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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<!-- $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/dri-howto.xml,v 1.37 2007/02/18 23:44:24 nightmorph Exp $ -->
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<!DOCTYPE guide SYSTEM "/dtd/guide.dtd">
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<guide link="/doc/en/dri-howto.xml">
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<title>Hardware 3D Acceleration Guide</title>
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<author title="Author">
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<mail link="dberkholz@gentoo.org">Donnie Berkholz</mail>
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</author>
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<author title="Editor">
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<mail link="peesh@gentoo.org">Jorge Paulo</mail>
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</author>
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<author title="Editor">
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<mail link="nightmorph@gentoo.org">Joshua Saddler</mail>
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</author>
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<abstract>
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This document is a guide to getting 3D acceleration working using the DRM with
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Xorg in Gentoo Linux.
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</abstract>
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<!-- The content of this document is licensed under the CC-BY-SA license -->
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<!-- See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5 -->
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<license/>
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<version>1.8</version>
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<date>2007-04-25</date>
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<chapter>
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<section>
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<title>What is hardware 3D acceleration and why do I want it?</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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With hardware 3D acceleration, three-dimensional rendering uses the graphics
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processor on your video card instead of taking up valuable CPU resources
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drawing 3D images. It's also referred to as "hardware acceleration" instead of
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"software acceleration" because without this 3D acceleration your CPU is forced
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to draw everything itself using the Mesa software rendering libraries, which
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takes up quite a bit of processing power. While Xorg typically supports 2D
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hardware acceleration, it often lacks hardware 3D acceleration.
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Three-dimensional hardware acceleration is valuable in situations requiring
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rendering of 3D objects such as games, 3D CAD and modeling.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>How do I get hardware 3D acceleration?</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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In many cases, both binary and open-source drivers exist. Open-source drivers
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are preferable since we're using Linux and open source is one of its underlying
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principles. Sometimes, binary drivers are the only option, like with nVidia's
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cards. Binary drivers include <c>x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers</c> and
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<c>x11-drivers/nvidia-legacy-drivers</c> for nVidia cards and
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<c>x11-drivers/ati-drivers</c> for ATI cards. Other open-source drivers include
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<c>media-video/ati-gatos</c> for ATI cards, which aims to support ATI's video
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capabilities more fully.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>What is DRI?</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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The <uri link="http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/">Direct Rendering
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Infrastructure</uri>, also known as the DRI, is a framework for allowing direct
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access to graphics hardware in a safe and efficient manner. It includes changes
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to the X server, to several client libraries and to the kernel. The first major
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use for the DRI is to create fast OpenGL implementations.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>What is the DRM and how does it relate to regular Xorg?</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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The DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) is an <e>enhancement</e> to Xorg that adds 3D
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acceleration for cards by adding the kernel module necessary for direct
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rendering.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Purpose</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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This guide is for people who can't get direct rendering working with just Xorg.
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The DRM works for the following drivers:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>3dfx</li>
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<li>i8x0</li>
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<li>matrox</li>
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<li>rage128</li>
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<li>radeon</li>
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<li>mach64</li>
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<li>sis300</li>
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<li>via</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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See the <uri link="http://dri.freedesktop.org/">DRI homepage</uri> for more info
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and documentation.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Feedback</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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With suggestions, questions, etc., e-mail <mail
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link="dberkholz@gentoo.org">Donnie Berkholz</mail>.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Install Xorg and configure your kernel</title>
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<section>
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<title>Install Xorg</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Please read our <uri link="/doc/en/xorg-config.xml">Xorg Configuration
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Guide</uri> to get Xorg up and running.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Configure your kernel</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Probe for your chipset and enable just that one.
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</p>
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<pre caption="Checking your AGP chipset">
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# <i>emerge pciutils; lspci | grep AGP</i>
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# <i>00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03)</i>
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<comment>(Your output may not match the above due to different hardware.)</comment>
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</pre>
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<p>
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If your chipset is not supported by the kernel you might have some succes by
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passing <c>agp=try_unsupported</c> as a kernel parameter. This will use Intel's
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generic routines for AGP support. To add this parameter, edit your bootloader
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configuration file!
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</p>
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<p>
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Most, if not all, kernels should have these options. This was configured using a
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standard <c>gentoo-sources</c> kernel.
