Hello, list. I've recently installed Debian Wheezy on a "new" (to me)
computer with an ATI Rage XL video chip. Here is an excerpt from
the output of "lspci -nn -vv". (Line wraps have been inserted to
keep well within the customary 80-column limit.)
05:03.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]
nee ATI Rage XL [1002:4752] (rev 27) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
The X server auto-selects the ati driver, which in turn selects the
mach64 driver. the mach64 driver identifies the card in
/var/log/Xorg.0.log as ...
ATI 3D Rage XL or XC graphics controller detected
Chip type 4752 "GR", version 7, foundry TSMC, class 0, revision 0x00
So the chip does have 3D capabilities. But when the X server
attempts to activate 3D acceleration, I get the following error:
[drm] failed to load kernel module "mach64"
and the driver reverts to 2D acceleration only. I've done quite a bit
of internet searching this morning, and it appears that it is, at
least in theory, possible to enable 3D acceleration; but it is not a
trivial task. Here's one link that I've found:
http://www.allquests.com/question/1501572-4/HOWTO-enable-3d-acceleration-w-Rage-Mobility-mach64.html
But this involves manual compilation and not using Debian packages.
> From other search results, it appears that there was at one time a
Debian package called drm-modules-source, which existed in experimental
back in the days of Lenny, but this package appears to have disappeared.
Before I get knee-deep in this, I thought I'd ask the list if there's
a better way. Does anyone have any experience with this? Is there a
Debian package I can use?