Arch Linux

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

So I just upgraded to xorg-server 1.6 and got the new Intel drivers. Now how do I configure X to actually use the drivers and not Mesa?

This is my current xorg.conf.  I know it's slim and all, and that's because I have no idea about these things...

Section "Files"
#    RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
#    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/local"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "DontZap" "false"
EndSection

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

FWIW, I added the following to the end of xorg.conf, which gives me about 250 fps in glxgears (yeah, yeah, not a benchmark)...

Section "Device"
    Identifier "name"
    Driver     "intel"
EndSection

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

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

Now, glxgears -info tells me the following:

GL_RENDERER   = Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM GEM 20090326 2009Q1 RC2 x86/MMX/SSE2

Is that normal? Also, can I get more juice out of my graphics card by tweaking xorg.conf further?

oew

Member

From: Norway

Registered: 2006-11-08

Posts: 105

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

Take a look at: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Intel_Graphics
It explains configuration and tweaking.

---

there's no place like ~/

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,329

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

You don't have to add anything. X will automatically use the best it can with your original xorg.conf. Look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

I tried using X without any xorg.conf and then it would just default to Mesa, with ~75 fps in glxgears.

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

I just thought of something... Don't I have to add something to the MODULES array in rc.conf to make it load the Intel driver?

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,329

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

GL_RENDERER   = Mesa DRI Intel(R) 965GM GEM 20090326 2009Q1 RC2 x86/MMX/SSE2

I just noticed this - I have the same, and glxgears run normally (on window covering 1/4 of my screen I get 510fps). And I don't have anything intel related in MODULES array in rc.conf. Have a real good look at your /var/log/Xorg.0.log - any warnings? Does it select EXA/UXA?

I have the same card (965GM), here's my xorg.conf:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier    "Xorg Configured"
    Option        "DontZap" "false"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "OnboardIntel"
    Driver        "intel"
    Option        "Legacy3D" "false"
EndSection

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

Found no matches on "xaa", nor on "uxa", but on "exa":

(II) Loading sub module "exa"
(II) LoadModule: "exa"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libexa.so
(II) Module exa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
        compiled for 1.6.0, module version = 2.4.0
        ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 5.0

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,329

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

I have KMS enabled, that allows to select UXA over EXA. Here's how: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69083

skorpan

Member

Registered: 2007-11-09

Posts: 81

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

I'll try that, thanks.

sctincman

Member

From: CO (USA)

Registered: 2009-04-08

Posts: 85

Re: Got new xorg and new Intel drivers. Then what?

I think there's a little confusion, AFAIK, Mesa is just the implementation of the OpenGL API, which still uses DRI(2) and the X drivers as a backend to do accelerated rendering. You're GL_RENDER string looks fine to me.

As far as kernel module loading, I think that's just for KMS (which most people have been reporting to have decreased performance)

People have said using xf86-video-intel-legacy (the older drivers) gets increased performance, you could always try using that and see how it works out. Check out this thread http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 94#p534494 for some more info. There's a few other threads scattered around from people trying to tweak there settings for the intel cards too.

I don't do much 3d computing, but using the new KMS intel drivers (4500GM) and letting X hotplug my settings worked out well for me, compositiong in xfce was decent and glxgears ran ~500 fps