xf86-video-intel PET

Forum member mavrothal asked about compiling accelerated drivers for Xorg, for Quirky 6.x.

Yes, it can be done, however the Xorg server (package xorg-server) needs to be recompiled with some extra feature, including libGL (mesa package) and xv. I described the steps awhile back:
http://bkhome.org/news/201312/quirky-seamonkey-2221.html

I did at the time, make that enhanced xorg-server into a PET. I tried that PET today, but found a bug in it, which I have fixed and re-uploaded. With that PET installed, and its _DEV companion, I was able to compile the Intel accelerated Xorg video driver, package xf86-video-intel, which I also made into a PET.

For those into compiling for our puplets, if you have done it for one of the puplets originally compiled in T2, you will know that the path /usr/X11R7 where the Xorg packages are installed, can cause difficulties.
Below I have shown how I compiled xf86-video-intel, version 2.21.10, with all of the precautions that I know of to set things up so that the 'configure' script is able to find everything in /usr/X11R7:

# XORG_PREFIX=/usr/X11R7

# export ACLOCAL_FLAGS="-I $XORG_PREFIX/share/aclocal"

# export C_INCLUDE_PATH="$XORG_PREFIX/include"

# export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH="$XORG_PREFIX/include"

# export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/X11R7/share/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"

# export CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/X11R7

# export LDFLAGS='-L/usr/X11R7/lib'

# export CFLAGS='-I/usr/X11R7/include'

# export CPPFLAGS='-I/usr/X11R7/include'



# ./configure --prefix=/usr/X11R7 --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var --build=i486-pc-linux-gnu --disable-udev

A further note to those compiling in Quirky6 and creating PETs: don't perform this upgrade of xorg-server, as anything that you compile in future might need one of the new things as a dependency, libGL for example. Unless you really want a package that must have libGL, then you can give "+zcombo_xorg_glsoft" as a dependency in 'pet.specs' file.

However, I compiled SeaMonkey 2.22.1 with the mesa package installed, as the configure claimed it needed libGL, though at runtime it doesn't. This is the same SeaMonkey you are using in Quirky 6.0.1, running quite happily without libGL.

The 'zcombo_xorg_glsoft' and 'z_xf86-video-intel' PETs are here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/quirky/quirky6/x86/packages/pet_packages-quirky6/

Interesting observation: I'm using the Intel driver right now, and can't say that I notice any speed difference compared with the unaccelerated 'modesetting' driver.
There might be an improvement playing videos, as with the Intel driver, MPlayer is able to use 'xv' mode of playback. But again, the few videos that I tested with the modesetting driver did not exhibit any stuttering. Maybe there would be a noticeable difference on older hardware.

Another point, for developers: my memory fails me a bit here, but I think xorg-server 1.12.x was the last version that supported 'xaa', and after that some of the video drivers no longer work, they have not yet been upgraded. Or something like that. Quirky6 is using xorg-server 1.14.3.

Tags: linux