[Pm-utils] Problems with 98smart-kernel-video and intel graphics chipsets

[Victor Lowther]

On Sun, 2008-09-28 at 00:10 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 01:28:03PM -0500, Victor Lowther wrote:
> > On Sat, 2008-09-27 at 14:45 +0100, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > > On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 08:40:48AM -0500, Victor Lowther wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Good question, and unless I hear that it is a kernel bug I will release
> > > > 1.1.2.5 and 1.2.1 with a 98-smart-kernel-video that does not filter out
> > > > all the vbe* quirks for Intel hardware.
> > > 
> > > Note that doing so will break some other machines.
> > 
> > Only those for whom the quirks are incorrect to begin with, and it is
> > apparent by the bug reports we have been getting the i915 changes in
> > 2.6.26 did not by any stretch make the Intel DRM drivers quirk-free.
> 
> No, there's no deterministic way to determine whether the BIOS code will 
> correctly deal with the state that the DRM code programs. It's entirely 
> possible for a previously required quirk to start breaking machines. 
> That's why we removed the quirks on these kernels in the first place.

No, we removed them becuase you assured me that they were no longer
required.  You were mistaken.

In either case, I think the code required for Intel kernel modesetting
is already getting too complicated to live in pm-utils -- if knowledge
of the system, bios revision, video card, video driver, and kernel
revision will be required to determine the appropriate set of quirks
(and an answer of none will be required is not the right blanket
answer), this stuff needs to go in the quirks list in HAL.  If the quirk
detection in HAL is not smart enough, it needs to be made smart enough
to handle all those variables.  If it cannot be made smart enough in
HAL, we need a new mechanism for handling quirks.

> Do bear in mind that radeon modesetting will also hit mainline soon, at 
> which point an entirely different set of quirks will start breaking. I'm 
> not entirely convinced that adding more quirks for anything other than 
> nvidia is a sensible move at this point.

Good thing it will soon be easier to generate .fdi files using pm-utils.
-- 
Victor Lowther
Ubuntu Certified Professional