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</p>
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<pre caption="Configuring the kernel">
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# <i>ls -l /usr/src/linux </i>
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lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 2007-02-14 20:12 /usr/src/linux -> linux-2.6.18-gentoo-r4
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<comment>(Make sure /usr/src/linux links to your current kernel.)</comment>
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# <i>cd /usr/src/linux</i>
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# <i>make menuconfig</i>
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</pre>
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<pre caption="make menuconfig options">
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Processor type and features --->
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<*> MTRR (Memory Type Range Register) support
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Device drivers --->
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Character devices --->
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<M> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)
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<comment>(The agpgart option is not present on 64-bit kernels; just choose your chipset support.)</comment>
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<M> Intel 440LX/BX/GX, I8xx and E7x05 support
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<comment>(Enable your chipset instead of the above.)</comment>
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<M> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Compile and install your kernel</title>
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<body>
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<pre caption="Compiling and installing kernel">
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# <i>make && make modules_install</i>
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</pre>
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<p>
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Don't forget to set up <path>grub.conf</path> or <path>lilo.conf</path> and run
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<c>/sbin/lilo</c> if you use LILO.
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</p>
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</body>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<chapter>
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<title>Configure direct rendering</title>
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<section id="configure_xorg">
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<title>Configure Xorg.conf</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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Open <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path> with your favorite text editor and edit
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it to enable DRI and GLX.
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</p>
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<pre caption="xorg.conf">
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...
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Section "Module"
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Load "dri"
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Load "glx"
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...
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EndSection
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...
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Section "Device"
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Driver "radeon"
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<comment>(Replace radeon with the name of your driver.)</comment>
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...
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EndSection
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...
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Section "dri"
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Mode 0666
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EndSection
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</pre>
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</body>
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</section>
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<section>
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<title>Changes to modules.autoload.d</title>
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<body>
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<p>
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You will need to add the module name that your card uses to
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<path>/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6</path> to ensure that the module is
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loaded automatically when the system starts up.
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</p>
|
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<pre caption="Editing /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6">
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<comment>(Change module name as required.)</comment>
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intel-agp
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</pre>
|
| 258 |
|
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<note>
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If you compiled <c>agpgart</c> as a module, you will also need to add it to
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<path>/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6</path>.
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</note>
|
| 263 |
|
| 264 |
</body>
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| 265 |
</section>
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| 266 |
</chapter>
|
| 267 |
|
| 268 |
<chapter>
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| 269 |
<title>Test 3D acceleration</title>
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| 270 |
<section>
|
| 271 |
<title>Reboot to the new kernel</title>
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<body>
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| 273 |
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| 274 |
<p>
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Reboot your computer to your new kernel and login as a normal user. It's time to
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see if you have direct rendering and how good it is. <c>glxinfo</c> and
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<c>glxgears</c> are part of the <c>mesa-progs</c> package, so make sure it is
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installed before you attempt to run these commands.
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| 279 |
</p>
|
| 280 |
|
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<pre caption="Testing rendering">
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$ <i>startx</i>
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<comment>(No need to load modules for your driver or agpgart, even if you compiled them as a module.)</comment>
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<comment>(They will be loaded automatically.)</comment>
|
| 285 |
$ <i>glxinfo | grep rendering</i>
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direct rendering: Yes
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<comment>(If it says "No", you don't have 3D acceleration.)</comment>
|
| 288 |
$ <i>glxgears</i>
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| 289 |
<comment>(Test your frames per second (FPS) at the default size. The number should be
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significantly higher than before configuring DRM. Do this while the CPU is as idle as
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possible.)</comment>
|
| 292 |
</pre>
|
| 293 |
|
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<note>
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FPS may be limited by your screen's refresh rate, so keep this in mind if
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<c>glxgears</c> reports only about 70-100 FPS. <c>games-fps/ut2004-demo</c> is a
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better benchmarking tool, as it can give you real-world performance results.
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</note>
|
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|
| 300 |
</body>
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| 301 |
</section>
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| 302 |
</chapter>
|
| 303 |
|
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<chapter>
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| 305 |
<title>Tweak your performance</title>
|
| 306 |
<section>
|
| 307 |
<title>Get the most out of direct rendering</title>
|
| 308 |
<body>
|
| 309 |
|
| 310 |
<p>
|
| 311 |
A few options may increase performance by up to 30 percent (or more) over the
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default. Set them in <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path>. However, you will first
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need to check that your motherboard and video card support these options.
