Summary
- Windows 10 reaches end-of-life next month; only paid extended security updates will be available, with no new fixes.
- Valve keeps 13-year-old Radeon HD 7000 GPUs alive on Linux, prepping patches for graphical issues.
- Patch fixes 4K60 bottom flicker (MCLK), disables ASPM to avoid Zen4 hangs on Tahiti/Oland, tweaks PLL dividers.
You know, Microsoft is pulling the plug on Windows 10 in under a month from now. That operating system had a good 10 years of operation, but as the company shifts focus to the newer, shinier Windows 11, it has to cut off Windows 10 to free up resources. People who have signed up for the additional year of security updates will still receive the occasional patch to keep the operating system running smoothly, but in terms of bug fixes and new features, Windows 10 is complete.
It’s easy to think that tech these days is in a vicious cycle of being new, being used, and then being forgotten. Fortunately, there are some people out there who remind us that fighting to keep old, functional hardware working properly is a noble cause. Such is the case of one guy at Valve who is still ensuring a 13-year-old GPU works fine with Linux.
One Valve employee is keeping the Radeon HD 7000 series alive on Linux
As spotted by Phoronix, this salute-worthy act comes to us via Timur Kristóf. On Timur’s blog, he describes himself as “a subcontractor to Valve, working on the Linux open source graphics stack,” and he’s proving that he is who he says he is by keeping old hardware working with the open-source operating system.
This time around, Timur is prepping a patch to fix some nasty issues when using a Radeon HD 7000 series “Southern Islands” GPU. If that rings a bell, you may recall it as AMD’s offerings from 2012, thirteen years ago. Yes, this patch is to help solve graphical issues for a GPU old enough to be at the start of its teenage phase if it were a human.
Here are the full patch notes:
This series has a few minor patches to address some SI issues.
When a 4K 60Hz display is connected to Tahiti or Pitcairn there is a slight flickering near the bottom of the display. Disabling MCLK switching fixes that. (Other SI parts are likely affected too, but I didn’t test them thoroughly enough to say.)
When enabling ASPM on Zen 4 with Tahiti and Oland, there are random hangs when the GPU usage is low. Disabling ASPM fixes that. At the moment I don’t know if this is a platform-specific or GPU-specific issue and I don’t think we can reasonably determine that without spending more time than we have. (Other SI parts may be affected, but I didn’t test them for a long enough time to judge that.)
Finally, there is a DC patch to change the minimum PLL dividers to the same value as the legacy non-DC display code. This doesn’t fix any visible issue but I think it’s still good to have just in case.
Before you go ahead and excitedly dig out that old Radeon GPU you have in storage, you may want to check out these reasons why an old gaming PC is the perfect start for your first home lab.