Contributed by johan on from the can-haz-X11-support dept.
Marc Balmer (mbalmer@) writes about his endeavors into amd-geode graphics that has given us support for the amd-geode-lx gpu in X11.
Marc writes:Marc continues below...Earlier this week I reported that X runs on AMD Geode LX graphics processors using the 'vesa' driver. Well, there is some good news: The accelerated 'geode' driver now works as well and X runs quite a bit faster with it.
Thanks Marc for taking your time and telling us about this.The accelerated X driver requires access to so-called model specific registers (MSR) found in AMD CPUs. Since these are available in kernel mode only, I first had to write the amdmsr(4) driver which allows a userland process running as root to read or write MSR registers. For security reasons, this is only allowed when 'allowaperture' is set.
For more information on the driver, look at /usr/xenocara/driver/xf86-video-geode/README.
Be aware that the driver still has some rough edges, especially mode selection seems not to work in all cases as desired. In that case, please use the vesa driver instead.
(Comments are closed)
By Marc Balmer (142.244.224.90) on
By Jim Razmus II (jim) jtr2-undeadly@bonetruck.org on http://www.bonetruck.org/
As an alternative, I've also considered picking up an older mac mini (the macppc flavor) for the same purpose.
Anyone run an Alix in a similar setup?
Thanks,
Jim
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By Anonymous Coward (198.175.14.193) on
> Anyone run an Alix in a similar setup?
>
Considering how it's only been possible for the past few days, probably not. You could be the first to tell us how great it is.
By sthen (2a01:348:108:100:20a:5eff:fe1a:a300) on
>
> As an alternative, I've also considered picking up an older mac mini (the macppc flavor) for the same purpose.
>
> Anyone run an Alix in a similar setup?
Marc was using an Alix to develop this. They'll use a lot less power than a Mac Mini but of course performance will be lower.
If someone has an OLPC laptop it would be interesting to know if it works there too. They also use the built-in Geode video (but have no VESA bios).
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By Miod Vallat (miod) on
Do OLPC laptops actually work besides for raising venture capital with false promises of them helping children?
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By sthen (2a01:348:108:155:216:41ff:fe53:6a45) on
>
> Do OLPC laptops actually work besides for raising venture capital with false promises of them helping children?
Looks like the one on http://radian.org/notebook/sic-transit-gloria-laptopi is doing _something_. They're pretty limited though.
By Marc Balmer (62.12.170.133) on
Even a locally installed firefox browser works nice. Of course you can not expect the performance of a highend graphics workstation...
I used it in 1280x1024x16 and 1280x1024x24 mode with an IBM T70 TFT display.
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By Jim Razmus II (jim) on http://www.bonetruck.org/
>
> Even a locally installed firefox browser works nice. Of course you can not expect the performance of a highend graphics workstation...
>
> I used it in 1280x1024x16 and 1280x1024x24 mode with an IBM T70 TFT display.
Thanks Mark! That's exactly what I wanted to hear and precisely the usage scenario I intended. I had held off buying one when I saw amdmsr pulled out by Theo. I'm getting out my credit card now that it's back in again.
BTW, did you run it off compact flash?
Jim
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By Anonymous Coward (62.12.170.133) on
Of course mounting stuff over NFS works nice as well.
By Matthew Dempsky (2001:470:805a:1:21b:63ff:feca:36df) on
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By Anonymous Coward (62.12.170.133) on
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By Matthew Dempsky (2001:470:805a:1:21b:63ff:feca:36df) on
The problem is just that the CPU can't decode the 848x480 h264 video I had for testing fast enough. Even using the null video and audio output drivers, mplayer can't decode it in real-time.
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By Anonymous Coward (2001:4060:c0de:a000:21e:c9ff:fe2f:8fed) on
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By Matthew Dempsky (98.210.157.213) on