Hey
I've got Debian ( R 3.1 rel 0a => kernel 2.4.27-2-686 ) on a 2.4 celeron 512 mb ram intel D845GVSR ( 845 chips famaly set thingy ).

I've set things up so (rather after fideling with stuff it ended up ) that using 'startx' I get kde, but using xinit I get X with a console window .... perfect for game performance ( no hungry desktop taking up resources )

Anyhow ... I also used the DRI that intel hands out, and make install 100%
everything seems ok.

Here is the problem. Unreal 2004 looks better running on Windows 2000 pro ( please dont flame me !! ) than on my setup !! Using stats FPS I can see that there is not that much difrance between the two, but somehow it just looks better in windows.

I know intel put more effort into the windows drivers, so that does seem to have made a difrance.

I have set up a "games" run level ( a few pointers on doing this better would be welcome ! ) and now I turn my thoughts to the kernel :

The question
Will messing with/installing a difrent/patching/bribeing the kernel help ?
What kind of kernel would be the best to use for a game like UT2004 ?

Other pointers on squeezing the last drop out ?

Thanks

Well, it seems that since your complaint has to do with looks, it would help to know what your video card is and what drivers you're using for it.

To see your video card:
To see what modules (drivers) are loaded:
As far as your question about the kernel thing, it would help to upgrade the kernel. But this advice could be said about anything. You have a 2.4.x kernel and as far as I understand 2.6.x kernels were designed to (and actually do) perform better with graphics than the 2.4.x does.

Definately upgrade the kernel if you have the skills. Under Debian, there is an easy way to create a "debian kernel package" and then install that package and you've installed the new kernel. You'll need to
to do it.
Here is the general procedure for doing this in Debian. Here is a little bit on migrating from 2.4 to 2.6 in debian. And here is documentation on just migrating to 2.6 the olde-fashion way (non-debian).


-- the duDemAn

Have the skills ? Dude .. dselect and whamo ... it took me all of 60 seconds to install and boot into 2.6.8-2-686

so these dumps are while running under 2.6.8-blabla so I think the lsmod should look difrent now than under 2.4 ... want me to boot into 2.4 and dump that to ?

lspci :
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 81)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) LPC Bridge (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL (ICH4/ICH4-L) UltraATA-100 IDE Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82801BD PRO/100 VE (LOM) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)

lsmod under 2.6
Module Size Used by
af_packet 22568 2
parport_pc 36900 0
parport 41800 1 parport_pc
floppy 61200 0
pcspkr 3592 0
rtc 12760 0
uhci_hcd 33136 0
ohci_hcd 21764 0
ehci_hcd 32004 0
usbcore 119012 3 uhci_hcd,ohci_hcd,ehci_hcd
snd_intel8x0 36460 0
snd_ac97_codec 69988 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_pcm 98728 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_timer 25732 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 11752 2 snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
gameport 4704 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_mpu401_uart 7968 1 snd_intel8x0
snd_rawmidi 25124 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 8200 1 snd_rawmidi
snd 57156 7 snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
shpchp 101900 0
pciehp 99020 0
pci_hotplug 34640 2 shpchp,pciehp
intel_agp 22816 1
agpgart 34664 1 intel_agp
i810_audio 37588 0
ac97_codec 18956 1 i810_audio
soundcore 10336 2 snd,i810_audio
e100 32608 0
mii 5120 1 e100
tsdev 7392 0
mousedev 10476 0
evdev 9600 0
capability 4520 0
commoncap 7232 1 capability
psmouse 20360 0
ide_cd 42656 0
cdrom 40732 1 ide_cd
ext3 127240 2
jbd 62616 1 ext3
mbcache 9348 1 ext3
ide_generic 1408 0
piix 13440 1
ide_disk 19296 7
ide_core 139940 4 ide_cd,ide_generic,piix,ide_disk
sd_mod 21728 0
ata_piix 8132 0
libata 41700 1 ata_piix
scsi_mod 125228 2 sd_mod,libata
unix 28756 10
font 8320 0
vesafb 6656 0
cfbcopyarea 3872 1 vesafb
cfbimgblt 3040 1 vesafb
cfbfillrect 3776 1 vesafb


Is there a patched kernel that beats the stock at games <- look at the stupid question momy

how where what should I get ?

I really wouldn't know about "the best kernel for gaming". If you ask anybody you'll simply get their opinion about what worked best for them.

Here's intel's support page for your graphics card. And here's a whole section on intel graphic cards on Linux. But I don't know if I could help much beyond that as I've used NVidia, who is known for supporting Linux better than any other GC manufacturer.

Maybe you should post to these guys.

-- the dUdeMan
dave

An opinion would be welcome if it's the best I can get.
I know the support page for my card, and I've seen the section on intel linux blabla.... how you think I got everything installed ? I worked through those pages.

Your links titeled "these guys" ... no good, please check it 4 me.

The link for "these guys" is: http://www.linux-gamers.net/

-- the dudemaANdaVE