Direct Rending onboard video

[dubb]

Today I planned to have my older brother switch to fedora since I got fed up with all his windows problems, genuine software validation. I put my F8 dvd installed with a breeze and then downloaded easylife and everything went good. dvd, java, flash, xmms, sudo and all that stuff works. but then i wanted to install compiz fusion. i know that it requires direct rendering but since my brother's video is onboard i cant get direct rendering to work.
lspci output

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:00.5 PIC: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE I/O APIC Interrupt Controller
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI bridge [K8T800/K8T890 South]
00:02.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8T890 PCI to PCI Bridge Controller
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A SATA 2-Port Controller (rev 80)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 07)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to ISA Bridge
00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8251 Ultra VLINK Controller
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 7c)
00:13.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A Host Bridge
00:13.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890 [Chrome9] Integrated Video (rev 11)
04:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy LS
80:01.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA High Definition Audio Controller (rev 10)

i tried driconf as root

driconf
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
Screen "0" is not direct rendering capable.
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:843: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.saveConfig, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:846: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.reloadConfig, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:847: DeprecationWarning: 
  self.toolbar.append_space()
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:850: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.newItem, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:853: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.removeItem, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:856: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.moveUp, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:859: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.moveDown, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:862: DeprecationWarning: 
  "priv", self.configTree.properties, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:863: DeprecationWarning: 
  self.toolbar.append_space()
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:872: DeprecationWarning: 
  self.aboutHandler, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:873: DeprecationWarning: 
  self.toolbar.append_space()
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:876: DeprecationWarning: 
  self.exitHandler, None, -1)
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:213: DeprecationWarning: use gtk.ComboBoxEntry
  self.screenCombo = gtk.Combo()
/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/driconf_complexui.py:224: DeprecationWarning: use gtk.ComboBoxEntry
  self.driverCombo = gtk.Combo()
Xlib:  extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
Screen "0" is not direct rendering capable.

[Hlingler]

Ouch. No, driconf won't do anything but choke if there's no DRI driver loaded. Apparently, the hardware probing is not identifying that chipset.

It would probably be helpful if you could post your xorg.conf, and any relevant entries from /var/log/Xorg.0.log. You can look through your /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if anything obvious jumps out.

I've spent a lot of time poking around the dri.freedesktop.org wiki, but it has very little to say about VIA chips. There is some babble about "openchrome", but it seems to refer to a 2D driver. If it is supported, the driver is probably: unichrome and the kernel driver module is probably: via. If you're adventurous, you can try a manual edit of xorg.conf (back it up first!) to specify the driver as "unichrome", load the kernel module manually with: modprobe via, and hope for the best when you re-start X-server.

A quick search of Google-Linux turns up only seven hits for that chipset-blurb. I would suggest that you not set your hopes high on direct rendering for this.

V

[dubb]

thanks. i probably wont use direct rendering now that you are telling me via doesn't openly support it. my other issue was when i move applications around the visual desktop the borders leave trails. is there a way to get the onboard video working properly? how about drivers? I just might have another video card lying around the house maybe i can slap that one on. hopefully its nvidia or some sort of linux supported one.

[Hlingler]

Originally Posted by dubb

thanks. i probably wont use direct rendering now that you are telling me via doesn't openly support it. my other issue was when i move applications around the visual desktop the borders leave trails. is there a way to get the onboard video working properly? how about drivers? I just might have another video card lying around the house maybe i can slap that one on. hopefully its nvidia or some sort of linux supported one.

Well, I'm saying that I don't know. I am trying to highlight the fact that there is very little info available and very little history/precedence to build on. I don't want to mislead you into thinking that I'm some kind of authority on this. But, I have spent a lot of time on this general subject (DRI/direct rendering) getting my own (old) hardware 3D drivers working, and from what I've seen, your situation looks doubtful.

Again, you can try the "unichrome" driver and see if it works. If nothing else, maybe it will fix the visual trailing and give you better 2D graphics. But be prepared in case it causes failure of the whole GUI. And if we could see your xorg.conf and /var/log/xorg.0.log, there might be some useful info in there....

V

[dubb]

you seem to know a lot about this. i read your posts. thanks for the advice though here is my xorg.

