Slack and ATI

[BertVK]

Hi guys,

I am setting up a very old portable with Slack 12.1
It's a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook C series (PII 766MHz, 64MB RAM, 6GB HD). This is supposed to be a system to learn stuff. I also want it to act like an internet tablet, albeit a big one.
Before tackling the acpi stuff I want to get all the hardware running properly. First thing I want to get running 100% is the video card. It's a ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x.
I replaced the vesa driver in the xorg.conf file with ati and things are looking better already.
I still see the mesa driver being used for OpenGL though. Is it possible to get OpenGL running with this card? Google doesn't give my a usable answer.

Thanks for your help.

Bert

[Tsuroerusu]

It depends a lot on the actual chip that's in the graphics hardware. Try using the "radeon" or "ati" driver, if your card is supported by the free software driver (AMD has certainly dropped support from their proprietary driver by now, I know that for sure, since your card is old and AGP) one of those should work.

[Wally Balljacker]

Hi guys,

I am setting up a very old portable with Slack 12.1
It's a Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook C series (PII 766MHz, 64MB RAM, 6GB HD). This is supposed to be a system to learn stuff. I also want it to act like an internet tablet, albeit a big one.
Before tackling the acpi stuff I want to get all the hardware running properly. First thing I want to get running 100% is the video card. It's a ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x.
I replaced the vesa driver in the xorg.conf file with ati and things are looking better already.
I still see the mesa driver being used for OpenGL though. Is it possible to get OpenGL running with this card? Google doesn't give my a usable answer.

Thanks for your help.

Bert

I don't quite understand. If you switched to the in kernel ATI driver you should already have OpenGL functionality.

Run "glxinfo" in a terminal and post the results.

[BertVK]

It took a while to get back due to loads of honey does (why else is a man on holiday). :-/
I tried a few settings and played around with xorg.conf. I'm still using the mesa driver.
Here's what I have right now.

lspci is giving me
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x (rev 64)

xorg.conf snips

Code: Select all

Section "Module"
    Load       "glx"
EndSection
Section "Device"
    Identifier "ATI Rage"
    Driver     "ati"
    BusID      "PCI:1:0:0"
    Option     "crt_display" "Off"
    Option     "accel"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
    Identifier  "Screen 1"
    Device      "ATI Rage"
    Monitor     "My Monitor"
   DefaultDepth 24
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubsection
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier  "Simple Layout"
    Screen "Screen 1"
    InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Here's the glxinfo dump

Code: Select all

name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: No (If you want to find out why, try setting LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose)
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, 
    GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_OML_swap_method, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe, 
    GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory, 
    GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 
    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_OML_sync_control, 
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, 
    GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, 
    GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, 
    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.0.2)
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_draw_buffers, GL_ARB_fragment_program, 
    GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_multitexture, 
    GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite, 
    GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp, 
    GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, 
    GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, 
    GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_texture_non_power_of_two, 
    GL_ARB_texture_rectangle, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_vertex_program, 
    GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra, GL_EXT_blend_color, 
    GL_EXT_blend_equation_separate, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, 
    GL_EXT_blend_logic_op, GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, 
    GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint, GL_EXT_copy_texture, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, 
    GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object, GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, 
    GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_paletted_texture, GL_EXT_point_parameters, 
    GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color, 
    GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, 
    GL_EXT_shared_texture_palette, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture, 
    GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, 
    GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, 
    GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, 
    GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_object, 
    GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels, 
    GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, 
    GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3, 
    GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_INGR_blend_func_separate, 
    GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture, GL_NV_blend_square, 
    GL_NV_fragment_program, GL_NV_light_max_exponent, GL_NV_point_sprite, 
    GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_NV_vertex_program, 
    GL_NV_vertex_program1_1, GL_SGI_color_matrix, GL_SGI_color_table, 
    GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, 
    GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture, 
    GL_SGIX_shadow, GL_SGIX_shadow_ambient, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x24 24 tc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 None
0x25 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None
0x26 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None
0x27 24 dc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x28 24 dc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 None
0x29 24 dc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None
0x2a 24 dc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None
0x44 32 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 Ncon

Thanks for any help getting opengl working fully.

[Wally Balljacker]

Well Mesa isn't a driver, it's an open source implementation of OpenGL for UNIX-like platforms. Since that graphics card isn't supported by ATI's Linux drivers anymore (which include their own proprietary OpenGL library), Mesa is your only choice. But even with that, you should still get basic 3D functionality. As for the missing DRM support, try adding these to xorg.conf

Add "dri" to the modules section underneath "glx"

Code: Select all

# This loads the GLX module
    Load       "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
    Load       "dri"

Add this to the end of the file

Code: Select all

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

[mowestusa]

Perhaps, I am missing something in this thread, or have failed to understand the xorg technology but...

You mentioned that you are running a Pentium 733 with only 64megs of ram. What 3D software would you even try to run with that spartan hardware. I would be encouraging you to run things like Fluxbox and other simply window managers and Abiword and other lighter weight programs so that you get the best possible user experience with your old hardware. I don't believe that DSL and Puppy Linux even attempt to set up a 3D environment, which would be well suited for such a low spec computer.

I would encourage your project though. I think it is great to keep old hardware running and use it as a test bed for learning more about Linux. I have done the same, although it was a Pentium 166 with 32megs of ram and a 4 gig hard drive running Netbsd. I did not even try to get x working, but learned a lot about Netbsd and command line programs. So have fun, I would love a "newer"/older laptop like that to dive deeper into using Slackware.

[BertVK]

Well Mesa isn't a driver, it's an open source implementation of OpenGL for UNIX-like platforms. Since that graphics card isn't supported by ATI's Linux drivers anymore (which include their own proprietary OpenGL library), Mesa is your only choice.

This is the actual answer I was looking for.
Maybe I didn't explain well enough. I was looking for hardware OpenGL support to unload the processor as much as possible. Now I know this is not possible and I have to be happy with the Mesa implementation.

I am not planning to run 3D applications on this machine but I want to optimize every bit to the max. I am running XFCE as the window manager right now. I'll give FluxBox a go later.

I will add the dri module in xorg.conf and move over to the next bit of configuration, which is ACPI support.
Anybody got any good links to get up to speed on this bit?