VIA Unichrome for Puppy 3?

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer video hardware
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tempestuous
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Joined: Fri 10 Jun 2005, 05:12
Location: Australia

#21 Post by tempestuous »

dinky wrote:For what it's worth, I think you should compile. I've hunted around abit, and found in the xubuntu forums evidence that this works
If you compile the latest OpenChrome Xorg driver, yes, of course it's likely that this driver will work better than the standard via Xorg driver.
This has already been tried and tested successfully with a VIA Unichrome CLE266 chipset in earlier versions of Puppy
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=5701

The issue is not whether it will work, the issue is how much work is involved in the compilation process.
There is a kernel module involved, so full kernel sources must be installed.
And the Xorg and OpenGL components require full Xorg source code to be installed and compiled. When I last checked, this was at least 500MB worth of files.

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dinky
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#22 Post by dinky »

And the Xorg and OpenGL components require full Xorg source code to be installed and compiled. When I last checked, this was at least 500MB worth of files.
Good to know. I agree it's alot of work. My idea of buying one of these boxes involves doing this, and if I'm successful I'll see if there's some easier way to package this for people. That's alot of space needed! Lol. Is it possible to compile this, then remove these files? Also, what would be involved with compiling this, and creating a package for easy puppy installation? This won't help anyone right now, but perhaps in the future. Ta.

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dinky
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#23 Post by dinky »

Just read your thread tempestorous, and am really impressed. Thank you for all the phenomenal work you've done on this. I am aware that there will likley be alot of work compiling the unichrome drivers, and that I may not be able to do it, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to try. If I am successful, is it likely that Compiz-Fusion will be able to run? I am looking at purchasing either the ebox 4300, with a 500 Mhz processor and either 512 Mb or 1 Gb of Ram, or one of the later ebox 4800 models with a 1.2Ghz processor and either 512Mb or 1Gb of ram. (been in touch with DMP sales rep, and the 1Gb Ram versions are on the way, he thought by June).

Currently I spend alot of time multitaskting with office documents, video and sound playback on my 3Ghz (with hyperthreading) 512 Mb beast, which up till now has run Mandriva Linux. I've been slowly switching to puppy as it's faster and more stable than kde (am using xfce), and amongst other things I love it's small size. I like the idea of the smaller ebox 4300 system which can vesa mount onto my monitor, but am unsure if it will be powerful enough with puppy to meet my needs. Are you able to provide any thoughts on this for me? Thanks.

nosignal
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Joined: Mon 07 Apr 2008, 14:07

#24 Post by nosignal »

I'll summarise two links posted by tempestuous about 6 posts up:
tempestuous wrote:Here is kirk's (large) Xorg7.3 DRI package -
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 505#164505
Dated: Jan 02, 2008.
"I made a pet package of the Xorg stuff missing from dingo alpha3 using the Xorg I compiled and it works."
You have to manually copy some driver files around manually and run some bash commands.
There were issues with DRI being disabled by default in alpha 3, so kirk suggests this has been fixed (not sure how).
Also some help if you want to compile Xorg related stuff.
tempestuous wrote:and here is the announcement about Barry's revised Xorg7.3
http://puppylinux.com/news/news400a5-400a7.htm
scroll down to "DRI enabled in Dingo"
Dated: February 20th, 2008.
In dingo Alpha 7, Barry compiled Xorg with DRI enabled.
He then "updated the ‘xorg_base-7.3′ PET package with the recompiled files and renamed it to ‘xorg_base-7.3-1′" BUT I can't find that new file anywhere.
He then "created a new package, ‘xorg_xorg_dri-7.3′ which (hopefully) has just enough extra files to add DRI and GL support." But it is untested.
"Kirk has previously created a package, ‘xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3′ which adds DRI and GL but it also adds everything else."
Also some help if you want to compile Xorg related stuff.

So it seems that after kirk made the pet mentioned on Jan 02, 2008, he made "xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3.pet" which was uploaded on 30/01/2008.
Therefore I assume it is better to use the later one. Hopefully this also removes the need to manually copy some driver files around manually and run some bash commands (but who know?).

It also suggests that OpenGL does not need to be installed separately - that there are enough files in "xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3.pet". OR maybe it just means it lays the foundation, but you still need to install OpenGL. Again unsure.

nosignal
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#25 Post by nosignal »

In the official repository for Puppy 4 pets at ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributio ... ackages-4/ there is a bewildering array of xorg pets. I have listed them all and summarised their relevance as best I can:

