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Andres Rodriguez sent in a message to the mesa-dev mailing list announcing 'gputool' for debugging AMD graphics cards on Linux. It's also open source under the GPL, so that's awesome.

It currently only supports "POLARIS 10", but hopefully with community help it can support more card generations from AMD.

Hopefully this is another step towards helping polish up the AMD driver on Linux. I look forward to seeing more open source contributions from Valve developers.

You can find the gputool on github.

It's going to be fun to watch Mesa progress this year! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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8 comments

MayeulC Jan 12, 2017
Hopefully this is the beginning of a long streak of articles highlighting the new features in both camps. Tools like these are useful for everyone. Thanks Andres Rodriguez, thanks Valve!

Edit: the license file mentions GPLv3, while at least some headers mention GPLv2+, do you know which is right?


Last edited by MayeulC on 12 January 2017 at 10:04 am UTC
Purple Library Guy Jan 12, 2017
It seems as if in a low-key nuts-and-bolts sort of way, Valve is paying more attention to Linux again just lately.
dmantione Jan 12, 2017
If a GPLV3 project includes GPLV2+ files, the project as a whole is GPLV3. You can however reuse the GPLV2+ files in other GPLV2 projects.
BlackBloodRum Jan 12, 2017
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyIt seems as if in a low-key nuts-and-bolts sort of way, Valve is paying more attention to Linux again just lately.
Yeah, but I think that's always been Volvo's plan, they've always played the long game. I also think this is why it wasn't advertised or pushed as much as it could of been. Perhaps to allow them to have time to do things like this (release tools, fix AMD, fix client etc)
tuxintuxedo Jan 12, 2017
AMD also announced their open source debug tool, soon to be published. Both sides worked independently, not knowing about each other. Hopefully there can be constructive discussion or perhaps joint efforts.


Last edited by tuxintuxedo on 12 January 2017 at 7:07 pm UTC
tuubi Jan 12, 2017
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Quoting: tuxintuxedoAMD also announced their open source debug tool, soon to be published. Both sides worked independently, not knowing about each other. Hopefully there can be constructive discussion or perhaps joint efforts.
So Valve didn't tell AMD they were working on a debugger for AMD hardware, and didn't even think to check if AMD were interested in co-operating? Mind-boggling stuff. Actually I can't even understand why these open source projects weren't developed in the open from the start.
tuxintuxedo Jan 12, 2017
As far as I understand, both projects were personal ones at the beginning. Eventually they became developed enough to go public. Also, AMD people had some delay with the decision-making people because of vacation. They also believed Andres knew about it from some e-mails. Seems like he missed it.
tuubi Jan 12, 2017
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I guess that sounds plausible, if not much less embarrassing for Valve and the developer in question.
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