# Xorg configuration created by system-config-display

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "single head configuration"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us+inet"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Videocard0"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

[Hlingler]

Give the "unichrome" driver a shot - worst thing that can happen is you lose the X-server (temporarily)

Just backup xorg.conf, and edit it as root user to replace the line:
Driver "vesa"

with:
Driver "unichrome"

Then re-start the X-server (logout, then ALT-CTL-Backspace). See what happens. If you lose the GUI completely, get yourself to a virtual terminal (ALT-CTL-F1), and switch the xorg.conf files back to the original, then reboot. If that fails, boot to runlevel 3 and do the switch.

Probably a "Good Idea™©®" to NOT have anything important running if and when you try this....

V

[Hlingler]

Hm, this is very interesting: from 'man via', which is part of package xorg-x11-drv-via:

DESCRIPTION
via is an Xorg driver for VIA chipsets with onboard unichrome graphics.

The via driver supports the VIA CLE266, KM400/KN400, K8M/N800, PM/N800 and CN400 chipsets, including 2D acceleration and
the Xv video overlay extensions. Flat panel, TV and VGA outputs are supported, depending on the hardware configuration.

Direct rendering 3D is available using experimental drivers in Mesa, www.mesa3d.org. Also there is an XvMC client
library for hardware MPEG1 / MPEG2 decoding acceleration available on the CLE266, CN400, PM/N800 and K8M/N800 chipsets
that uses the Direct Rendering Infrastructure, DRI. The XvMC client library implements a nonstandard "VLD" extension to
the XvMC standard. The current Direct Rendering Manager Linux kernel module is available at dri.sourceforge.net.

This is the 2D driver:

[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 04:58:47 ~]$ rpm -ql xorg-x11-drv-via-0.2.2-4.fc8.i386
/usr/lib/libviaXvMC.so.1
/usr/lib/libviaXvMC.so.1.0.0
/usr/lib/libviaXvMCPro.so.1
/usr/lib/libviaXvMCPro.so.1.0.0
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/via_drv.so
/usr/share/hwdata/videoaliases/via.xinf
/usr/share/man/man4/via.4.gz
[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 04:58:52 ~]$

Definitely 'Driver "via" ' would be a better choice than "unichrome" to try. Lots more info in that man file. Please do let us know how things turn out....

V

EDIT: I'm fairly certain that this is the 3D driver they're talking about:

[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 05:06:56 ~]$ locate unichrome
/usr/lib/directfb-1.0-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_unichrome.la
/usr/lib/directfb-1.0-0/gfxdrivers/libdirectfb_unichrome.so
/usr/lib/dri/unichrome_dri.so
[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 05:08:25 ~]$ rpm -qf /usr/lib/dri/unichrome_dri.so
mesa-libGL-7.0.2-3.fc8.i386
[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 05:14:51 ~]$

And the kernel driver module:

[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 05:20:11 ~]$ ls -lh /lib/modules/2.6.24.4-64.fc8/kernel/drivers/char/drm/
total 708K
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  82K 2008-03-29 10:31 drm.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  23K 2008-03-29 10:31 i810.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  29K 2008-03-29 10:31 i830.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  29K 2008-03-29 10:31 i915.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  65K 2008-03-29 10:31 mga.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 187K 2008-03-29 10:31 nouveau.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  45K 2008-03-29 10:31 r128.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116K 2008-03-29 10:31 radeon.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  36K 2008-03-29 10:31 savage.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  12K 2008-03-29 10:31 sis.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7.6K 2008-03-29 10:31 tdfx.ko
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  42K 2008-03-29 10:31 via.ko
[vince@micron-pc-rb Fri Apr 18 05:20:34 ~]$

They probably could have made this even more confusing by giving the kernel module yet another different name, but I guess they didn't want to leave everyone totally clueless....

[dubb]

i have openchrome running but it still doesn't work right. i well be able to check out the 3d version and the kernel module later on today. i gotta work in 5 hours. well thanks for all your help i'll keep you updated.

[Hlingler]

OK, good luck. Here's some more info, and how I would recommend that you proceed:
> "OpenChrome" project is a (supposedly better) fork of "UniChrome" project. Both provide open-source 2D video drivers for VIA chipsets:
> OpenChrome 2D driver="openchrome" (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/openchrome_drv.so)
> UniChrome 2D driver="via" (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/via_drv.so)

One of these two is the driver to be specified in xorg.conf (your call - both or neither may work with the 3D driver). "openchrome" is Fedora default choice. Neither one alone will give you the DRI you want/need for Compiz-Fusion. For DRI, you need to get the 3D driver/direct rendering running also.
> Backup xorg.conf and edit the line to read:

Driver "openchrome"

(or "via"). At minimum, to enable DRI you also need to add the following to xorg.conf:

Section "Module"
    Load "glx"
    Load "dri"
EndSection

and:

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

> Next, to load the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel module: modprobe drm
> Then to load the 3D DRI VIA driver kernel module: modprobe via
> Re-start X-server. If all goes well, Xorg will use the 3D driver, or at worst, the 2D driver will be available as a fallback.
> Login and check things out with: glxinfo|grep render; you want to see: "Yes". If "No", attach entire log: /var/log/Xorg.0.log so that we can review error messages.

