Group: Hardware/Components/GPUs

Introduction

The status of support of GPUs not only depends on the GPU vendor and family but in some cases also on if there are free replacements for the video BIOS or equivalent.

Fully free software status

This page summarizes the research on which GPUs and display controllers can work with fully free software.

Many SoCs have a display controller that work fine and don't need a GPU. That enables using various displays without necessarily needing to support GPUs. When GPUs are unsupported you typically don't have 3D acceleration.

Type	Availability	Supported hardware	driver	OS or software	can work with only free software?	missing parts to work with only free software	status / features
Display controller GPU	Mainboards (KGPE-D16) Standalone?	AST2500 AST2050	ast	GNU/Linux	Yes	FSDG compliant distro for the AST2500 BMC	GNUboot has free text-mode VGA init for the AST2050, but no native mode init due to lack of EDID support [1].
GPU Display controller	PCI PCIe Chipsets?	Many Nvidia GPUs	nouveau	GNU/Linux	No	Bytecode found in the video BIOS
GPU	SoCs	Tegra K1	nouveau	GNU/Linux	No?	nonfree peripheral software required
Display controller	SoCs	Tegra K1	tegradrm	GNU/Linux	Yes?
GPU Display controller	PCI PCIe x86, MIPS computers	Many ATI and AMD GPUs	Radeon	GNU/Linux	No	Bytecode found in the video BIOS
GPU Display controller	PCI PCIe x86, MIPS computers	Many ATI and AMD GPUs	amdgpu	GNU/Linux	No	Bytecode found in the video BIOS
GPU Display controller	Yeelong computers	Lemote ATI Radeon GPU		GRUB	Yes
GPU Display controller	PCI PCIe x86, MIPS computers	Many older ATI/AMD GPUs	RadeonHD	GNU/Linux	Yes?	nonfree peripheral software to remove?	No 3D acceleration without nonfree peripheral software.
GPU	SoCs only?		Etnaviv	GNU/Linux	Yes
GPU	SoCs only?	Allwinner SoCs	Lima	GNU/Linux	Yes
GPU	SoCs only?	Allwinner SoCs	Mitgard / Utgard?	GNU/Linux	Yes
Display controller	? x86 Mainboards		xgi_z9s	Coreboot until 4.12	Yes
GPU Display controller	x86_64 computers only	Intel GPUs found in i945 and GM45 chipsets	gma	Coreboot	Yes
GPU Display controller	x86_64 computers only	Intel GPUs found in i945 and GM45 chipsets	i915	GNU/Linux when booting with GNUboot or Coreboot	Yes		Everything works fine
Display controller	Some intel chipsets / SoCs (Atom?)		gma500	GNU/Linux	No?	Needs to be supported by GNUboot or deblobbed Coreboot
Display controllers	SoCs only	Several I.MX SoCs are not supported by mxs-drm.	imx-drm	GNU/Linux	Yes with I.MX <= I.MX6 Maybe with I.MX7 No for I.MX8 as it doesn't boot with free software yet
Display controller	SoCs only	Several I.MX SoCs are not supported by imx-drm.	mxs-drm	GNU/Linux	Yes with I.MX < I.MX6 like the I.MX28
Display controller	Many Amlogic SoCs	SoCs only	meson	GNU/Linux	No: doesn't boot with free software yet
Display controller Some limited 2D acceleration?	SoCs only	Many OMAP SoCs	omapdrm	GNU/Linux	Yes, at least for: OMAP3 OMAP4
Display controller	SoCs only	Many rockchip SoCs	rockchip	GNU/Linux	?
Display controller	SoCs only	Many Allwinner SoCs	sun4i-drm	GNU/Linux	Yes
GPU Display controller	SoCs only	Many broadcom SoCs	vc4	GNU/Linux	No: GPU not initialized by free software boot
GPU	SoCs only	Many Qualcomm SoCs (lack free software boot?) NXP I.MX51 NXP I.MX53	adreno msm-drm	GNU/Linux	Unknown (needs testing with linux-libre)	Are the nonfree peripheral softwares really required?
Display controller GPU	PCI PCIe? Chipset?	"3dfx Banshee/Voodoo3+" (Kconfig)	tdfx	GNU/Linux	?	?	?
Display controller GPU	PCI Chipsets?	r128	GNU/Linux	?	?	?
Display controller GPU	PCI Chipset?	Matrox G200 / G400	mga	GNU/Linux	?	?	? (Check Xorg status!)
Display controller GPU?	PCI? AGP VMs (qemu) Other?	sis 630 + vms?	sis	GNU/Linux	Probably	?	?
Display controller GPU?	PCI AGP? Other?	Via chrome / unichrome	unichrome	GNU/Linux	?	?	? (Check Xorg status!)
Display controller GPU?	PCI AGP? Other?	Savage video cards	savage	GNU/Linux	?	?	? (check Xorg status!)
Display controller	Geode SoCs	Geode SoCs	?	GNU/Linux	Not yet?	Boot without the VSA or compile it with a free software compiler	Geode support removed from Coreboot: Needed converting to cache as RAM
Type	Availability	Supported hardware	driver	OS or software	can work with only free software?	missing parts to work with only free software	status / features

Pages

This set of pages talks about GPUs.

• SiS
• adreno
• intel
• nvidia
• radeon
  • How to patch and test linux-libre in Parabola
• xgi z9s

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