[arch-general] Sick of xf86-video-intel? Use the framebuffer device!

[pyther]

On Thu, 2 Apr 2009 01:49:21 +0200, Pierre Schmitz <pierre at archlinux.de>
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