[Xorg-driver-geode] xf86-video-geode seeking new upstream maintainer

[Tanguay, Kevin]

Martin-Eric,

We have an internal meeting to discuss this tonight. I will get back with you tomorrow.  Thanks.

Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: m.e.racine at gmail.com [mailto:m.e.racine at gmail.com] On Behalf Of Martin-Éric Racine
Sent: Monday, February 08, 2010 1:35 PM
To: Tanguay, Kevin
Cc: Michael; xorg-driver-geode at lists.x.org; Andres Salomon; Mart Raudsepp; Chris Ball
Subject: Re: [Xorg-driver-geode] xf86-video-geode seeking new upstream maintainer

Kevin,

Good to hear from you.   Yes, subscription to the list is automated.
See http://www.x.org/wiki/GeodeDriver

Can you please put me in touch with your current Linux engineers, so
that we can coordinate ASAP?

A good place for your new team to start would be to look at  the above
wiki page and fix outstanding bugs listed on the majors distributions'
BTS and to fulfill planned milestone items mentioned there as well.

Additionally, Jordan had been looking into adding Kernel Mode Setting
(KMS) support into the Linux kernel 2.6 tree, so that the X server
could benefit from various self-configuration enhancements that
leverage new kernel features. It would be a desirable goal to pursue,
once these purely X-oriented issues have been taken care of.

Best Regards,
Martin-Éric

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 10:17 PM, Tanguay, Kevin <kevin.tanguay at amd.com> wrote:
> Martin-Eric,
>
> The loss of Jordan was a huge blow to the AMD Embedded team and sadly caused us to lose linkage with this list and other Geode LX Linux efforts.  Since the loss of Jordan we have had some people slowly building their knowledge of both the processor and Linux and believe that it is time to re-engage (probably way past time).  We would like to start to gather a list of the high priority areas that need some support first and are looking for some input from the list.
>
> Also who maintains the registration access to the list.  Is it still just as easy as sending a "subscribe" email to the list?  Thanks.
>
> Kevin Tanguay
> AMD Embedded Solutions
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xorg-driver-geode-bounces at lists.x.org [mailto:xorg-driver-geode-bounces at lists.x.org] On Behalf Of Martin-Éric Racine
> Sent: Saturday, February 06, 2010 7:04 AM
> To: Michael
> Cc: xorg-driver-geode at lists.x.org; Andres Salomon; Mart Raudsepp
> Subject: [Xorg-driver-geode] xf86-video-geode seeking new upstream maintainer
>
> On Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 10:58 AM, Michael <auslands-kv at gmx.de> wrote:
>> I have a strange memory corruption problem.
>>
>> I use a Geode LX based system running mostly Debian Lenny on kernel
>> 2.6.31.4.
> [...]
>> I have tried the following things without success:
>> - updating geode video driver to 2.11.6 (this version needed more video
>> memory, 32MB instead of 8MB, and it segfaultet when not providing EDID
>> information, but otherwise no difference)
>
> Thanks for reporting this, Michael.
>
> Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that Geode users will have to get
> used to the lesser performances of the VESA driver, because nobody has
> been willing to put any real effort towards properly maintaining
> xf86-video-geode, as a result of which its usability has slowly
> diminished e.g. corrupted handling of pixmaps, double of the previous
> memory consumption, broken support on GX2 hardware, long gone GX1 and
> SC hardware support, etc. to the point that it's no longer usable even
> on fairly recent LX hardware.
>
> Back when AMD had their own paid staff maintaining this driver, things
> worked extremely well, but after nearly the whole embedded department
> was laid off, including Jordan Cruise, who had contributed most of the
> xf86-video-geode code, this driver has been falling into rapid decay.
>
> Initially, the idea was for myself to pick up where Jordan left and
> act as the release manager, with contributions from Chris Ball and
> Mart Raudsepp to keep the code at least remotely in sync with X server
> core releases. I'm afraid to report that this strategy has failed, now
> that the OLPC and Artec have moved on to other hardware platforms.
> These days, we only get occasional maintenance script updates by
> Gaetan Nadon and minor GX2 fixes by Otavio Salvador. This is clearly
> not enough to keep this driver remotely usable so, unless we get new
> contributors to jump in and help us maintain this xf86-video-geode,
> I'm gonna have to inform the X.org development team that our driver is
> hereby deprecated and should no longer ship with any distribution.
>
> Best Regards,
> Martin-Éric
> _______________________________________________
> Xorg-driver-geode mailing list
> Xorg-driver-geode at lists.x.org
> http://lists.x.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg-driver-geode
>