On Thu, Feb 07, 2013 at 08:52:47PM +0100, Denis 'GNUtoo' Carikli wrote:
on the radeon of the M4A785T-M (01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS880 [Radeon HD 4200]) it can: some time ago I commented the VGA option rom running but kept it in memory and it worked(the linux kernel initialized the card). it can also work without the firmware but has no 3D acceleration nor video acceleration(XV).
I believe from linux 3.7 up there is no longer option for UMS in radeon, and KMS needs the nonfree firmware.
I didn't try without the nvidia option rom yet...I really should. The nvidia card even has 3D acceleration with the free firmware.
Yes I think nouveau does not need the VGA BIOS, but I haven't tried. May depend on gpu model.