Category: Device support

John Marino rearranged how GCC5 handles CPUTYPE settings.  If you are specifically setting the target CPU when compiling, his commit will give you an exact list of what to target.

Note that I am not saying another architecture – this is all x86_64.  I also don’t recommend doing this unless you have a specific use for it – compiler overoptimizations often create more problems than they fix.

Daniel Bilik has found there’s an issue with i915 acceleration, Baytrail CPUs, and some AUTODEEP low-power states.   This will only affect you if you are using that specific hardware combo and setting certain low power modes.  Interestingly, it affects other platforms, too, as it appears to be a symptom of how the video is addressed, not a DragonFly-specific bug.

Francois Tigeot has again updated Intel i915 video support in DragonFly, bringing it even with what’s in Linux 4.2.  This will be very useful for Broadwell and Skylake users, and even Broxton, apparently the newest Atom platform.

If you have a Core2 processor in a DragonFly system, it may not work with accelerated video.  If that happens to you with this (admittedly old) processor, switch to VESA for now.

For those of you with i915 video on your DragonFly system, there’s another update bringing DragonFly support to match what’s in the Linux 4.1 kernel.  ValleyView and Skylake processor owners will benefit, along with a slew of other bugfixes and improvements.

Are you using a i915 video chipset?  Are you using the DisplayPort?  Imre Vadasz has added a tunable that may make it work better.

Sepherosa Ziehau has an update to the em/emx(4) (or other Intel NICs) driver, for testing.  Hey, remember what I said the other day about Skylake support?

New CPU support in DragonFly is continuing, and Matthew Dillon will be testing one of the newer Intel ‘Skylake‘ processors soon.  That may mean even more accelerated graphics support at some point, too.

This is a little thing, but so useful: the Wi-Fi indicator light on your iwm(4)-using device will now show its status under DragonFly.

Francois Tigeot has updated DragonFly to match the video support found in the Linux 4.0 kernel.  This will benefit you most if you are running Skylake, Cherryview, or Valleyview chipsets.  Don’t ask me how to tell; the improvement has been so rapid I’ve lost track of which model codename is which.

I was going to point at a new igb(4) update for testing, but Sepherosa Ziehau has already merged it.  Try it if you have the right Intel networking hardware.

If you have a em(4), emx(4), or igb(4), Sepherosa Ziehau would like you to try out his Intel NIC driver update.  He’s already updated the ix(4) driver to support more hardware.

I’m combining two items because news happens faster than I can post: Tomohiro Kusumi has added a ‘dm-flakey’ target to the disk mapper, so you can simulate an unreliable disk, reliably.

Also, the DRM support for radeon chipsets has been updated to match the Linux 3.18 kernel, same as i915.  Remember, you can control backlight brightness with it now.

Did you need to use SLIP on DragonFly?  Do you remember what SLIP is?  Well, it’ll work with a USB modem on DragonFly, even if you are making a face right now and saying, “SLIP?  Who uses that?”

Sascha Wildner has brought over support for the Realtek 8168H.  This may be useful because at least one low-cost server provider – Kimsufi, I think? – uses them by default in their product line.

Via EFNet #dragonflybsd, “Booting DragonFlyBSD with Hammer on a GPT drive“.

For those of you with DragonFly and an Intel i915 chipset, Francois Tigeot has moved support up another notch, to match Linux 3.18.  This will help Cherryview and Broadwell chipset users the most.