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS based distribution slated to be released in April 2018).
For more information on what HWE is, refer to this link.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/LTSEnablementStackt

For DRM, as of March 6th, 2018, only drm-next-3.19 branch and drm-next-4.17 branch are maintained, bu in practice, only drm-next-4.17 branch really matters.
When you encounter "drm-next-4.13" in the tutorial, replace it with "drm-next-4.xx" where xx should be 17 since drm-next-4.17 branch is the current bleeding edge branch.
By next month, OpenChrome DRM will be on drm-next-4.18 branch, and drm-next-4.17 branch will be declared EOL (End of Life).
You do not have to use an Ubuntu based distribution, but I generally find it easier to use than other Linux distributions.

Regards,

Kevin Brace
Brace Computer Laboratory blog
https://bracecomputerlab.com


> Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2018 at 8:34 PM
> From: "Shomari Sharpe" <shomarijm at yahoo.com>
> To: openchrome-devel at lists.freedesktop.org
> Subject: Volunteer for testing/development on OpenChrome
>
> Hi Kevin,
> I think its a bit unfair to have you single-handedly doing development on openchrome. I  would be willing to volunteer to help you test whatever you have done on my system. Since I am actually stuck with using this system due to unemployment. If you want to mentor me in some of the development I am also willing to learn as i do have experience as a programmer. I'd love yo see some 3D acceleration so that i dont have to boot into windows. Bear in mind that I have no kernel driver experience. Take a look at my resume https://www.dropbox.com/s/vx8kcntpebgc9np/programmer.pdf?dl=0
> 
> 
> 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC] (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
> 	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. [MSI] CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC]
> 	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 16
> 	Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=512M]
> 	Memory at fd000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
> 	Expansion ROM at 000c0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
> 	Capabilities: <access denied>
> 	Kernel driver in use: viafb
> 	Kernel modules: viafb
>