Hardware acceleration with Intel 855GME, Kernel 2.6
 

Hi

I'm trying to get hw graphics acceleration on my i855GME-based Dell laptop.
The DRI driver provided by Intel says it's designed only for 2.4 kernels. I have 2.6.4 and don't want to go back. Am I stuck ?

Has anyone managed to get things to work with a 2.6 kernel ?

thanks for your help,
Ben

Ok, it's been a while since I used a system with an Intel video chip, so this may or may not work.

Ok, first off, you need to make sure that you compile the various components as modules, aside from the Direct Rendering Manager option, which is only on or off.

Device Drivers -> Character Devices -> /dev/agpgart (AGP Support)
Device Drivers -> Character Devices -> Intel 440LX/BX/GX, I8xx and E7x05 chipset support
Device Drivers -> Character Devices -> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) [Enable this]
Device Drivers -> Character Devices -> Intel 830M, 845G, 852GM, 855GM, 865G

Do the little kernel install and modules install song and dance. Now, once you're rebooted and all ready to go, you need to insert the modules, and I seem to remember this getting problematic here. The order is very particular. Insert the agpgart module, the intel-agp module, and the video module (sorry, the name escapes me, I believe it's called i830.ko).

If memory serves, the X driver is called i810, so make sure you update that if it needs it, and make sure you have the DRI section inserted in your X config.

Hope this helps you out. If it doesn't work, try experimenting with inserting the modules. I know that damn thing was finicky when I had to work with it. Make sure you remove the modules from the kernel if you need to play with it again.

thank you, but I have done this, except for playing with the insertion order ....
anyway the driver is not 2.6-ready so this seems hopeless...

This driver worked for me under 2.6, but then I re-installed everything (i.e. linux itself) and now I'm stuck again, but I'm trying hard to get it back to work.


I tested this Hardware acceleration stuff with tuxracer, and it worked just fine. If I figured out how I did it before, I'll let you know.

anyway, it seems this post is 9 months old... so nevermind.