Making our own ATi Imageon driver...

[Draiko]

Well, if HTC won't do it, someone needs to... I want to see if it can be done. Can we create our own ATi Imageon Drivers for the MSM7200/7500?

step 1: Find out which Imageon is in there...
Here's the official list (http://ati.amd.com/products/handheld/products.html)

I just hope it's not some custom job!

Think it's worth a go?

[dharvey4651]

^^Bump^^

This definitely needs to be done. I wish I had the know how to develop this but unfortunately I don't.

[jim256]

you should really try posting this somewhere else, like maybe in the development and hacking forum, since the vogue is not the only device that suffers from this.

this is really a great idea in my opinion, and im sure there are those out there that know how to get it done!

[bedoig]

Would be awesome, but it seems like it would be a huge undertaking. I'd imagine that Qualcomm has it locked in some way, preventing it's use if the license to use that component wasn't purchased as part of the hardware platform. I really have no idea though. I'll keep hoping : )

[Draiko]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step... we have a ton of talent here, HTC and Qualcomm don't seem to want to release it... I think that it might be time to start building our own.

[dharvey4651]

Post copied to development and hacking but I quoted first post of this thread to give proper credit for the idea.

[h311boy]

I remember reading somewhere that there is actually a $2000 (and growing) cash prize for the msm 7xxx drivers. Totally support the idea.

[Draiko]

yep... I think it's up to 7 grand now.

I'm going to wait until the end of March before I start anything.

[mastachillz]

yep... I think it's up to 7 grand now.

I'm going to wait until the end of March before I start anything.

well if anyone could point me to link i willing to offer 200 to play quake on my phone

[Rudegar]

problem is that writing device drivers is the hardest program one can get into

the driver is limited to a very tiny mem footprint and must never be alowed to crash
even if the memory it's using is lost on the heap

and one needs access to alot of whitepapirs from the hardware maker

which is prob why htc did such a poor job writing then driver themselfs
because they were too cheap to pay qualcomm for it :P

[dharvey4651]

problem is that writing device drivers is the hardest program one can get into

the driver is limited to a very tiny mem footprint and must never be alowed to crash
even if the memory it's using is lost on the heap

and one needs access to alot of whitepapirs from the hardware maker

which is prob why htc did such a poor job writing then driver themselfs
because they were too cheap to pay qualcomm for it :P

It's not supposed to rain on parade day... :(

[wsparvis]

I used to write assembly language device drivers for embedded real-time systems. Doing so requires a high level of knowledge, experience and documentation WRT:

1. Dev & testing tools and environment
2. The target hardware (detailed doc)
3. The target OS kernel and driver hooks
4. System-level programming mind-set (different from app dev)

Quite interesting and rewarding if you have the above - quite difficult, bordering on 'not gonna happen' if you don't.

Sincere best wishes to those who give it a shot!

[Draiko]

My entire impetus for this thread was to start gathering people with the skills and talent needed to tackle driver construction. If open-source maniacs can do it, we can too. I have some experience with assembly... the tricky part is going to be finding out the specific commands, paths, and function calls for the embedded hardware. There's going to be a LOT of trial and error involved.

I'm starting to look for the Windows CE DDK right now. Come April 1st, if there is no word from HTC, Qualcomm, or Sprint on this driver issue, I'm going to round up as many capable people as I can and try to hammer this out.

Something that might shed some more light on the entire driver issue... Uh oh (http://www.sprintmogul.net/Default.aspx?tabid=54&ptid=370&threadid=3194&forumtype=posts)

Big Uh oh... (http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/12-31-2007/0004729030&EDATE=)

[comeradealexi]

if this ever comes together fully it will be really cool but i still dont get why SE didnt include drivers in the first place??

[thehelios]

if this ever comes together fully it will be really cool but i still dont get why SE didnt include drivers in the first place??

As posted before, they probably bought it at a cheaper price by having the drivers restricted. If they were to pay full price then maybe the driver would have been included. It's kind of what Palm did back in the day when they could have spent the extra $.05 for a higher quality speaker but didn't on the Palm III series. I'm pretty sure this is a cost cutting technique used by most electronics manufacturers.

[comeradealexi]

if im paying £500 for a device why not stick $0.5 on the bill! thats a shame :(

[stisev]

Damn right. I agree with all you guys.

The fact that I cannot get graphics hardware acceleration from a 500 USD+ device is absolutely ridiculous.

I love my Xperia X1, but in hindsight, I would've NEVER supported any product like this had I known it was the case.

Shame on HTC and Sony for swindling their customer from the "rich, multimedia experience" they promise so much.

Bastard Sony/HTC.

[ajclai08]

well boot android and youll have more qualcomm support..since they own the gpu chip msm7xxx devices uses now, thats what chipset all official android handsets use, even non htc android phones.

[Shidell]

well boot android and youll have more qualcomm support..since they own the gpu chip msm7xxx devices uses now, thats what chipset all official android handsets use, even non htc android phones.

and thus, there is driver support natively in android for us?

If that's true, what's stopping us from reverse-engineering the android driver and building a WinMo driver?

If we had a starting point, it's feasible--but without a starting point (or white papers), it's impossible.

[Powerbird101]

i completely agree with this we have waited enough for the garbage companies to put out. Ive gone through three HTC phones already with graphics Acceleration turned OFF... WTF!!!