[arch-general] Kudos - kernel handling of radeon driver getting much better

[David C. Rankin]

Guys,

	Here is one worth noting. The radeon driver has come a long way in the past
couple of kernels or Xorg packages. I know the driver itself hasn't changed
since 11/2009 (ver. 1.3.0-1), but my desktop is working much better than the
last time I updated.

	I have switched all 12 or so of my boxes to Arch (work and home included). The
only two that are still suse are my laptops due to the fglrx driver. I have 2
spare drives for each laptop and on one drive for each laptop I did a complete
wipe and then installed Arch. I did this about 14 months ago and I update the
spare drives every month or two.

	The only reason I haven't moved my laptops to Arch is solely the gpu kernel
module issue. ( to complicate matters, both laptops use the 'legacy' driver as a
result of ATI screwing its customer base and dropping all support for linux for
all pre-2400 series chipsets) This hit laptops hard. The last laptop I bought
was 2008 and it is now a 'legacy' box

	The benefits that the fglrx driver provide over either the radeon or radeonhd
drivers are primarily 2-fold, speed (obvious) and most important gpu clock
powerdown (idling unneeded parts of the gpu) while running with massively
reduces the gpu heat load. (and fan noise, etc..)

	On update tonight. I stared the box, fired up gnome, started compiz and Wow! It
was working fine. I was actually 'smooth'. Much improved over the old jerky
behavior that existed when I last updated at the end of Feb. It's not as fast as
the fglrx driver, but it is no longer a sticking point on moving the box to
arch. Cooling is also improved. The heat is still an issue as heat drives fan
noise. However, I have been able to work in Arch for the past several hours and
my palm-rest is not on fire! And when I'm idling the box, the fan noise is down
to a soft hum -- workable. Much improved over the XB-70 sound with all 6
afterburners lit ;-)

	So to whoever the kudos go -- job well done!

	I never thought I would see an open-source radeon driver work as well...


-- 
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Rankin Law Firm, PLLC
510 Ochiltree Street
Nacogdoches, Texas 75961
Telephone: (936) 715-9333
Facsimile: (936) 715-9339
www.rankinlawfirm.com