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<TITLE>Mesa fbdev/DRI Environment</TITLE>
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<center><H1>Mesa fbdev/DRI Drivers</H1></center>
<H1>1. Introduction</H1>
<p>
The fbdev/DRI sub-project within Mesa brings hardware accelerated OpenGL
rendering to the Linux fbdev environment.
The X Window System / XFree86 is not needed.
</p>
<p>
Basically, the <a href="http://dri.sf.net/">DRI</a> drivers for hardware
accelerated OpenGL for XFree86 have been ported to fbdev so that X is
not needed.
This means fbdev/DRI works in full-screen mode only.
</p>
<p>
DRI driver writers may find this simplified environment easier to work in,
compared to the full XFree86/DRI environment.
</p>
<p>
Much of the work for this project has been done by Jon Smirl and
Keith Whitwell.
</p>
<p>
To use fbdev/DRI, you'll need a Linux 2.4 or 2.6 kernel.
</p>
<p>
The fbdev/DRI Mesa code is in the Mesa CVS trunk (to be released as Mesa
5.1 in the future).
</p>
<h1>2. Compilation</h1>
<p>
Assuming you're starting with a fresh Mesa CVS checkout, do the following:
</p>
<pre>
cd Mesa-newtree
cp Makefile.X11 Makefile # or use a symlink
make linux-solo
</pre>
<p>
When this is finished, check the <code>Mesa-newtree/lib</code> directory
to verify that the following files were made:
</p>
<ul>
<li><code>libGL.so.1.2</code> - the client-side OpenGL library
(and a few symlinks to it).
<li><code>libGLU.so.1.1</code> - the GLU library (and a few symlinks to it).
<li><code>libglut.so.3.7</code> - the GLUT library (and a few symlinks to it).
<li><code>mga_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for Matrox G200/G400 cards.
<li><code>r128_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for ATI Rage 128 cards.
<li><code>r200_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for ATI R200 Radeon cards.
<li><code>radeon_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for original ATI Radeon cards.
<li><code>i810_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for Intel i810/i815 chips.
<li><code>i830_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for Intel i830/i845 chips.
<li><code>mga_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for Matrox G200/G400 cards.
<li><code>sis_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for SIS cards.
<li><code>tdfx_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for 3dfx Voodoo 3/4/5 cards.
<li><code>gamma_dri.so</code> - DRI driver for 3Dlabs gamma cards.
<li><code>fb_dri.so</code> - software-only fbdev driver.
<li><code>miniglx.conf</code> - configuration file for the MiniGLX interface
</ul>
<h1>3. Using fbdev/DRI</h1>
<p>
If XFree86 is currently running, exit/stop the X server so you're
working from the console.
</p>
<h2>3.1 Kernel Modules</h2>
<p>
You'll need to load kernel modules specific to your graphics hardware.
The following kernel modules should be included with your kernel.
</p>
<p>
If you have ATI Radeon/R200 hardware, run as root:
</p>
<pre>
modprobe agpgart # the AGP GART module
modprobe radeonfb # the Radeon fbdev driver
modprobe radeon # the Radeon DRI kernel module
</pre>
<p>
If you have ATI Rage 128 hardware, run as root:
</p>
<pre>
modprobe agpgart # the AGP GART module
modprobe aty128fb # the Rage 128 fbdev driver
modprobe r128 # the Rage 128 DRI kernel module
</pre>
<p>
If you have Matrox G200/G400 hardware, run as root:
</p>
<pre>
modprobe agpgart # the AGP GART module
modprobe mgafb # the Matrox fbdev driver
modprobe mga # the Matrox DRI kernel module
</pre>
<p>
Then run <code>lsmod</code> to be sure the modules are loaded.
For a Radeon card, you should see something like this:
</p>
<pre>
Module Size Used by Not tainted
radeon 110308 0 (unused)
radeonfb 21900 0 (unused)
agpgart 43072 1
</pre>
<p>
If the driver complains that the radeon/mga/etc/ kernel module is too
old, you'll have to compile/install a newer one from the DRI project.
</p>
<h2>3.2 Configuration File</h2>
<p>
The <code>Mesa-newtree/lib/miniglx.conf</code> file should be installed
in <code>/etc/</code>.
</p>
<p>
Edit <code>/etc/miniglx.conf</code> to be sure it's set up correctly
for your hardware.
Comments in the file explain the options.
</p>
<h2>3.3 Running fbdev/DRI Programs</h2>
<p>
Make sure your LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable is set to the
<code>Mesa-newtree/lib/</code> directory.
</p>
<p>
Change to the <code>Mesa-newtree/progs/miniglx/</code> directory and
start the sample_server program in the background:
</p>
<pre>
./sample_server &
</pre>
<p>
Then try running the <code>miniglxtest</code> program:
</p>
<pre>
./miniglxtest
</pre>
<p>
You should see a rotating quadrilateral which changes color as it rotates.
It will exit automatically after a bit.
</p>
<p>
If you run other tests in the miniglx/ directory, you may want to run
them from a remote shell so that you can stop them with ctrl-C.
</p>
<h1>4.0 Troubleshooting</h1>
<p>
If you try to run miniglxtest and get the following:
</p>
<pre>
[miniglx] failed to probe chipset
connect: Connection refused
server connection lost
</pre>
<p>
It means that the sample_server process is not running.
</p>
<h1>5.0 Programming Information</h1>
<p>
The full OpenGL API is available with fbdev/DRI.
</p>
<p>
OpenGL/Mesa is interfaced to fbdev via the <a href="MiniGLX.html">MiniGLX</a>
interface.
MiniGLX is a subset of Xlib and GLX API functions which provides just
enough functionality to setup OpenGL rendering and respond to simple
input events.
</p>
<p>
Since MiniGLX is a subset of the usual Xlib and GLX APIs, programs written
to the MiniGLX API can also be run on full Xlib/GLX implementations.
This allows some degree of flexibility for software development and testing.
</p>
<p>
However, the MiniGLX API is not binary-compatible with full Xlib/GLX.
Some of the structures are different and some macros/functions work
differently.
See the <code>GL/miniglx.h</code> header file for details.
</p>
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