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</p>
|
| 315 |
|
| 316 |
<p>
|
| 317 |
First, let's see if your video card can support fast writes. We'll do this by
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closely inspecting the output from <c>lspci</c>. Specifically, we are looking
|
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at the "VGA compatible controller" information.
|
| 320 |
</p>
|
| 321 |
|
| 322 |
<pre caption="Video card check">
|
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# <i>lspci -vv</i>
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01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M6 LY (prog-if 00 [VGA])
|
| 325 |
. . .
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Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
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| 327 |
Status: RQ=48 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
|
| 328 |
</pre>
|
| 329 |
|
| 330 |
<p>
|
| 331 |
While quite a lot of information is produced, we are looking for <b>FW</b> in
|
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the "Status" subsection of the AGP "Capabilities" section. If <b>FW+</b> is
|
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present in the "Status" line, it means the card supports fast writes. We can
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now check if the motherboard supports fast writes.
|
| 335 |
</p>
|
| 336 |
|
| 337 |
<impo>
|
| 338 |
If you do not see <b>FW+</b>, but instead see <b>FW-</b>, you cannot enable
|
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fast writes in <path>xorg.conf</path>. Your card does not support fast writes.
|
| 340 |
</impo>
|
| 341 |
|
| 342 |
<p>
|
| 343 |
Now let's make sure the motherboard supports fast writes as well. This time,
|
| 344 |
look at the "Host bridge" section of your <c>lspci</c> output.
|
| 345 |
</p>
|
| 346 |
|
| 347 |
<pre caption="Motherboard check">
|
| 348 |
# <i>lspci -vv</i>
|
| 349 |
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82830 830 Chipset Host Bridge (rev 02)
|
| 350 |
. . .
|
| 351 |
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0
|
| 352 |
Status: RQ=32 Iso- ArqSz=0 Cal=0 SBA+ ITACoh- GART64- HTrans- 64bit- FW+ AGP3- Rate=x1,x2,x4
|
| 353 |
</pre>
|
| 354 |
|
| 355 |
<p>
|
| 356 |
Again, examine the "Status" subsection of your AGP "Capabilities" section. Look
|
| 357 |
for <b>FW</b>. If you see <b>FW+</b>, your motherboard supports fast writes.
|
| 358 |
</p>
|
| 359 |
|
| 360 |
<impo>
|
| 361 |
Remember, both your video card information and your motherboard information
|
| 362 |
must show the same <b>FW</b> capability. If either device shows <b>FW-</b> in
|
| 363 |
"Status", you cannot enable fast writes in <path>xorg.conf</path>.
|
| 364 |
</impo>
|
| 365 |
|
| 366 |
<p>
|
| 367 |
Assuming that all has gone well and both your motherboard and video card
|
| 368 |
support fast writes, let's enable this option in
|
| 369 |
<path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path> and get the best performance out of your
|
| 370 |
hardware.
|
| 371 |
</p>
|
| 372 |
|
| 373 |
<pre caption="xorg.conf">
|
| 374 |
Section "Device"
|
| 375 |
Option "AGPMode" "4"
|
| 376 |
<comment>(This increased FPS from 609 to 618.)</comment>
|
| 377 |
Option "AGPFastWrite" "True"
|
| 378 |
<comment>(This had no measurable effect, but it may increase instability of your computer.)</comment>
|
| 379 |
<comment>(You may also need to set it in your BIOS.)</comment>
|
| 380 |
Option "EnablePageFlip" "True"
|
| 381 |
<comment>(This improved FPS from 618 to 702. It also is "risky" but few people have reported problems.)</comment>
|
| 382 |
...
|
| 383 |
EndSection
|
| 384 |
</pre>
|
| 385 |
|
| 386 |
<warn>
|
| 387 |
Enabling <c>AGPFastWrite</c> on a VIA chipset will very likely cause your
|
| 388 |
machine to lock up. VIA chipsets do not play nicely with fast writes, so use
|
| 389 |
this setting at your own risk.
|
| 390 |
</warn>
|
| 391 |
|
| 392 |
<note>
|
| 393 |
Remember, if you want fast writes to work properly, you will have to first
|
| 394 |
enable the appropriate option in your BIOS.
|
| 395 |
</note>
|
| 396 |
|
| 397 |
<p>
|
| 398 |
If you want to set even more features, check out the <uri
|
| 399 |
link="http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/FeatureMatrix">feature matrix</uri> on
|
| 400 |
the DRI web site or the <uri
|
| 401 |
link="http://dri.sourceforge.net/doc/dri_driver_features.phtml">features
|
| 402 |
listing</uri> on Sourceforge.
