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



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





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