https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2016-December/126684.html
Here is the TL;DNR
AMD tried to clean up a lot of their code base for their drivers. Their new code is potentially pretty bad, but probably not as bad as it is being made out to be.
The kernel maintainer will not merge the new code. The first 3/4ths of his message is perfectly fine, but then he decides to be a piss ant and tells AMD that he has the power to tell AMD to fuck off until they write better code.
AMD responds and says that they do not have the resources or the time to make the code base to this guy's standards.
I really do not know how I feel about this.
Shit code is shit code. So if this code really does break the system, then yeah that is a problem. But it sounds like the kernel maintainers have not even tested this code to see if it would break the system to begin with.
And then to go on a rant and tell them what sort of power you have and then say that the linux kernel will live forever kind of makes you sound like a retarded cultist more than a kernel maintainer.
AMD has been EXTREMELY cooperative to making these drivers work. I do not have a problem with someone telling AMD that they need to do some more work on the code before it is merged, but to sit there and to belittle the software and then preach about the linux kernel quality when the software in question has not even been properly tested is beyond infuriating.
All that needed to happen was for this guy to test the code, and then tell AMD that it broke X, Y, and Z and to go fix it. To sit there and shit on an under staffed team who is probably getting paid peanuts to make a free driver the way he has is bull shit.
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My response would be
"We made this shit open source, so help instead of complain."
I would escalate to Torvalds. Even if it isn't great you can't just cut out support for such a large HW set.
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Torvalds would be worse.
And like I said, telling someone not now because the code is too buggy is totally fine. Telling someone no because the quality isn't up to standards is meaningless zealot speech.
Worse yet, it is precisely this type of arrogance that leads to disaster.
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A reasonable compromise is to add the features as experimental in the kernel. And, let the distro maintainers decide if they want it.
This should also be a rallying cry to the other OSS AMD projects to help AMD on this.
If that doesn't fly I am pretty sure the Kronos Group could put enough pressure to make it happen.
AMD is offering a huge olive branch right now. It would be foolish to not take it. There only two GPU manufacturers and three parallel compute card makers right now.
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Well Qualcomm is there too but it is a tad different. They should still be taking any opportunity they can.
They are embedded not so much desktop or enterprise.
What I would rather have AMD do is just make a full blown binary driver.
As it already stands, a kernel driver kind of sucks because you can only get major updates to the driver with every kernel release.
They could make a github page with all of the code and then include some sort of script to compile the driver.
I think this would also have the added effect of getting more people to help with the development for the driver.
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Adding this to kernel means that kernel team has to fix bugs in it not amd. Also Hals were previously added to linux, there is a reason they don't want them in there. They are to put it simply arse to maintain. This Hal is 100k lines of code. Just to make amd life easier for like ~5 years. Gpu evolve to quickly to make static addition to kernel to make a vendor happy.
Also they told Amd if they want to make Hal it won't be added to linux in February! So I don't know who is really at fault here.
Sincerely
Amd linux user
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AMDPGU PRO on their website and AMDGPU on a git repository of some sort i would be ok with. Not a huge Github fan though but where ever their code goes wouldn't be too bad.
I see you too frequent /r/linux
I can appreciate all of that.
But the real advantage to a kernel driver is distribution. When ever you update the kernel, you have to mess about with video drivers.
Its not like ADM's intention is to dump a bunch of code on the kernels door step and leave. They simply want a system that removes the frustration of maintaining a video driver.
Also, I don't really feel like it is up for the kernel maintainers to tell them no HALs. If they feel that strongly about it, then make it an experimental feature or a non supported kernel module.
Now if I find out that AMD truly is dumping a pile of shit on these people's door step and asking the kernel devs to clean it up for them, I will personally find the nearest AMD rep and give him a wedgie for being such a prick.
I think too many developers think that they can act like Linus and tell people off and be very restrictive. But I do agree that if AMD is handing in unacceptable code they should be getting hate.
I still do not see tho as to why the Linux Foundation can not just run a crowd funding campaign and hire AMD to write great drivers.
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You rise great points from amd perspective. But hals were previously added to linux and they created more problems than they solved. Linux team said they won't add hal to mainline, amd created it despite objections. I'm not saying, creating hal is a bad thing. It's cool, don't take me wrong. But someone has to maintain it and amd wants linux team to do it. They should have gone to red hat or canonical and asked them to add it to their distros. And it's fine that way.
The problem was not creating the hal, amd mindset was. And after few years, when they create another hall for newer gpus, let's say 7 years, what do we do with the last one? Remove it? Maintain it? For how long? Who has to do this? What about broken compatibility? Amd just straight told linux guys to do it for them. And they don't want to, as they told them in February.
They don't really care. Their biggest concern is as far I know android. If anyone has to do crowd founding it will have to be amd themselves. Linux is getting more and more relevant, amd wants to jump on machine learning bandwagon, cause most of it is happening on linux and they are bit late to the party.
This is why I despise the open source community maintainers.. And it's why companies quite frankly stopped giving a fuck. It's this kind of shitty cockiness that they are so through dealing with. Tbh. That open source maintainer can fuck off. I'm going to run amd shit code anyday
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It's pretty simple. These guys make practically zero money in comparison to what you are talking about raising. People simply fail to realize money makes the world go round and honestly Bill gates was right about proprietary vs open source in a lot of ways.. Hate him if you wish
Honestly running it as a binary would be the best stop gap measure. Remember there 15+ million lined of code in the kernel, bloat is a real threat here.
Keep it separate for right now. Along with it is not coupled to kernel releases for driver updates.
AMD and community can work in the interim to clean up their base.
Everyone wins pretty much.
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Nvdia is already doing that and it is working great.
But with AMD it will be nice and open source. Because we have no idea what Team Green's code even looks like.