[Arm-netbook] Mali-400 driver status

[lkcl luke]

On Mon, Dec 26, 2011 at 11:34 PM, Vladimir Sedach <vsedach at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've taken an interest in the allwinner a10
> (http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/) due to their stance on being
> Free Software friendly.

 cool.

> I know GPU drivers can be a big problem.

 yes.  fortunately, most of these qualify as "system libraries" and
are thus exempt under the GPL.


> Allwinner specs the Mali-400, and what I've been able to find is this
> page: http://www.malideveloper.com/developer-resources/drivers/open-source-mali-gpus-linux-kernel-device-drivers.php
>
> "Note that these components are not a complete driver stack. To build
> a functional OpenGL ES or OpenVG driver you need access to the full
> source code of the Mali DDK, which is provided under the standard ARM
> commercial licence to all Mali GPU customers."

 deep joy.

 ok... wait... it says to _build_ a functional driver.

 however, that's already been done.

> Does anyone have experience with these drivers? Are the kernel modules
> just "GPL shims" with most of the work being done in the userspace
> part of the driver?

 yyyep, that's correct.  they merely provide access to a shared memory
area.  ok, that's probably a drastic oversimplification :)

l.