FreeBSD 15 Might Drop Its AGP Driver For Old Graphics Cards
Ah the memories of old AGP graphics cards... But it's largely just that these days: distant memories. For anyone by chance still running an Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) graphics card in production, FreeBSD is looking at deprecating its generic AGP driver and then potentially removing it in FreeBSD 15.0.
The FreeBSD AGP driver provides a generic interface for the Accelerated Graphics Port and is used across various chipsets from old ATI RS100/RS200/RS250/RS300 AGP bridges to AMD 751/761/762 hosts, the Intel i9xx and i9xx chipsets, NVIDIA nForce AGP controllers, and various other old SiS / VIA / Ali controllers for exposing the AGP device node under FreeBSD.
PCI Express has long replaced AGP and it's hard to imagine many AGP graphics cards still being used in modern production systems sticking to up-to-date operating systems. It was recently discovered that in FreeBSD 14.0 the AGP device file interface was accidentally broken. FreeBSD 14.0 as a reminder released last November and it was only days ago that the broken AGP device file interface was reported. That's since been fixed for FreeBSD 14 but raises the fact that the AGP driver is rarely used and is about time to retire it.
The matter of retiring the AGP driver in FreeBSD was raised on the mailing list and are now evaluating deprecating the AGP driver and then looking to remove the AGP driver for FreeBSD 15.0.
Anyone still actually using AGP hardware can always stick to FreeBSD 14 or older.
Others still have time to chime in if caring deeply about the AGP driver for FreeBSD before it's deprecated/removed, but really when's the last time you have used any AGP graphics cards?
The FreeBSD AGP driver provides a generic interface for the Accelerated Graphics Port and is used across various chipsets from old ATI RS100/RS200/RS250/RS300 AGP bridges to AMD 751/761/762 hosts, the Intel i9xx and i9xx chipsets, NVIDIA nForce AGP controllers, and various other old SiS / VIA / Ali controllers for exposing the AGP device node under FreeBSD.
PCI Express has long replaced AGP and it's hard to imagine many AGP graphics cards still being used in modern production systems sticking to up-to-date operating systems. It was recently discovered that in FreeBSD 14.0 the AGP device file interface was accidentally broken. FreeBSD 14.0 as a reminder released last November and it was only days ago that the broken AGP device file interface was reported. That's since been fixed for FreeBSD 14 but raises the fact that the AGP driver is rarely used and is about time to retire it.
👁 Motherboard with AGP and PCI Express slots
The matter of retiring the AGP driver in FreeBSD was raised on the mailing list and are now evaluating deprecating the AGP driver and then looking to remove the AGP driver for FreeBSD 15.0.
Anyone still actually using AGP hardware can always stick to FreeBSD 14 or older.
Others still have time to chime in if caring deeply about the AGP driver for FreeBSD before it's deprecated/removed, but really when's the last time you have used any AGP graphics cards?
When is the last time you actually used an AGP graphics card?
— Phoronix (@phoronix) September 5, 2024