Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

[Posted February 9, 2012 by jake]

The Lima driver project has released the code for its open source graphics driver supporting the Mali-200 and Mali-400 GPUs. "The aim of this driver is to finally bring all the advantages of open source software to ARM SoC graphics drivers. Currently, the sole availability of binary drivers is increasing development and maintenance overhead, while also reducing portability, compatibility and limiting choice. Anyone who has dealt with GPU support on ARM, be it for a linux with a GNU stack, or for an android, knows the pain of dealing with these binaries. Lima is going to solve this for you, but some time is needed still to get there." (Thanks to Paul Wise.)

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 1:46 UTC (Fri) by jmalcolm (subscriber, #8876) [Link] (5 responses)

This bodes well for the openness of the Spark Tablet.

http://lwn.net/Articles/477949/

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 3:18 UTC (Fri) by yokem_55 (subscriber, #10498) [Link]

Also for Allwinner A10 devices.

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 13:45 UTC (Fri) by aseigo (guest, #18394) [Link] (3 responses)

indeed; we're very happy that this is all coming together. there is a growing number of open device projects and together we'll be able to bring software freedom to mobile devices just as we (as a global community of volunteers, companies and organizations) did for servers and desktops.

what's really exciting is that if we work together we have the opportunity of creating something that is highly relevant in the market globally, not only to ourselves :)

i am really looking forward to this driver maturing further and am in communication with Luc ... viva la freedom :)

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 17:17 UTC (Fri) by ortalo (guest, #4654) [Link] (2 responses)

One of the header files (compiler.h) references a libMali.so ( for shader compiler) which does not appear to be built.
Does it mean that some closed source component is still needed to access 3D drawing features (or that I should do my homework better before asking questions)?

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 18:45 UTC (Fri) by CopperWing (guest, #82856) [Link]

I think the code currently published is just the basic infrastructure required to reset the GPU and send graphics command lists to the HW via IOCTLs. The part responsible for translating OpenGL APIs into those commands lists is still missing/unpublished.

Right now this is only good enough to playback commands lists "captured" from the ARM's proprietary driver output. Probably after reverse engineering the meaning of the command lists, hooking this code with Mesa will provide the missing parts.

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 19:34 UTC (Fri) by wookey (guest, #5501) [Link]

Correct. The current driver treats the shader compiler as a black box and re-uses that in the free driver. So what we have now is free driver infrastructure with a binary shader compiler. One thing at a time.

The infrastructure part is much less contentious in terms of patent issues, and lets other people get involved so it makes sense to start with this part.

The clean design (and lack of years of accumulated cruft) in Mali means that it is easy to separate these two parts. They are more-or-less independent reverse-engineering tasks, as I understand it.

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 15:54 UTC (Fri) by colo (guest, #45564) [Link] (1 responses)

I am very excited about this development - now I might end up buying an Android-powered tablet after all. An interesting (low-end, very competitively priced) model I have spotted recently that, according to its manufacturer/reseller, features a Mali-400 GPU, is the "Point of View ProTab2 XXL": http://www.pointofview-online.com/showroom.php?shop_mode=...

If anyone knows a list of devices with said GPUs (and, preferably, other components with free drivers available) in them, please, let me know.

Lima driver code for the Mali GPU released

Posted Feb 10, 2012 16:07 UTC (Fri) by libv (guest, #71098) [Link]

Get onto our wiki (limadriver.org), we should collect device info there, and also list which images are available, which device vendor is a GPL violator, etc, etc... Let me kickstart a page for that.

A short summary of the FOSDEM talk

Posted Feb 12, 2012 8:44 UTC (Sun) by jmayer (guest, #595) [Link]

This is intended as a summary of the core points of Luc's FOSDEM talk:
1) He is reverse engineering the current drivers.
2) There already exists GPLed kernel code (not in official kernel tree). This code is called by a binary only library in user space (closed source). This libaray is in no way related to or makes use of Mesa.
3) The library roughly consists of two parts: A compiler for the acceleration stuff and a "normal" driver to configure things and submit compiled commands to the GPU.
4) Right now he is working on reverse engineering the driver stuff and how to make use of the (closed) library's compiler. He is also using the GPLed kernel code.
5) He is not yet working on a driver. He is creating sample applications that do specific things (PoC).