Direct Rendering for older video cards

[Hlingler]

Well, I'm sorry to have kept you guys waiting for so long, and the news is not good: so far as I can tell, and after exhaustive research, it seems that as of F12, I will not be able to build the Mach64 kmods.

"Fixing" the DRM and Mesa stuff to get the Mach64 3D driver is fine, but the kernel source code does not contain the code needed to build the kmods (kernel driver modules):
http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kerne...970eda;hb=HEAD
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/m...40voicenet.com
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/m...ynet.skynet.ie
It simply is not there, as can be readily seen. Without the kmods, the 3D driver is useless.

Previously, these kmods were built from X.Org DRM (/mesa/libdrm/) source code (compiled against the kernel source), but this code branch ("linux-core") has been completely purged, and the code moved to the kernel source - or rather in this case: simply dropped. Much like a live hand grenade. I cannot help but suspect that this was [semi-]deliberate, or perhaps the result of sheer apathy.

These changes effectively end this little project of mine. Unless and until such time as the Mach64 kmod code is added back into the kernel source tree (which I seriously doubt will ever happen), I cannot see any way to proceed. I have neither the skill nor the motivation at this time to pursue the matter further.

Again, I apologize for taking so long to respond. I wish the news was better, but it is what it is.

Thanks to all who have expressed interest and support for this project. It was fun while it lasted.

V

P.S. I will continue to build 32-bit (non-PAE) kmods for F11 until end-of-life, and all files will remain available indefinitely, but support from me will end when F11 is officially end-of-life.

[Hlingler]

Yeah, I got it going on LinuxMint8 (x86), "stock" kernel-2.6.31-14-generic. Wasn't easy (but was a lot easier than expected) - required hacking the X.Org Mesa/DRM code, and since I'm not a programmer, that amounted to a whole lot of "educated" guessing. But it worked.

LinuxMint8 Xorg is built with the Mach64 3D driver (/usr/lib/dri/mach64_dri.so), so that saved me from having to goof with that part - but again: it's useless without the matching kmod. However, Mint8 uses an older Mesa libdrm-2.4.14, for which the X.Org code tarball still contains the kmod bits (now moved to kernel source code - or simply dropped/abandoned in the case of Mach64). Compile failed due to some stale code, but a short web search yielded clues, followed by some experimentation, resulting in a successful build. I actually spent more time coaxing the Mint8 LiveCD OS into swallowing a re-start of X on the target machine, along with the same hacking that I've found necessary in F11 to create the character device node. Plugging in my Fedora xorg.conf topped off the ugly but effective pile.

I'll post a How-To/Tutorial on the LinuxMint board in a day or two. Since only the pre-compiled kmods are needed, along with the character device hacking, it's actually fairly easy to get going.
EDIT: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=46571

Of course, the whole house of cards will probably fall apart on the next Ubu/Mint release, if the Xorg DRM is upgraded to a newer (eviscerated) version. But in the meantime, it works here.

V

P.S. Specs on target machine:
emachines etower 466id; 466 MHz Celeron CPU; 256 MB system RAM; 512 MB SWAP
Integrated graphics chipset: ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c), 4 MB SGRAM

[Hlingler]

Project closed. Refer to Post #91 & Post #1.

Thanks,
V