GMA500/Poulsbo - Apparently someone got it working?
 

Hi everyone,
I just installed Slackware 14 on an Asus EEE X101CH, and as many people out there I'm struggling with the GMA500 aka Poulsbo video card. I compiled the 3.6.2 kernel, installed the gma500_gfx.ko module, and set the modesetting driver for X. This way I was able to get the 1024x600 resolution; however, the "-vo xv" option doesn't work with mplayer, and have to use "-vo x11". Also, there's this VAAPI library for hardware acceleration (or something like that; I don't really know a lot about video hardware/software), that I can't use at this stage.
I read that Linux drivers are not going to be developed/distributed, but I also found these two web pages: http://linux-tipps.blogspot.it/2009/...-msi-wind.html and http://gma500.wiki-site.com/index.ph...e#Linux_Driver , where some kernel and X drivers are being used by people to enable all that cool stuff. However, those topics are Ubuntu-targeted, so I couldn't try them.
Is there any way that something like that could work on Slackware?

Thanks!

Those are pretty old links. Alan Cox has been developing the in-kernel replacement - currently gma500_gfx as you found. Still under development, but should work o.k. for 2D - I tried it on a notebook using Bohdi (on a custom built kernel).

Didn't use mplayer though ...

Thanks :)

Yeah I did manage to get the gma500_gfx module working, but I was wondering about the X11 driver. I'm currently using "modesetting" ("vesa" tells me it won't use a card bound by the kernel, or something like that), and those links made me think the there's actually something more suitable for this card, like that "psb" driver?

Nope, psb (and/or poulsbo) is old, and deprecated. That means no more support.
You are using the correct driver - looks like xv just isn't there. Have a read of this Archlinux article - much more current and useful.

This is crappy hardware, be thankful we have any decent driver at all.

:D Ok, thanks for your help!