[Debian-eeepc-devel] Squeeze release goals

[Pedro Bulach Gapski]

On Sun, Oct 11, 2009 at 11:30 AM, Ben Armstrong
<synrg at sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca> wrote:
> On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 16:34:49 +0300
> jh at tutpro.com (Juha Heinanen) wrote:
>> I have two problems that I have with Grub2+vesa+GMA500 solution:
>>
>> - Performance.  glxgears gives about 200 fps, which is quite low for
>>   video and things like googlemaps.
>>
>> - No backlight control.  If I want to adjust backlight, I need to do it
>>   during bios setup.  Also, screen banking does not work using normal
>>   screen saver.  I have to use 'vbetool dpms on/off' for that,
>>
>> These are not show stopper issues, but surely I would like to be able to
>> utilize all capabilities of the graphics chipset.
>
> I agree.  This is hardly what I'd call 'support'.  But unfortunately,
> we seem to be at the mercy of Intel.  I was talking on irc to #debian-x
> and it was suggested there that we should complain to Intel about the
> state of free drivers for GMA500.  In the past, they've been very
> supportive and provided free drivers to the point where Intel became
> the recommended "just works" option.  With GMA500, there has been a
> turnaround.  I think they need to know we are unhappy.

I agree that current status is far from ideal. But maybe we can do
both: act on the political side to improve mid-term situation, and do
our best with our current tools to support this hw as well as we can.
As I have one of those beasts, I have no other option ;-)

Pedro