Arch Linux

eckeroo

Member

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 8

How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

'lo all,

I'm trying out Arch Linux and this my first post on this forum. Here is my solution for a hardware configuration issue. This was also posted on the Ubuntu forums.

Regards

Satellite Pro 4280 laptops come with a S3 Savage IX/MV graphics card with 8MB onboard ram - not enough for 24 bit 3D acceleration. These use the xf86-video-savage driver. To enable 3D acceleration, you need to reduce the colour depth to 16 bit but the X auto configuration defaults to 24 bit.

To get round this I created a Xorg.conf using the command 'Xorg -configure' and then 'cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf' (following the Arch Linux beginners guide).

After hours of google searches and repeated attempts to modify the Xorg.conf to set the colour depth to 16, I finally stumbled upon the required modification:

Section "Screen"
             Identifier "Screen0"
             Device     "Card0"
             Monitor    "Monitor0"
             DefaultColorDepth 16
             SubSection "Display"
     ****rest of Xorg.conf******

Adding DefaultColorDepth 16 at that point in the Xorg.conf worked. Ran X and no errors occured in the /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the DRI [3D acceleration] was enabled.

Those xorg.conf files are a nightmare: I don't understand how X can have varying xorg.conf layouts/instructions/commands between graphics cards. It was by trial and error I got this to work.

I've yet to actually test out the 3D acceleration as I'm still installing programs to my Arch Linux. I'll probably try out a screen saver that uses openGL.

ss2

Member

Registered: 2007-10-05

Posts: 83

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

Yes, xorg.conf is a nightmare. But once manually edited and carefully followed the xorg.conf manpage, you will never need to configure it anymore. :-)

You can try out the acceleration with glxgears and find out some info of your running X session with glxinfo.
glxgears should run with some sufficient frame rate. Mine manages somewhat 250 frames. The card has 16 MB and I can not remember for which mode that figure counts.

glxinfo will show if rendering is enabled with:

glxinfo | grep render

Both tools can be found in the mesa packet.

This could be an off-topic question: Have you maybe tried to set up that card with the new xorg-server in testing? Some note that xf86-video-savage could be broken, and is what I still need to test...

Simon

Edit: My 42nd post.

Last edited by ss2 (2010-05-24 13:49:59)

eckeroo

Member

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

After running glxgears, the results are:

-----------------------------
with 16 defaultcolordepth

glxgears frame rate = approx 41-42fps

direct rendering :yes

-----------------------------
with 24 defaultcolordepth

glxgears frame rate = approx 36-37fps

direct rendering: yes (in contradiction with the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file, which says that DRI isn't enabled due to insufficient graphic card memory)

There's a slight improvement in the 16 colour depth over the 24 colour depth on glxgears. I've also installed xscreensaver and the 3D animations ran slowly on both settings, so much so there's not much difference between them.

I don't know if 3D acceleration is on for the 24 colourdepth setting, glxgears did work and glxinfo showed that direct rendering was enabled. Whereas the /var/log/Xorg.0.log showed that DRI wasn't enabled. I don't have an explanation for this.

Last edited by eckeroo (2010-05-29 10:02:54)

ss2

Member

Registered: 2007-10-05

Posts: 83

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

What about pasting your configuration? There could be something missing in it.

Long time ago I created a page in the wiki documenting some settings for the hardware of my laptop. I pasted the configuration for the graphics card too. Maybe that will help you further: [wiki]IBM_ThinkPad_T23[/wiki]

Simon

eckeroo

Member

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

update: I've now removed the entire xorg.conf that was posted here. See the following post for a link to my latest current xorg.conf

I copied some of the settings from the xorg.conf used on the IBM_ThinkPad_T23

Last edited by eckeroo (2010-05-29 20:45:14)

eckeroo

Member

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

I can now get a good 400fps if I run glxgears as root.

For my attempt to get 3D acceleration to work for users, I ammended the xorg.conf to include Section "DRI" and Group "video" [see the xorg.conf link below]. I included video to the user's group but the glxgears fps remained at 40fps. [*update* after a restart or something, it finally decided to give 400fps as user! , the configuration files below remain unchanged]

Hardware:            Toshiba Satellite Pro 4280
Graphics card:     S3 Savage IX-MV
Driver:                  xf86-video-savage

The relevent files:

~/.xinitrc

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/219720/

/etc/X11/xorg.conf

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/219721/

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/219723/

/var/log/Xorg.0.log.old

http://paste.pocoo.org/show/219725/

There are some error messages not found in the above logs that are posted on the screen when I quit openbox:

error setting MTRR (base = 0xf0000000, size = 0x00800000, type = 1) Inappropriate ioctl for device (25)

ERROR: xdg-autostart requires PyXDG to be installed

Last edited by eckeroo (2010-05-31 14:38:51)

ss2

Member

Registered: 2007-10-05

Posts: 83

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

If you can get that rate with root then it means that you simply don't have the right to use the video interface with your normal account. Is your account in the group video?

eckeroo

Member

Registered: 2010-05-23

Posts: 8

Re: How to: enable 3D acceleration for Savage IX/MV graphic cards

3D acceleration now works for users.

This thread shows how to get 3D acceleration on a 8MB Savage IX-MV graphics card using a xorg.conf file. The errors that are posted after quiting openbox are another matter.