OpenGL won't work on Intel 855
 

I have a laptop with an Intel 855 integrated graphics controller, and I'm using Mandrake 10.1. Mandrake autodetected the graphics card at installation and uses the i810 driver. The problem is that OpenGL doesn't work at all. glxinfo prints "name of display: :0.0" and then hangs. glxgears simply displays a black window as does any other OpenGL application.
I searched around and couldn't find anything useful.
I did however, find a post which describes exactly the same problem that I have. Looks like I'm not allowed to post the url as I have less than 5 posts, but it ends with "postid=1489185#post1489185". ;)
My xorg.conf looks exactly like the one ajelston posts there (I haven't edited it). He says running modprobe i810 solved the problem for him, but for me it has no effect.
Thoughts on this? Ajelston, if your would happen to read this, did you do anything else than running modprobe that might have fixed it?

One thought, did you uncomment the line that loads DRI? If you haven't, then give it a try.

Eric

The line was already uncommented, but I tried commenting it out. Now glxgears runs ok, but gives me only around 200 fps. Also "glxinfo |grep rendering" says "direct rendering: no" . So now I can run OpenGL programs, but everything is very slow.
How do I get hardware acceleration to work?

My xorg.conf looks like this now:
Section "Module"
Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "synaptics"
Load "glx" # 3D layer
#Load "dri" # direct rendering
Load "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a"
EndSection
...
Section "Device"
Identifier "device1"
VendorName "Intel Corp."
BoardName "Intel 85x"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection

What kernel version are you running?

Eric

2.6.8

Try "modprobe i915" and if that does not work try "modprobe i830" (I know that on kernels 2.6.10 and 11 with XOrg 6.8.1 you need the i915 DRI driver to function properly, but I am not sure about 2.6.8). That, unfortunately, is the end of the help that I am able to give here. I am out of ideas. I do know that the i855 chipset is supported for 3D accel under linux, but the only problems that I have ever had with it have been with DRI.

Eric

Yay, it works! :D I'm not sure if it was the modprobing, though, that didn't seem to have any effect. I was playing around a little more with harddrake and after I thought I had reset everything to its original state, somehow hardware accel was enabled. I can't see anything in my xorg.conf file that has changed:confused:
Anyway, thanks a lot for your help, Eric.

[EDIT]I just noticed that harware acceleration only works for root. If I try to run an OpenGL program when I'm not root it either gives me a segmentation fault or reverts to software rendering. Why could this be?