On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 01:49:21 +0200, Pierre Schmitz <pierre@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > Hi all, > > I am a proud user of an Intel 855GM chipset. Some time ago when the i810 > xorg dirver was replaced by the xf86-viedo-intel performance were > decreased from version to version and in the end it was unusable due to > too many bugs an problems. > > * support for tv-out was dropped (ok, not that important for me) > * xv does not work. You either get a green or blue square or your whole X > crashes. > * all kinds of false rendering > * extremly slow 2D performance. Even with UXA I can watch the single > elements redrwaing if I switch tabs in konqueror for example > * too slow to watch videos on youtube or even a DVD > * overall instability > * suspend/resume is just a matter of luck > > When I was just seeing garbage on my screen (=unusable) with the new > 2.6.29 kernel I started looking for alternatives: > > * xorg vesa driver: faster than intel and stable; bu still performance was > not that great (of course, there is no hw acceleration) > * vesafb+fbdev: similar performance; fast switching to vc and back is nice > :-) > > Finally I got intelfb working. Togehter with the xorg fbdev driver this > seems to solve all my problems. It is really fast and stable. > Suspend/Resume works fine and as a bonus I get fast vc switching (who > needs kms for this? ;) Well, there is no support for xv, but I can watch > DVDs with x11 output driver without issues. Using mplayer with fbdev > output it is even possible to watch 720p videos. > > The problem is: you have to compile your own kernel. The stock kernel > provides the intelfb module but you cannot use it because vesafb is > compiled in. I did not find a way to work around this. As soon as you > start the kernel with a vga=XXX parameter vesafb gets loaded and other fb > drivers cannot work. > > So, here is a patch and a precompiled kernel for those who want to try it: > http://users.archlinux.de/~pierre/packages/src/intelfb.patch > http://users.archlinux.de/~pierre/packages/i686/kernel26-intelfb-2.6.29-4- > i686.pkg.tar.gz > > It is also possible to build intelfb as a module; just add intel_agp and > intelfb to your modules list in mkinitcpio.conf. > > I hope this is helpful for some of you, > > Pierre Do you have any type of 3D rendering with the framebuffer X server? If so what do you get in glxgears (yes I realize this is not a benchmark tool)? pyther
