I am trying to reduce my dependency upon the video card drivers that the manufacturer provides and get 3D OpenGL support working otherwise. (Mainly because my video card manufacturer seems to be halting support for Linux).

If I use the module that is provided with Mandrake 9.2 I dont have any 3D support. If I use the drivers that the manufacturer makes, I get awesome 3D support, but there are little bugs that lock up the display like playing videos in Totem, or logging out of X. When I log out, the screen goes blank and my monitor goes into standby.

I was reading some about using DRI, which is what I think the module is that comes with Mandrake. I tried the instructions here: http://dri.sourceforge.net/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/Building but didnt seem to get anywhere. I was thinking that I might already have that installed courtesy of Mandrake.

I tried running glx-info, and here is the output I get:

name of display: :0.0
Loading required GL library /usr/X11R6/lib/libGL.so.1.2
Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0".
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.2
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.3 Mesa 4.0.4
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_blend_color,
GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_texture_env_add,
GL_EXT_texture_env_combine, GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x22 16 tc 1 16 0 r y . 5 6 5 0 0 16 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 None
0x23 16 tc 1 16 0 r y . 5 6 5 0 0 16 8 16 16 16 0 0 0 None
0x24 16 tc 1 16 0 r y . 5 6 5 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None
0x25 16 tc 1 16 0 r . . 5 6 5 8 0 16 8 16 16 16 16 0 0 None


I dont understand any of that, but this line:
extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display
indicates to me that something is missing. I tried feeding that to google, and I found some walkthroughs about linking libGL.so, which seems to already be done.

Did you make sure that DRI is enabled in XF86Config?
Noah

Ya, but then I was doing some more reading and found that I need a module "DRM" (Direct Redering Manager) to use DRI. When I tried to install that, it said I needed ATI. After further searching, it looks to me like DRI is only for a handful of cards. Does that sound right? The card I have is a PowerVR Kyro.

Try logging in as root, and doing everything from there. i.e. "glxinfo", "glxgears".
Noah

Ok, now I have the manufacturer's driver built for my kernel and direct rendering works as root, but not as a normal user. The fix I found for that is supposed to be to go into xf86config and enter the DRI section with mode 0666, but that doesnt seem to make a difference.