How do I check whether DRI is working correctly on my comp?

Try:

Is there some other package that should be installed for the i810 drivers to work?

I've seen a lot of mentions of MESA. Maybe I'm just missing a package or module?

Then its working if I just build it into the kernel and not as modules.. I just tried it in 2.6.19.2.

it is a different matter that my NIC is no longer working.

Yes, fellow threadites. I've been forced to use Windows on a daily basis. (Gasp! No?! Why!?)

Well, my 5 year old laptop, a Gateway 1450LS finally bit the big one. The power distribution chip on the mobo emitted the "mysterious blue smoke", and now my laptop won't boot.

A moment of silence. OK. Long enough.

As a result, my company provided a new, in the box Dell Inspiron 2200, with XP on it, and in no uncertain terms, it is to stay on it...So, here I am with a new laptop with XP.

Since I'm on the road for 4-6 weeks at a time, my time will unfortunately be spent on XP, even tho my servers at home still tick along happily on Slackware. But my laptop is my day-to-day workhorse. So Linux, for now, has to take a back burner....sigh

I'll still try to keep up with what is going on, and answer posts as I can, but not with the knowledge of"Let me look on my notebook, and I'll see".

Yes, the Dark Side has won, for now.

Why not use a live CD ?

'Cuz it ain't Slackware

Well then you can make your own if you want, live CD of slackware personalized by you and then made into a live CD (basically just a set of scripts to do it automatically ... slax uses this):

http://www.linux-live.org/

I was thinking of doing this at one point. Haven't gotten around to it yet tho.

Well, Id have to install Slackwarre on the lappy then do it, and can't.

Plus, Id need time I dont have.

So, for a little bit, I'm stuck

Time to look into one of the many virtual machine solutions then - QEMU for Windows, or VirtualBox, or VMware to name but a few - and install Slackware into the Virtual Machine... will be fun!

Eric

Thanks to you, my pet fish, I got XP installed on one of my Slack boxes at home...

Now to convince this lappy to do the same (forgot qemu...lol)

I have followed every tutorial on dri with the on-board intel 915 chip, and I am still getting the following error in my Xorg.0.log:

(EE) AIGLX error: Calling driver entry point failed(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

I have searched everywhere, and I cannont seem to figure out what the problem is.

I am using kernel 2.6.19.2 with Slackware 11, and as I already mentioned, I have followed every instruction that I have found, and I am still not getting direct rendering to function. I am running out of ideas...

CW: In your original post, you noted that some ATI and all Nvidia cards need their own drivers. I have an ATI card that I did not have to use vendor drivers to get DRI to work. I found the card in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/html/radeon.4.html.

from lspci output:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 SE] (rev 01)

This card is in a system that's a few years old, AGP based.

Review this info, and if you think it's correct, please add it to your original post... That cards listed in that file *shouldn't* need to download ATI drivers.

As I said, some ATI do require oem drivers, some don't.

BTW, new laptop here w/Intel 945 graphics, works perfect with the xorg I made for the i830m chip(i810 driver)

Right, I know. But I'm just saying that I believe the file I mentioned answers the question "exactly which cards don't?"

I mean, simply saying some cards require and some don't is kind of vague. I'm sure someone's got to have scratched their head and wondered "so which ones do and which ones don't???" I did.