There's an experimental/unstable/unsupported/whatever patch that adds EXA support to the i810 driver for mudular Xorg. Could this perhaps be added as a USE flag option? Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Emerge xorg-server on a system with an Intel graphics chip 2. Enable EXA 3. Start Xorg 4. Check /var/log/Xorg.log Actual Results: Xorg complains about lacking EXA support in the i810 driver. Expected Results: Run without problems with the EXA extension. Portage 2.0.51.22-r3 (default-linux/x86/2005.1, gcc-3.4.4, glibc-2.3.5-r2, 2.6.13-gentoo-r3 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.13-gentoo-r3 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1400MHz Gentoo Base System version 1.12.0_pre9 dev-lang/python: 2.3.5-r2, 2.4.2 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.12 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r10 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.20 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.11-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium-m -mtune=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fforce-addr -ftracer" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/mozilla/defaults/pref /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-Os -march=pentium-m -mtune=pentium-m -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer -fforce-addr -ftracer -fvisibility-inlines-hidden" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoconfig distlocks fixpackages sandbox sfperms strict" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.uni-c.dk/gentoo/ http://ftp.du.se/pub/os/gentoo/ http://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/ http://mirror.pudas.net/gentoo/ http://ds.thn.htu.se/linux/gentoo/ http://ftp.uni-erlangen.de/pub/mirrors/gentoo/ http://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/ http://pandemonium.tiscali.de/pub/gentoo/ http://gentoo.mirror.solnet.ch/ http://gentoo.mirror.icd.hu/ ftp://ftp.tu-clausthal.de/pub/linux/gentoo/ ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/Linux/gentoo/ http://gentoo.binarycompass.org/ http://gentoo.ccccom.com/ http://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo/" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="x86 # 16bit 7.0 For X Xorg a52 aac acl acpi acpi4linux alsa apm avi bash-completion berkdb bitmap-fonts bluetooth cdr chroot codecs crypt cups curl directfb dri dv dvd dvdread eds emacs emboss encode esd evo fam fbcon fbdev flac foomaticdb freetype gb gd gdbm gif gimpprint glitz glut glx gnome gphoto2 gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 hal i8x0 imagemagick imlib ipv6 irda irmc jabber java javascript jp2 jpeg kde kdeenablefinal ladcca libg++ libwww ltsp mad mailbox maildir mbox mikmod mime mmx motif mozcalendar mozctl mozilla mozsvg mp3 mpeg mpi mppe-mppc mysql mysqli ncurses nls no-old-linux nocd nptl oav ogg oggvorbis openal opengl oss pam pcmcia pda pdflib perl png pnp ppds pthreads python qt quicktime readline real rtc samba sdk sdl slang sms snmp speedo spell sse sse2 ssl svg svga sysvipc tcltk tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts trusted type1 type1-fonts udev unicode usb v4l2 videos vorbis wifi xanim xine xinerama xml xml2 xmms xosd xpm xv xvid xvmc yv12 zlib video_cards_i810 input_devices_keyboard input_devices_mouse userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc" Unset: ASFLAGS, CTARGET, LANG, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS
Forgot to add link to the patch, so here it is: http://www.virtuousgeek.org/patches/i830-exa-latest.patch Inspecting the patch it appears that the ebuild for xorg-server will require changes too.
I won't add it for two reasons: 1) As a rule, patches are not added until they're in CVS upstream. This will not be added till after the 7.0 release. 2) The patch is broken. The author ignored DRI functionality (he said so) and it shows. I tried it today and EXA support caused massive GL baddage. However, if you're still interested in trying it I have a badly hacked together ebuild and modified patch. Let me know and I'll upload it for you.
Thanks for your time spend researching this feature. :-) I tried modifying the patch and put together an ebuild myself, but the result was disastrous (black screen and nothing else...). I fully understand and respect your decision, given the state of the patch. I'd love to try out your ebuild, that's what overlays are for, right? ;-)
http://dev.gentoo.org/~joshuabaergen/experimental/xf86-video-i810-exa.tar.bz2 Like I said, it's badly put together ;)
Thanks anyway :-) As you said OpenGL causes major baddage. In my case it crashed Xorg :-( Compiling with USE="-dri" failed. Hopefully the Xorg folks will add this feature soon, as the promised speed increase would be very welcome.
