On Wed, Oct 09, 2002 at 09:39:59AM -0500, Sudhindra Herle wrote: > 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. Glad to hear it's working for you. > 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? DRI is a way of passing commands that take advantage of the 3D engine on the video card's silicon to the graphics processor. This bypasses the X protocol, so DRI is largely a means of ensuring that the video card's internal rendering and the X server don't get in each other's way in terms of screen real estate. Also, not stuffing the acceleration commands into the X protocol stream saves quite a bit of overhead and improved performance. Remember that X was originally developed within, and for, network computing environments. The Debian X FAQ speaks more about these issues. /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/FAQ.gz > 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? I cannot help you here. Perhaps someone else from the list can. > 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'm not sure. In theory yor CPU shouldn't be getting pegged, but then there's the real world... > 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.) Please do; I'm curious to know what was necessary. It may suggest a possible enhancement in my debconf. -- G. Branden Robinson | Good judgement comes from Debian GNU/Linux | experience; experience comes from branden@debian.org | bad judgement. http://people.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Fred Brooks
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