xf86-video-amdgpu 1.4.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.10.0 released

Sep 12, 2017 13:54 GMT  ·  By

Michel Dänzer, the maintainer of the open-source X.Org graphics drivers for ATI/AMD Radeon GPUs supported by the amdgpu and radeon kernel drivers, announced the release of xf86-video-amdgpu 1.4.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.10.0.

xf86-video-amdgpu 1.4.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.10.0 ship with the same set of enhancements and are designed to work with X.Org Server version 1.13 to 1.19 on any supported GNU/Linux distribution. The new releases improve performance of clients, including composite managers that use DRI page flipping even when the "TearFree" option is enabled for any CRTC, and make sure CRTCs that don't have TearFree support won't suffer from tearing.

Both drivers are now capable of preventing certain DRM master processes from accessing buffers that have been created by the respective driver when switching away to a different VT (Virtual Terminal). This improvement alone might be useful especially when the DRM master processes come from other local users.

"The driver now takes measures to prevent other DRM master processes (potentially from other local users) from accessing buffers created by this driver while switched away to a different VT," explains Michel Dänzer in the release notes. "Other DRM master processes should only be able to access a single buffer anymore, which contains only all-black pixels."

Gamma ramp is now applied to the HW cursor as well

Another interesting improvement that landed in both xf86-video-amdgpu 1.4.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.10.0 releases is the ability for the gamma ramp to be applied to the hardware cursor so that it doesn't look odd when using color temperature adjusting tools like Redshift or similar ones. Of course, various other small bugs have been patched to improve the overall stability and security of the drivers.

You can download the xf86-video-amdgpu 1.4.0 and xf86-video-ati 7.10.0 graphics drivers as source tarballs directly from our website if you fancy compiling them on your favorite GNU/Linux distribution, but we recommend that you wait until these versions land in the stable repositories before updating. All AMD Radeon GPU users should update to these versions!