The outcome should be interesting, at least. All this stuff is packed into the install, so you'd think that maybe it should work. Or at least not break things. Good Luck.

V

[blue13130]

VIA will be releasing open source drivers in the near future, according to this article:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...=via_oss&num=1

Watch this website for more info:
http://linux.via.com.tw/

[dubb]

Originally Posted by Hlingler

OK, good luck. Here's some more info, and how I would recommend that you proceed:
> "OpenChrome" project is a (supposedly better) fork of "UniChrome" project. Both provide open-source 2D video drivers for VIA chipsets:
> OpenChrome 2D driver="openchrome" (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/openchrome_drv.so)
> UniChrome 2D driver="via" (/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/via_drv.so)

One of these two is the driver to be specified in xorg.conf (your call - both or neither may work with the 3D driver). "openchrome" is Fedora default choice. Neither one alone will give you the DRI you want/need for Compiz-Fusion. For DRI, you need to get the 3D driver/direct rendering running also.
> Backup xorg.conf and edit the line to read:

Driver "openchrome"

(or "via"). At minimum, to enable DRI you also need to add the following to xorg.conf:

Section "Module"
    Load "glx"
    Load "dri"
EndSection

and:

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

> Next, to load the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) kernel module: modprobe drm
> Then to load the 3D DRI VIA driver kernel module: modprobe via
> Re-start X-server. If all goes well, Xorg will use the 3D driver, or at worst, the 2D driver will be available as a fallback.
> Login and check things out with: glxinfo|grep render; you want to see: "Yes". If "No", attach entire log: /var/log/Xorg.0.log so that we can review error messages.

The outcome should be interesting, at least. All this stuff is packed into the install, so you'd think that maybe it should work. Or at least not break things. Good Luck.

V

when i loaded "via" drivers it failed and i had to fall back to the 2d drivers here is my Xorg.0.log

here is the glxinfo

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI UniChrome 20060710 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2
0000:   f0000001  00000300  f0000006  00000001
0010:   f000000b  00000000  f000000c  00180200
0020:   f000000d  00180200  f000000e  80200020
0030:   f0000002  00000000  f0000003  00000000
0040:   f0000004  00000000  f0000000  f0002001
0050:   f000000b  00000000  f210f110  00010000
0060:   cccccccc  cccccccc  cccccccc  cccccccc
0070:   cccccccc  cccccccc  cccccccc  cccccccc
******************************************
fire_buffer: DRM_VIA_PCICMD returned -22

[dubb]

i have a 128mb radeon 500 video card. do you think i can avoid all this if i installed it?

[Hlingler]

Originally Posted by dubb

i have a 128mb radeon 500 video card. do you think i can avoid all this if i installed it?

Yes. That card would probably be better, good enough for C-F if you get 3D DRI running. You will need to install the xorg-x11-drv-radeonhd package from the standard Fedora repos for that card. I don't see it on my boxes, so it must not be included in the default driver suite. See here for detailed info: http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/ATIRadeon. On a quick read of that page, it is not entirely clear to me if 3D support in the 3D driver is included for that card.

You may need to manually configure xorg.conf if that card is not auto-detected on reboot. And/or run system-config-display (Admin=>Display on the menus). The 2D driver to specify in xorg.conf (if necessary) is: 'Driver "ati" '. This is a driver "wrapper" for all ATI cards, and should auto-probe and load the correct 3D driver and kernel modules (if supported). It does for my old mach64/Rage Pro, nothing further is needed except to enjoy.

You can also install package driconf to get a minimal GUI for DRI configuration (run driconf the first time as root user to generate default settings files, after that any user can set their own preferences). See the screnshot at bottom of linked page.

V

EDIT: From http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd:

7. Known Bugs & Limitations

The following subsystems have not been implemented yet or show some limitations:
No 3D acceleration so far. 2D acceleration is implemented for R5xx only upto now. No XVideo (needs 3D engine for scaling). Still, fullscreen video is working fluently for many users.

