Hello all,
Thanks to the helpful info on this mailing list, I was able to get Xfree86 working with my new
ATI Radeon 7500 QW with the latest version of XFree86 in sid (4.2.1-1) using the DRI module in
2.4.20-pre8-ac3.
This email is not a bug report of any kind. I just want to understand a few things better and I am hoping the kind souls on this list can help me.
1. What is the relationship between DRI & XFree86? Does DRI expose generic "ops" and mmap the framebuffer address? Or, does it do more? I haven't tried to start X without DRI support in the kernel. Will it even work if I do?
2. How can I know the features of the card exploited by X? More specifically, 2D and 3D acceleration.
On the ati website, they claim that 3D acceleration is supported on their 8500 and FireGL based cards.
They also mention that DRI supports 3D acceleration on the radeon family (no specific chip information is supplied). Are there generic tools one can run to see/query the info?
When I ran 'glxgears' I seem to get between 500-2000fps. However, the CPU is maxed out at 100% -- this on an Athlon XP1700. Also, if I move any window on the desktop, the gears seem to stutter and slow down. This leads me to believe that 3D support is done in software. Am I correct?
I am not subscribed to this mailing list. I would appreciate if you can CC me on the reply. If you think I should subscribe to the mailing list, please send me a private email and I'll do so.
If there is sufficient interest, I can post my Xf86config-4 file to the list (I had to change it _very_ little to get it working.)
Much thanks.
Regards,
Sudhi.