[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Getting Intel Cedarview drivers into Debian



On 21.12.2012 21:00, Thomas Goirand wrote:
On 12/21/2012 09:23 PM, Mikko Rasa wrote:
Hi Debian developers,

I'm working as a consultant on a project to develop drivers for the
PowerVR graphics processor in the Cedarview family of Intel Atom
microprocessors in a Debian environment.  The current target is
Wheezy, and Intel wishes to get the drivers into the official
distribution.

What they've failed to take into account is that Wheezy is currently
frozen in preparation of release, so I'm more than a bit skeptical of
getting a new package in (I was only brought in to the project very
recently).  However, I promised to ask you about this, so here we go.

It should be noted that due to licensing issues, the driver will be
closed source.  The kernel component is under the GPL, so a dkms
package will be made.

I'm surprised. Wasn't Intel committed to support Opensource for all if
their drivers? Are they changing their policy? If so, that's quite bad,
since both ATI and Nvidia have been annoying all the community,
insisting with non-free drivers. If we're stuck with no alternative,
with Intel also going closed source, what type of hardware can we buy
then? :(

I believe Intel has not changed their policy when it comes to their own hardware. The problem is that the graphics chip included in the recent Atom processors is licensed from Imagination Technologies. Unfortunately IMG is rather more conservative with their licensing and refuses to open up their code.

Open source enthusiasts would do well to avoid these Atom models, but the Core i[357] processor families are still safe for the time being.

--
Mikko


Reply to: