Following last week’s main set of DRM kernel graphics driver feature updates for Linux 7.0, merged on Friday to Linux 7.0 Git was the first round of fixes to these Direct Rendering Manager drivers. Dominating most of the code changes in this latest pull were AMDGPU fixes, including more enhancements for aging Radeon graphics processors.
The now-merged code to Linux 7.0 includes more AMDGPU fixes from Timur Kristóf of Valve’s open-source Linux graphics team. Timur Kristóf has been the one leading the effort to improve the old AMD GCN 1.0 and GCN 1.1 GPU support with the AMDGPU kernel driver and drove through that default change from the legacy Radeon DRM driver. Timur has continued taking care of some loose ends like some APU support issues. The latest patches now part of Linux 7.0 take care of a “black screen” issue observed with analog connector support when using the AMDGPU DC display code with the likes of the Radeon HD 7790. The code also makes the analog connector support more consistent and closer to parity with other display connector types in the AMDGPU display code.
Alex Deucher also landed a fix to the AMDGPU driver for keeping VGA memory on Apple MacBooks with switchable graphics. For old Apple MacBook Pros powered by Intel CPUs and bearing switchable graphics, a fix has landed around the dGPU virtual address space to resolve an issue of cursor flickering and AMDGPU errors when using GNOME on Wayland with the likes of the Radeon Pro 560.
AMDGPU in Linux 7.0 Git also has fixes for the Hainan GPU, some updates for the new AMD graphics IP blocks introduced to the Linux 7.0 kernel for upcoming hardware, Fastboot fixes, and a variety of other fixes. Many of these fixes where relevant should be back-ported to the stable kernel series in the coming days.
More details on these now-merged AMDGPU fixes plus some Intel graphics driver fixes too via this DRM merge.
