[Discuss] GPU database? (was Re: Intel CedarView GPU driver, can one make it work?)

[richb at pioneer.ci.net (Rich Braun)]

An update on the Intel PowerVR aka CedarView aka SGX545 aka GMA 3650 mess,
after obsessively trying to repeat the success of an online user known only as
"habeyusa" getting 1080i/p video working for 12 days, I've officially given
up.

Question:  is there any online database of Linux GPU compatibility?  One which
is kept current by a robust continuous-deploy testing method?

My current profession involves setting up continuous-deploy pipelines for
massive unit testing.  I'm finding that such pipelines are essential for
getting and keeping complex systems like this working.  In a nutshell, Intel
put out one or two revisions of a proprietary driver (from its subcontractor
Imagination Technologies), which only got partially integrated with Ubuntu
upstream.  A couple of other distros tried to integrate this as well, but it
never went into any kind of continuous-integration pipeline.  The net result
is that the distros (with their patch-update repos) have advanced several
months forward, and it's well-nigh impossible to repeat the steps posted by an
anonymous Intel engineer for getting this working under Ubuntu 12.04-i386. 
There were a couple of key pieces of info missing, so I can't readily figure
out the Precise (pardon the pun) version numbers of all the packages,
sub-packages and tarballs needed.  In any event, his posting only addressed
getting mplayer to work, not MythTV which has its own set of integration
problems.

A modern installation on this platform would require getting both OpenGL and
VAAPI working.  I now have lots of relatively-useless knowledge of those
technologies, but in the end could not get full-HD video running.

Meanwhile for further reading here are a couple of interesting postings:

* Linus Torvalds and the Chinese government gave NVidia a huge middle-finger
earlier this year, now that NVidia's decided it can make more money on Android
devices than desktop computers.  Link: 
http://www.inquisitr.com/266116/nvidia-loses-10-million-gpu-order-over-awful-linux-support/

* A 10-month-old posting on Phoronix suggests Intel has decided to dump the
Imagine Technologies PowerVR GPU entirely.  Link:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTA1NDU

Now that I'm in the market for a new low-power frontend machine, I'm at a loss
as to how to do my shopping.  Online information is too scattered, too old,
and too unreliable; I can't just go to newegg.com and click on "new MythTV
frontend".  My 2009-vintage Acer Revo 1600 boxes are still going strong,
compared to the crap coming out today.

-rich