Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

markg85 · 2011-04-15 13:11:20

Hi,

Today awesome news got on phoronix: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n … &px=OTMzMg telling that the floating points are finally in mesa!
While that is great, it is by default disabled and can be enabled by passing "--enable-texture-float" to mesa at compile time. That brings up the question (for me) if Archlinux is going to enable that switch by default or not.
The compile time thing is only there since there are possible patent concerns in the USA but anyone living outside the USA is perfectly safe since the patent doesn't apply there. And from what i've seen, archlinux it's maintained and run by mostly europe people so that leads me to hope the flag can be turned on by default in archlinux.

Or is archlinux going to provide 2 different packages?
masa-usa (patented things disabled)
mesa-non-usa (patented things enabled)

I certainly hope it's going to be enabled!

Note: This is all for when mesa 7.11 gets released!

Regards,
Mark

Inxsible · 2011-04-15 13:54:42

The answer lies within your question.

markg85 wrote:

it is by default disabled ...

And Arch provides vanilla upstream packages as is without making any modifications to it. You, as a user however, are free to enable any flags you may want. Just recompile the said software to use.

markg85 wrote:

archlinux it's maintained and run by mostly europe people

Not quite. Judd is Canadian. And there are many others involved in the project as well from all over the world.

markg85 · 2011-04-15 14:13:23

Inxsible wrote:

The answer lies within your question.
markg85 wrote:
it is by default disabled ...
And Arch provides vanilla upstream packages as is without making any modifications to it. You, as a user however, are free to enable any flags you may want. Just recompile the said software to use.
markg85 wrote:
archlinux it's maintained and run by mostly europe people
Not quite. Judd is Canadian. And there are many others involved in the project as well from all over the world.

I know the vanilla thing, but isn't this something for the category "exception"? I mean, without the messed up patent stuff in the usa this option wouldn't even exist and it world be in mesa when you compile it.
Vanilla is fine but you just have 2 different vanilla's right now.

I really hate patents! Glad i don't need to follow any us ones.

Pierre · 2011-04-15 15:16:53

These decisions are made by the package maintainer and some countries patent office. This means you should file a feature request instead and describe why its worth to enable that feature.

@Inxsible: Enabling or Disabling a feature that is already included in the upstream source does not make a package more or less vanilla in Arch's point of view. This is only valid for features that would need a third party patch for example.

Inxsible · 2011-04-15 15:27:18

I stand corrected then.

markg85 · 2011-04-15 18:15:43

Pierre wrote:

These decisions are made by the package maintainer and some countries patent office. This means you should file a feature request instead and describe why its worth to enable that feature.
@Inxsible: Enabling or Disabling a feature that is already included in the upstream source does not make a package more or less vanilla in Arch's point of view. This is only valid for features that would need a third party patch for example.

Awesome! I will make a feature request for that sometime later today or tomorrow

tavianator · 2011-04-16 04:21:27

For the record, the mesa-git PKGBUILD in the AUR will soon have that configure switch. For now, if you want it just rebuild the abs package (or the AUR mesa-git package) with --enable-texture-float added to the configure line.

If I had to guess I'd say that shipping binaries with that enabled would be fine for Arch; we already have a lot of patented or otherwise encumbered code shipping in the binaries for ffmpeg and similar packages. Whether the maintainer decides to add it is another question, but I'll +1 the feature request once you make it.

markg85 · 2011-04-16 12:54:06

And so i did make a task for it: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/23792

kevku · 2011-04-19 21:56:16

well we have libdvdcss in Extra so i don't see why anyone should be holding this back.

ConnorBehan · 2011-04-26 22:47:59

+1

Putting two versions of the same package in the official repos that differ only by a configure switch is something that Arch almost never does.

Last edited by ConnorBehan (2011-04-26 22:49:56)

ksira · 2011-05-09 18:12:54

Could anyone please explain what enabling floating point textures in Mesa might do for the average Joe Linux User? The only thing I could find is that it lets a tech demo, Unigine Heaven, run on Linux. So, basically is just an attempt take things up a newer OpenGL standard, and we'll have to wait for software to be developed with the new extensions, which probably won't happen any time soon because there is a patent dispute?

Good news anyway, yay for more pretty 3D graphics on Linux.

metre · 2011-06-01 21:30:05

Phoronix says:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n … &px=OTUxMg
Bug report says:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/23792

Anyway, do you know in which countries there are patent issues?

Last edited by metre (2011-06-01 21:30:38)

Damnshock · 2011-06-02 10:04:52

metre wrote:

Phoronix says:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n … &px=OTUxMg
Bug report says:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/23792
Anyway, do you know in which countries there are patent issues?

It might be a placebo effect but the latest mesa with this extension enabled and my Kwin (4.7 beta) seem to work way smoother...

I'll do more testing this weekend

Regards

jasonwryan · 2011-06-02 10:07:52

It seems that this has been noticed: http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=n … &px=OTUxMg

Tremo · 2012-01-20 12:44:07

I didn't understand where this patent applies, so just in case I keep this flag disabled, but I have to recompile every time these packages in order to avoid patent violation.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-15 13:11:20

Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#2 2011-04-15 13:54:42

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#3 2011-04-15 14:13:23

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#4 2011-04-15 15:16:53

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#5 2011-04-15 15:27:18

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#6 2011-04-15 18:15:43

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#7 2011-04-16 04:21:27

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#8 2011-04-16 12:54:06

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#9 2011-04-19 21:56:16

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#10 2011-04-26 22:47:59

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#11 2011-05-09 18:12:54

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#12 2011-06-01 21:30:05

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#13 2011-06-02 10:04:52

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#14 2011-06-02 10:07:52

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

#15 2012-01-20 12:44:07

Re: Is Archlinux going to enable "--enable-texture-float" in mesa builds?

Board footer