xorg_base-7.3.pet PET File 1,679 KB 25/12/2007 03:35:00 p.m.
- was compiled with DRI disabled, which causes a problem when we want to add a DRI PET package later.
- updated the ‘xorg_base-7.3' PET package with the recompiled files and renamed it to ‘xorg_base-7.3-1'.
- xorg_base-7.3-1.pet - NOT here!
- I then created a new package, ‘xorg_xorg_dri-7.3' which (hopefully) has just enough extra files to add DRI and GL support.
- xorg_xorg_dri-7.3 - NOT here!
xorg_xfbdev-7.3.pet PET File 540 KB 25/12/2007 03:35:00 p.m.
- What is this???
xorg_xorg_base-7.3.pet PET File 1,405 KB 25/12/2007 03:35:00 p.m.
- Unclear if this is the version compiled with DRI enabled or disabled.
- Is this necessary if you install "xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3.pet"?
xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3.pet PET File 19,901 KB 30/01/2008 02:26:00 a.m.
- Kirk created this, which adds DRI and GL but it also adds everything else, the full Xorg package, and is about 54MB uncompressed.
xorg_xorg_full_dri_DEV-7.3.pet PET File 1,891 KB 30/01/2008 02:27:00 a.m.
- Kirk created this, provide all the extra include/pkgconfig/la/a files needed to compile against the extra libraries provided in xorg_xorg_full_dri-7.3 (and xorg_xorg_dri-7.3). The ‘devx’ file just has the basic files for compiling against the xorg_xorg_base-7.3 package (which suits most applications).
xorg_xorg_servers-7.3.pet PET File 1,111 KB 12/01/2008 10:30:00 a.m.
- What is this???
xorg_xvesa-7.3.pet PET File 548 KB 25/12/2007 03:36:00 p.m.
- Presumably old vesa drivers for X11 - slow and no hardware acceleration.

Also, I don't see any pets for OpenGL, so I am unsure of this means the OpenGL files are included in the larger xorg pets, or if you are supposed to use the OpenGL pet for Puppy3. Can you use Puppy3 pets in Puppy 4?

efge
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Joined: Fri 02 May 2008, 19:52

Compilation hell

#26 Post by efge »

Hi !

I am trying to have dri enabled on puppy 3.01/ Microclient SR.
Previous posts convinced me that the proper way was to compile openchrome and the full list of required modules/libs and so on.

Here is the story:

Compilation of via driver was ok.
I set xorg.conf device driver to openchrome and, yes, after reboot openchrome driver was loaded (grep rendering /var/log/Xorg.0.log)

Following the logical way tempestuous told in this post i then compiled drm modules.
That was fine and i got via.ko and drm.ko that i put in /lib/modules/2.6.21.7/kernel/drivers/char/drm/

Then i tried to compile libdrm. No particular problem there.

And then i attacked mesa...and everything got in a hell of a mess :shock:
Missing xorg modules [fixed], libs in wrong directories /usr/lib/ instead of /usr/X11R7/lib [fixed]...and finally DamageProto [required by Xdamage] was too old.

Uuuh.
Needed to take for a breath.

Before diving again in this big manure heap i decided to try a very silly solution and installed the dri and opengl 7.2 pet packages.
Reboot:
#dmesg|grep drm
[drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810
[drm] Initialized via 2.11.1 20070202 on minor 0
[drm:via_initialize] *ERROR* called with no agp memory available

Tried to specify VideoRam 65536 in xorg.conf but it did not solve the issue.

Of course i guess mesa and dri modules should fit the openchrome stuff, but i am a bit disapointed and would like to have some guidings from the puppet masters :?

Help please ? Did i follow the good way ?

EDIT:
Finally i manage to compile via drivers & drm modules.
I use standard pet packages for DRI & OpenGL.
Amazingly it seems to work...

efge
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri 02 May 2008, 19:52

Via openchrome drivers for Puppy 3

#27 Post by efge »

Finally, after much tedious work, i manage to compile the latest openchrome via drivers on my Microclient - eBox 4300.

It works perfectly on Puppy 3.01 with the standard packages:
xorg_DRI_MODULES-7.2.pet
xorg_OPENGL-7.2.pet

You juste have to set "openchrome" in the "device" section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Enjoy !
8)

[thanks tempestuous for marking the way out]

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dinky
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#28 Post by dinky »

Wow, thanks for all that work, hopefully others will be able to have an easier time now. Did you ever get Compiz-Fusion working? Would love to hear if it's possible.
~dinky

efge
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#29 Post by efge »

Glad to see it is useful, Dinky.

To answer your question: no, i did not even imagine i could make Compiz-fusion work on my poor Microclient.
It seems Compiz requires more graphical hardware power *but* i did not try.

Maybe i'll give wNop a try.

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dinky
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#30 Post by dinky »

efge wrote:Glad to see it is useful, Dinky.

To answer your question: no, i did not even imagine i could make Compiz-fusion work on my poor Microclient.
It seems Compiz requires more graphical hardware power *but* i did not try.

Maybe i'll give wNop a try.
Give it a try! I'd love to see if it works or not. You could also try TigerPup, which is the Compiz-Fusion pupplet I've been creating. Based on wNOP, has a few other goodies. http://www.puppylinux.org/wiki/archives ... s/tigerpup

efge
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Nice pup !

#31 Post by efge »

TigerPup looks great !
I'd really love that it runs on a MC, but i seriously doubt it could.

I will try TigerPup when i come back from my vacation, in a few weeks.
You can follow this thread, i will post my feedback here.

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dinky
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#32 Post by dinky »

Look forward to it. It will probably run, but you might not get Compiz-Fusion working. TigerPup has a pretty cool interface without CF, was using it on my laptop today. Cheers.
~dinky

steve0
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#33 Post by steve0 »

Yeah,MU's 3D demo is very complex....

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