That is self-explanatory: no 3D/DRI, so no C-F.

[dubb]

well i cant even put the card in the pci slot with out jammin it in and that aint gonna happen i even dug up a few of my old pcs and those don't work either. i just have to stick with the onboard. 2d is mostly like the right setup. getting it to work properly is the issue. the only problem is having to see window trails. what else can i do? do you see anything interesting in the xorg.0.log? i looked through that log but im unsure what to look for but i do see some error reports like AIGLX.
does this mean that i dont need direct rendering?
thanks again and again.

[Hlingler]

I completely missed your Post #11 - never saw it until just now. What I see is good!!! It says:

direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI UniChrome 20060710 x86/MMX+/3DNow!+/SSE2

So, what's the problem? Is it the message "fire_buffer: DRM_VIA_PCICMD returned -22"?? What exactly do you mean when you say that when you 'loaded the "via" drivers it failed'??? It turns out that you didn't need to, they were automatically loaded (bonus!). Your Xorg.0.log shows (mostly) success!!!

drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: open result is -1, (No such device or address)
drmOpenDevice: Open failed
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID PCI:1:0:0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 8, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 8
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports pci:0000:01:00.0
(II) [drm] loaded kernel module for "via" driver.
(II) [drm] DRM interface version 1.3
(II) [drm] DRM open master succeeded.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Using the DRM lock SAREA also for drawables.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0xc0000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel
(II) CHROME(0): X context handle = 0x1
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] installed DRM signal handler
(II) CHROME(0): [dri] visual configs initialized.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] register handle = 0xdd000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0xc0000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] mmio Registers = 0xdd000000
(II) CHROME(0): [dri] mmio mapped.
(II) CHROME(0): - Visuals set up
(II) CHROME(0): VIAInternalScreenInit
(II) CHROME(0): - B & W
(II) CHROME(0): Using 2304 lines for offscreen memory.
(II) CHROME(0): Using XFree86 Acceleration Architecture (XAA)
[...]
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Detected AGP vendor 0x1106, device 0x04336
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Found AGP v3 compatible device. Trying AGP 8X mode.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Trying to enable AGP fast writes.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] drmAgpEnabled succeeded
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] agpAddr = 0xd0000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] agpBase = (nil)
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] agpAddr = 0xd0000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] agpSize = 0x02000000
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] agp physical addr = 0x00000000
(II) CHROME(0): [dri] use agp.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Using 54251488 bytes for DRM memory heap.
(II) CHROME(0): [dri] frame buffer initialized.
(II) CHROME(0): [DRI] installation complete
(II) CHROME(0): [dri] kernel data initialized.
(II) CHROME(0): [drm] Irq handler installed, using IRQ 24.
(II) CHROME(0): direct rendering enabled

I see no problem! You got what you wanted!! So install C-F and enjoy!!!

Seriously, though, what if anything is wrong? If you still get: "direct rendering: Yes" then all is well.

V

EDIT: You must have had the 2D video driver set to 'Driver "openchrome" ' in your xorg.conf:

(II) LoadModule: "openchrome"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//openchrome_drv.so
(II) Module via: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
	compiled for 1.3.0, module version = 0.2.901
	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 1.2

Xorg.0.log shows that the openchrome driver probed the chipset and identified it, then loaded the DRM and 3D driver:

(II) OPENCHROME: Driver for VIA Chrome chipsets: CLE266, KM400/KN400,
	K8M800/K8N800, PM800/PM880/CN400, P4M800Pro/VN800/CN700,
	K8M890/K8N890, P4M900/VN896/CN896, CX700/VX700, P4M890
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0
(--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
(--) Chipset K8M890/K8N890 found
(!!) VIA Technologies does not support or endorse this driver in any way.
(!!) For support, refer to http://www.openchrome.org/.
(!!) (openchrome 0.2.901 release)

You also have 24 bpp color depth and 64 MB video RAM, which just happens to be the minimum required for C-F:

(**) CHROME(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) CHROME(0): RGB weight 888
(==) CHROME(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(--) CHROME(0): Chipset: "K8M890/K8N890"
(--) CHROME(0): Chipset revision: 0
(--) CHROME(0): Probed amount of VideoRAM = 65536 kB
(II) CHROME(0): Setting up default chipset options...
(II) CHROME(0): VIASetupDefaultOptions
(II) CHROME(0): Starting to parse config file options...
(==) CHROME(0): ShadowFB is disabled.
(==) CHROME(0): Acceleration is enabled.