|
| 403 |
</p>
|
| 404 |
|
| 405 |
</body>
|
| 406 |
</section>
|
| 407 |
</chapter>
|
| 408 |
|
| 409 |
<chapter>
|
| 410 |
<title>Troubleshooting</title>
|
| 411 |
<section>
|
| 412 |
<title>It doesn't work. I don't have rendering, and I can't tell why.</title>
|
| 413 |
<body>
|
| 414 |
|
| 415 |
<p>
|
| 416 |
Try <c>modprobe radeon</c> before you start the X server (replace <c>radeon</c>
|
| 417 |
with the name of your driver). Also, try building agpgart into the kernel
|
| 418 |
instead of as a module.
|
| 419 |
</p>
|
| 420 |
|
| 421 |
</body>
|
| 422 |
</section>
|
| 423 |
<section>
|
| 424 |
<title>When I startx, I get this error: "[drm] failed to load kernel module agpgart"</title>
|
| 425 |
<body>
|
| 426 |
|
| 427 |
<p>
|
| 428 |
That's because you compiled agpgart into the kernel instead of as a module.
|
| 429 |
Ignore it unless you're having problems.
|
| 430 |
</p>
|
| 431 |
|
| 432 |
</body>
|
| 433 |
</section>
|
| 434 |
<section>
|
| 435 |
<title>I have a Radeon, and I want TV-Out.</title>
|
| 436 |
<body>
|
| 437 |
|
| 438 |
<p>
|
| 439 |
Check out <c>ati-gatos</c> drivers. <c>emerge -av ati-gatos</c>.
|
| 440 |
</p>
|
| 441 |
|
| 442 |
</body>
|
| 443 |
</section>
|
| 444 |
<section>
|
| 445 |
<title>
|
| 446 |
It doesn't work. My card is so incredibly new and cool that it isn't supported
|
| 447 |
at all.
|
| 448 |
</title>
|
| 449 |
<body>
|
| 450 |
|
| 451 |
<p>
|
| 452 |
Try out the binary drivers. For <c>ati-drivers</c>, a listing is at
|
| 453 |
<uri>http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux/linux-radeon.html</uri> (for x86)
|
| 454 |
and at <uri>http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linux64/linux64-radeon.html</uri>
|
| 455 |
(for amd64). If those don't support it, use fbdev. It's slow, but it works.
|
| 456 |
</p>
|
| 457 |
|
| 458 |
</body>
|
| 459 |
</section>
|
| 460 |
<section>
|
| 461 |
<title>I have a PCI card and it doesn't work. Help!</title>
|
| 462 |
<body>
|
| 463 |
|
| 464 |
<p>
|
| 465 |
Edit <path>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</path>. In section "Device" enable ForcePCIMode.
|
| 466 |
</p>
|
| 467 |
|
| 468 |
<pre caption="Enabling ForcePCIMode">
|
| 469 |
Option "ForcePCIMode" "True"
|
| 470 |
</pre>
|
| 471 |
|
| 472 |
</body>
|
| 473 |
</section>
|
| 474 |
</chapter>
|
| 475 |
|
| 476 |
<chapter>
|
| 477 |
<title>Acknowledgments</title>
|
| 478 |
<section>
|
| 479 |
<body>
|
| 480 |
|
| 481 |
<ol>
|
| 482 |
<li>
|
| 483 |
Christopher Webber for suggesting a troubleshooting question about changing
|
| 484 |
or recompiling kernels
|
| 485 |
</li>
|
| 486 |
<li>
|
| 487 |
Steve, for suggesting consistency between the cases of dri and DRI in
|
| 488 |
XF86Config
|
| 489 |
</li>
|
| 490 |
</ol>
|
| 491 |
|
| 492 |
</body>
|
| 493 |
</section>
|
| 494 |
</chapter>
|
| 495 |
|
| 496 |
<chapter>
|
| 497 |
<title>References</title>
|
| 498 |
<section>
|
| 499 |
<body>
|
| 500 |
|
| 501 |
<ol>
|
| 502 |
<li><uri>http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=46681</uri></li>
|
| 503 |
<li><uri>http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=29264</uri></li>
|
| 504 |
<li><uri>http://dri.freedesktop.org/</uri></li>
|
| 505 |
<li><uri>http://www.retinalburn.net/linux/dri_status.html</uri></li>
|
| 506 |
</ol>
|
| 507 |
|
| 508 |
</body>
|
| 509 |
</section>
|
| 510 |
</chapter>
|
| 511 |
</guide>
|
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